De La Rue

a brief history

Above: One of De La Rue's earliest packs of playing cards c.1832, printed by letter-press but imitating woodblock courts.

Thomas De La Rue was born in Guernsey in 1793, and at the age of ten he was apprenticed to his brother-in-law, a master printer. In 1818 he moved to London with his family and set up shop as a paper manufacturer.

De La Rue introduced letter-press printing into playing card production and his patent was granted in 1831. He produced his first playing cards in 1832. In 1844 he employed Owen Jones. During the period 1867-70 De La Rue published two non-standard packs specially designed for the French market.

Above: a standard double-ended pack manufactured by Thomas De La Rue in c.1860… no indices, square corners. The 'Old Frizzle' ace of spades refers to De La Rue's patent, granted in 1831. Click here to see more cards c.1900

Besides manufacturing playing cards, De La Rue became the principal printer of fiscal, inland revenue and postage stamps for the UK and colonies, and over the years the best engravers and miniature designers have worked for De La Rue.

In the 19th century, England was the principal exporter of playing cards to Russia and the name of De La Rue figures prominently in this connection. Factories were established in Russia in the second half of the century. De La Rue also manufactured packs for Denmark during the 1930s.

In 1922 Charles Goodall & Co. were absorbed by De La Rue thus leaving only one competitor: Waddington's. Playing cards had become more popular during World War I and there was now a great demand. However, in 1940 the old De La Rue printing works at Bunhill Row in London was destroyed by air raids.

After the war, the printing of De La Rue's playing cards was undertaken by Waddington's in Leeds. In 1963 the two companies joined forces and became The Amalgamated Playing Card Co. on a 50-50 basis, but in 1969 De La Rue sold out to Waddington's, who then became Britain's leading playing card manufacturers.

On Monday, 30^th November, 1970, the entire De La Rue collection of playing cards was sold at auction by Sotheby's for £12,000 to the Fournier collection, Spain.

Above: Assorted playing cards made by De La Rue. The joker at top right is from a 'Rufford' pack made especially for Boots the Chemist, c.1930-55.

American and Belgian court card designs have been influenced by De La Rue, and for example, Lawrence & Cohen also enjoyed the services of Owen Jones, one of De La Rue's in-house graphic designers. (see 3rd ace down right-hand side).