F.A. Lattmann
After the family printing business had been handed down for several generations, in 1794 Ernst Wilhelm Gottlieb Kircher founded a playing card factory in Goslar am Harz
Friedrich Adolf Lattmann
After the family printing business had been handed down for several generations, in 1794 Ernst Wilhelm Gottlieb Kircher founded a playing card factory in Goslar am Harz but the factory was closed by the Prussians.
Later Lauenstein was granted permission to open a factory in Goslar when it came back to the Kingdom of Hannover.
When Lauenstein died his son-in-law and Lattmann wanted to continue, and after some quarrels they both got the privilege.
When Lattmann died, his widow continued with the help of Jäger, an Austrian cardmaker who later became her second husband.
In 1929 the playing card business was closed and part of the material taken over by V.S.S. [Notes kindly corrected by Peter Endebrock.]
Above: North German pattern by F.A. Lattmann, Goslar, c.1890. Images courtesy Rex Pitts.
Above: standard English cards by Lattmann. These are a close copy of USPCC’s US3. The joker is part of the advertising theme (Hirsch = stag, deer). The tax stamp on the AH is rather feint but is from the 1920s - no tax value given because of inflation. Images courtesy Ken Lodge.
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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