Cartes de Luxe (1877) facsimile

‘Cartes de Luxe’ first published by Biermans in 1877 was re-published in facsimile by Amstel Beer (Netherlands) in c.1980. According to the information on the box, the re-edition of the historic deck was to commemorate the founding of the Amstel Brewery and was available free with two six-packs of 1870 Amstel beer.

Above: cards from the original 1877 edition of ‘Cartes de Luxe’ published by Léonard Biermans. The four aces in the original edition were plain and there were no corner indices or numbers.

Above: Biermans ‘Cartes de Luxe’ facsimile by Amstel Beer printed by Carta Mundi, c.1980. Two jokers, four breweriana aces and a back design were added to the new edition, which is otherwise faithful to the original designs. The facsimile deck was available free with two six-packs of 1870 Amstel beer.

REFERENCES

Autenboer, Dr Eugeen van: The Turnhout Playing Card Industry 1826-1976, Aurelia Books, Brussels 1976

For more details about the original ‘Cartes de Luxe’ see Joop Muller’s Dxpo website►

By Simon Wintle

Member since February 01, 1996

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Curator and editor of the World of Playing Cards since 1996. He is a former committee member of the IPCS and was graphics editor of The Playing-Card journal for many years. He has lived at various times in Chile, England and Wales and is currently living in Extremadura, Spain. Simon's first limited edition pack of playing cards was a replica of a seventeenth century traditional English pack, which he produced from woodblocks and stencils.