Dal Negro Bridge set

Dal Negro Bridge set featuring old Vienna pattern courts.

Italy Dal Negro Bridge Lyons Pattern Vienna Pattern

Dal Negro’s boxed Bridge set features a 19th century Vienna pattern court (which in turn has earlier French ancestry). From time to time regional patterns from one area migrate or are exported to others. In this case a pattern used in Austria has been produced in Italy to be used as a standard French-suited deck with English indices. The maker’s name appears on the king of spades’ sash. The jack of clubs carries a corrupt version of an ancient weapon. The back designs show classical Roman antiquities. See the Box►

Dal Negro Bridge set featuring archaic Vienna pattern courts, 1970s

Above: Bridge set featuring a 19th century Vienna pattern on the courts, made by Dal Negro, Treviso, 1970s. The kings and queens of hearts and diamonds have exchanged suits from earlier prototypes. The jack of hearts holds a small flag with the manifacturer's initials T.D.N. Double boxed set containing 2 x [52 cards + 2 jokers + bridge scores card]. Images courtesy Rex Pitts.

Right: three cards from mid-19th century Vienna pattern made in Austria by C. Titze & Schinkay showing the original queen and king of hearts which now appear as diamonds.

three cards from 19th century Vienna pattern made in Austria by C. Titze & Schinkay

There is a tenuous connection between Dal Negro and Austria. The company was originally founded by an Austrian and acquired by the Dal Negro family in 1928 more →

By Rex Pitts (1940-2021)

Member since January 30, 2009

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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.

Dal Negro Bridge set

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