Daveluy
Daveluy produced card games between c.1840 and 1890. Many of his playing cards are in neo-medieval style with landscape backgrounds.
Daveluy produced card games between c.1840 and 1890. Undoubtedly he played an important role in the field. His output differs from other Belgian manufacturers by its distinctive fantasy medieval “middle ages” style, lively chromolithography, traditional ideals of workmanship and de luxe finish. Unlike his contemporaries in Turnhout, Daveluy favoured graphic originality with a penchant for the “neo-medieval” and “neo-Renaissance” which was becoming fashionable at that time, evoking an old order of chivalry and adventure.
Many of Daveluy's playing cards have historical connotations with reference to the history of the Southern Netherlands, and show figures with a landscape background. Where the Turnhout manufacturers borrowed from French and Continental patterns and addressed the wider world, Daveluy addressed Belgium of the 1830s. However, many of his fantasy playing card designs influenced the output of other manufacturers who imitated his style.
Daveluy's productions are mostly easily recognizable by the use of colours, by the style and taste, and his name usually appears on one card or another, unlike other Belgian manufacturers from Turnhout. He was able to develop an identity which is still recognizable today.
Édouard Alexis Daveluy Lenormand & Tarot packs.
founded his press in Bruges in 1835. The firm gained a good name printing newspapers and also portrait, landscape and art photography. He gained various certificates for the printing and manufacture of playing cards, and was appointed Lithographer to the King in 1842. In 1847 he filed a patent for “a method of manufacturing playing cards in chromolithography”. Édouard Daveluy gained a lot of honourable mentions in various foreign exhibitions. His playing cards were distributed all over Europe, even to the British and Dutch colonies. He also producedDaveluy exhibited in Paris at the Universal Exhibitions of 1855, 1867 & 1878. Around 1880, Édouard Daveluy transferred the business to his eldest son Victor
who had made a name for himself as a photographer, but he died prematurely. In 1895 his widow assigned the business to the Geûens-Seaux partnership (later Geûens-Willaert), although Brepols is believed to have taken some of Daveluy's plates or lithographic stones and Geûens brought two of the Brepols craftsmen to Bruges.FURTHER REFERENCES
By Simon Wintle
Member since February 01, 1996
Founder 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.
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