English playing cards. Transformation deck, C.B. Reynolds of Liverpool, circa 1865

Reynolds of Liverpool, circa 1865, a complete deck of 52 playing cards (French suits), lithographed in black and red only, single figure non-standard courts, clubs representing South American characters, diamonds and hearts European style rulers or gentry, spades seems to show ordinary folk, pip cards with small caricatures within the pip signs, ace of hearts showing Prince Edward and Princess Alexandra, ace of spades with maker's details and images of Liverpool, ace of diamonds with two tavern scenes, soiled, some brown marks, ace of clubs with 2cm closed tear to blank area, queen of diamonds with jagged loss to right edge (cut away), versos brown cherub with bow and arrow on pink, Prince of Wales,s Feathers in top border, each card 93 x 63 mm, 32 cards mounted with photo corners onto one folding display board, encapsulated in clear plastic (not examined out of board), the remainder in a plastic bag, the board (folded) 54.5 x 40.5 cm QTY: (1) NOTE: Provenance: Collection of Dudley Ollis.

Several court cards are mirror copies of the first edition and a few are altogether different. Generally the designs are not as well drawn as those in the original version. The colours have been reduced to just black and red, and the versos are without the gilt of the original.