Paper Empires by Jason McKinstry

Above: Paper Empires Vol I by Jason McKinstry.

Books on playing cards don’t come out that often, and really good, readable ones even less so. It is therefore a genuine pleasure to have this new book on the history of American Playing Cards – and the emphasis is as much on history as it is on cards. The author of Paper Empires, Jason McKinstry, will be known to many as a 52 Plus Joker member and as a frequent contributor to Card Culture.

The new book is highly visual so those who want just to look at the pictures will have plenty to keep them occupied and they will not be disappointed. These illustrations include maps, portraits of the people involved, contemporary illustrations, advertisements promotions and price lists, houses and factories, news cuttings, share certificates, burial grounds and of course a lot of representative cards.

Jason has also had a simple but brilliant idea that I have never seen before: many of the illustrations have has to be shrunk to fit in with the text and at the end of the book a good selection of these are reproduced again at a much large size.

In order to appreciate the nature of the era Jason is covering here, those unfamiliar with the history might try reading my article ‘American Cards 1800-1900 in one page’ on page 15. Jason’s Volume I begins after the pioneer period at exactly the point where industrialization is about to begin. We learn all about the rapid growth period up to the arrival of USPCC.

By far the most successful of the 19th Century firms are referred to as the ‘Big Seven’: that's the first of L I Cohen, Samuel Hart, Andrew Dougherty, John A Levy, Lawrence & Cohen, New York Consoloidated Card Co. (NYCC). In fact we could think of these as a ‘Big Three’, i.e. NYCC and its constituent parts, Doughert and USPCC. NYCC's L I Cohen was the entrepreneurial inventor of a four-colour printing machine that changed playing card making for good. He and his family ruled the industry for around fifty years with only Dougherty as serious competition.

Paper Empires tells this story in full detail and by the end of each chapter – one per maker (L I Cohen, Andrew Dougherty, Samuel Hart and John J Levy here) you feel you know the person. Jason’s infor mation on Dougherty is particularly extensive. In each case one feels the presence of the real per son behind ‘the name on the box’, which is a real achievement by Jason.

There is a choice of format – paperback or digital (in the various formats used.). See Jason’s website. Perhaps the best thing is the ‘Vol I’ in the title: I am looking forward to Vol II, previewed in the first volume.