Russian playing cards. Circus deck, St. Petersburg: Imperial Playing Card Factory, 1898

Petersburg: Imperial Playing Card Factory, 1898, the complete deck of 36 colour printed playing cards (German suits), single figure courts including enthroned kings, and obers and unters in historical or amusing costumes, most pip cards with scenes taken from an 1843 Industrie und Gluck tarot by Carl Holdhaus, black on white pelican tax stamp on daus of bells, lightly dusty, minor wear to most corner tips and to one pip card bottom edge, few minor marks, daus of acorns and king of hearts with some staining, square corners, versos green plaid, each card 99 x 61 mm, 20 cards corner mounted onto a display board, encapsulated in clear plastic (not examined out of display board), the remainder in a clear plastic bag, the board 55 x 40 cm QTY: (1) NOTE: Provenance: Collection of Dudley Ollis.

Bibliothèque Nationale de France, ark:/12148/btv1b105112064 & ark:/12148/btv1b10509355k; Cartorama 59 #218; Fournier, Russia 20; Hargrave (1966) pp.276 (illustrated) -277; Ortiz-Patiño 87. The Holdhaus tarock/tarot deck that the pip cards are based on is described and illustrated in Reisinger's Tarocke, vol.3 pp.51-54. The scenes include circus riders on horseback (hearts), comic theatre figures (leaves), Chinese and Mongolian people (bells), and (mostly) dogs dressed in period costume (acorns).