Zwarte Piet

Published February 25, 2021 • Updated April 05, 2022

Zwarte Piet by Dondorf for the Dutch market, 1906.

Zwarte Piet (‘Schwarzer Peter’) card game published by Dondorf for the Dutch market, 1906. “Schwarzer Peter” was re-titled in other countries as Old Maid in England, Zwarte Piet (Netherlands), Svarte Petter (Sweden) and Pekka-Peli (Finland). The pack contains 18 beautifully illustrated pairs of cards plus a single ‘Black Peter’ card. The cards are numbered 1 - 37 in the bottom left-hand corner. The main focus of the game is towards this last card which is like the ‘Old Maid’ caricature in English versions.

Play proceeds by players winning pairs of cards and setting them aside until only one card is left. See the Rules►

Above: Zwarte Piet No.330 by Dondorf, 1906. 37 cards + rules in box.

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By Rex Pitts (1940-2021)

United Kingdom • Member since January 30, 2009

Rex'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.

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Zwarte Piet

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