Publisher: Western Playing Card Company
Nifty find out of a home. A pair of decks of original vintage playing cards (both decks came out of the same home) which look to date to the World War 2 (WW2, WW II) time frame. Design shows members of 3 branches of the U.S. Armed Forces: Navy, WACS and Army. They may represent military entertainers and are set against the backdrop of a drum with drum sticks to one side. The two decks are matching or identical except that the coloring for the drum and drum sticks reverses, with one having a largely red drum with blue trim and blue drum sticks, while the other has a largely blue drum with red trim and red sticks.
In front of the drum is what may be a singing male sailor for the US Navy, a female dressed in a blue uniform with a hat who we think is meant to represent the WACS (Women's Army Corps), and a male United States Army soldier playing a harmonica. There is no specific Air Force individual shown, but the Air Force was not designated as its own military branch until 1947 per some internet research. We believe this also helps date these collectible playing card decks to be from the 1940's prior to 1947.
Each deck has 52 cards, complete in having all four suits in the right denominations, but neither deck has any Jokers. We do not know if these originally came with Jokers or not, or if the prior owner misplaced them, but you need to know they are not here. On the Ace of Spades in each deck it shows Western as the manufacturer, stating "A Western Product" in the center of the large Ace symbol, with below this "Made in U.S.A. (7082A-30A)", which we believe to be the item or manufacturing product number designation. From some internet research, the Western Playing Card Company was formed in 1927 within the Western Printing & Lithographing Company later called Western Publishing Company, which also owned the Whitman Playing Card Company, and was based in Racine, Wisconsin.
The cards measure 3 1/2 inches tall x 2 1/4 inches wide. We are not experts in playing cards, but they feel to be made of a printed or coated paper stock, with a smooth surface and gold colored edging on all sides. They will be shipped in a small box for safety.
There are 8 images showing both packs of vintage cards, in group and single images, including the manufacturer markings on the two Aces of Spades. Please note that the camera light often blanded out some detail and at other times wouldn't light fully on the face sides due to the high amount of "white space", so we used varied lighting conditions. Looking across all the images and using the zoom feature should provide a good idea.
The camera light causes white "hot spot" reflections on the smooth card surfaces which you can see are in differing spots across the images. However, please note that the backside card designs as made on each card in each deck have a largely vertical whiter area towards the right side of the card. We believe the designer did this intentionally for interest as a light reflection or sheen on the drum. This appears in the same spot on every card in each deck in a similar fashion, so we don't believe this is some sort of fading or spill on the cards, but an intended design element (this was also visible on some single cards in this same design which we found on the internet, to support our thoughts here).
While a terrific find, these vintage cards are old and were used, showing appropriate age, use and loose storage wear.....they are not mint or new looking, but nothing unexpected nor overly bad. We did not see any cards bent, torn, folded, or having similar flaws, but the white face sides have an old, used look. They are not "bright white" but an aged white in color, with some light staining, wear, etc. as expected (amount varying by card). The backsides are bright and colorful, showing the intended designs, but also have expected light use/handling wear, etc. No major visible staining on the backsides, just a slightly worn look, some occasional light scuffing, etc. There is slight edge chipping/edge wear seen on the face sides, a worn/aged edging look when a deck is viewed from the edges themselves (with gold wear), and other expected use wear.
A neat addition to any collection of vintage playing cards or a military collection in general. While we are selling these as two full decks, together with 104 cards as received (with no Jokers as mentioned prior), there are certainly plenty of cards here for those who wish to sell or swap them in pairs or as single cards. |
