Wüst Costumes Suisses No.93
Two version of a Swiss souvenir pack by C.L.Wúst
The best known Swiss souvenir pack made by Wüst is a stencil coloured version produced between about 1860 and 1880. You can view the cards here.
However, in about 1900 Wüst produced another attractive Swiss souvenir pack named "Costumes Suisses No.93" or "Costumes Suisses National". This pack was printed in full colour chromolithography and has aces illustrated with views of Swiss towns and cities, many situated on lakes between the mountains. The court cards have colourful illustrations of people dressed in regional costumes illustrating the different cantons of Switzerland. It is a well produced pack with gold corners and with an intricate specially designed back design.
For some reason unknown to me Wüst released a second version of the pack at about the same time. In this other version the aces are different and all have named views of places in Switzerland. The court cards are similar in the fact that they show people in the same costumes from the same cantons, but have been completely redrawn, often with different colouring, background and details. I do not know which pack came first, but they were both sold in exactly the same packaging as No.93 Costumes Suisses. Both packs are fully illustrated below. Each pack contained 52 cards with no joker or extra card.
Below: the first edition.
Below: the second edition.
Below: the reverse and jack of clubs from of first and second editions.
Below: the box.
References: Catalogue of Playing Cards from the factory C.L.Wüst, set 47. Shaw/Symons 2005,
C.L.Wüst, Schultz 2021 Nr.51
All cards shown are from the collection of Paul Symons ©
By Paul Symons
Member since February 01, 2016
I'm British but I have now lived in the Netherlands for more than 50 years and am still enjoying every minute of it. I started collecting playing cards in the early 1980’s after speaking with my neighbour who was at that time a croupier in a casino. I started with just collecting jokers, but that soon led me to complete packs of cards and eventually to specialising in old and antique playing cards, particularly those of C.L. Wüst of Frankfurt, Germany. I am presently the Dutch representative of the I.P.C.S. and the auctioneer at the IPCS conventions.
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