Hunting Themed Skat
German-suited hunting themed deck designed by Günter Schmitz and made by VEB Altenburg, 1980.
German-suited hunting themed deck designed by graphic artist Günter Schmitz (1909 - 2002) and printed by VEB Altenburg, 1980.
Hunting has been a common theme on playing cards, particularly German ones, since the fourteenth century and continues to be so today. After German reunification in 1991, the Altenburger Spielkarten Fabrik was privatized and then sold to F.X. Schmid. In 2002 Carta Mundi acquired the Altenburg playing card factory.




Above: German-suited hunting themed deck made by VEB Altenburg, 1980. 32 cards. This deck was also published with French suit symbols. The ‘Cœur’ logo can be seen on the seven of hearts.
French-suited Altenburger Jagdkarte

Above: French-suited version of the hunting themed deck made by VEB Altenburg, 1980. This version contains 52 cards + 2 jokers. The ‘Cœur’ logo can be seen on the two of clubs.

By Rex Pitts (1940-2021)
Member since January 30, 2009
View ArticlesRex's main interest was in card games, because, he said, they were cheap and easy to get hold of in his early days of collecting. He is well known for his extensive knowledge of Pepys games and his book is on the bookshelves of many.
His other interest was non-standard playing cards. He also had collections of sheet music, music CDs, models of London buses, London Transport timetables and maps and other objects that intrigued him.
Rex had a chequered career at school. He was expelled twice, on one occasion for smoking! Despite this he trained as a radio engineer and worked for the BBC in the World Service.
Later he moved into sales and worked for a firm that made all kinds of packaging, a job he enjoyed until his retirement. He became an expert on boxes and would always investigate those that held his cards. He could always recognize a box made for Pepys, which were the same as those of Alf Cooke’s Universal Playing Card Company, who printed the card games. This interest changed into an ability to make and mend boxes, which he did with great dexterity. He loved this kind of handicraft work.
His dexterity of hand and eye soon led to his making card games of his own design. He spent hours and hours carefully cutting them out and colouring them by hand.