Belgian Souvenir playing cards
made in Germany by C.L. Wüst
This pack of cards dates from about 1890. The design of the jacks was registered as a trademark 'Frankfurter Skat' in 1888. All the court cards are attired in Historical costumes, with the jacks being all the same except for the colour of the clothing. All the jacks show the name of the Wüst factory but there is no Wüst star on the jack of clubs, something which is nearly always found on Wüst packs of this period.
The pack shown has coloured views of interesting places in Belgium such as Waterloo, Brussels and Antwerp and was probably sold as a souvenir from Belgium. However, this pack was also available with plain aces. This pack was sold as No.64 Whist with gold corners (52 cards).
Below: The box and the reverse of the cards.
References:
- Playing cards from the factory C.L. Wüst, Shaw/Symons 2005, Set 73
- C.L.Wüst (private printing), K.J.Schultz 2021, Set 29
All cards shown are from the collection of Paul Symons ©
By Paul Symons
Member since February 01, 2016
I'm British but I have now lived in the Netherlands for more than 50 years and am still enjoying every minute of it. I started collecting playing cards in the early 1980’s after speaking with my neighbour who was at that time a croupier in a casino. I started with just collecting jokers, but that soon led me to complete packs of cards and eventually to specialising in old and antique playing cards, particularly those of C.L. Wüst of Frankfurt, Germany. I am presently the Dutch representative of the I.P.C.S. and the auctioneer at the IPCS conventions.
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