Neptune No.105 Playing Cards

This unusual and exotic pack of playing cards was printed by Antoine Van Genechten of Turnhout, Belgium in 1893. It is named Neptune No.105 which seems rather inappropriate for a pack depicting stylised views of what may be India on the aces although some of the views possibly represent other Asian countries. The court cards, especially the queens and jacks, are exotically dressed and presumably represent certain continents although it is not clear to me which ones. The kings look European as do the queens, except the queen of clubs. The jack of spades looks Grecian and the other other jacks vaguely Turkish. All quite confusing !

However, it is a colourful and attractive pack of cards of which Van Genechten must have been immensely proud and protective because the name of the factory is found on all the aces and court cards, something which is unusual for a Turnhout factory. They also took the trouble to register the design and printed 'Déposé' on all the court cards to make this clear.

The pack has 52 high quality cards with gold edges and no indices. The box depicts Neptune and a large sailing vessel on the front.

Below: the back, a pip card and the back and front of the box.

References: Turnhoutse Speelkaarten 1983, No.143.
Belgische Speelkaarten, Biebouw 2014, VG48 p.263

All cards shown are from the collection of Paul Symons ©