‘El Cid’ by Simeon Durá, Valencia, Spain

Posted by Simon Wintle • October 02, 2016 at 08:06pm

Country of Origin: Spain Keywords: dura cid catalan

‘El Cid’ playing Cards manufactured by Simeon Durá, Valencia, Spain, 1880-1940

Standard 'El Cid' playing cards manufactured by Simeon Durá, Valencia, Spain, c.1880

Above: ‘El Cid’ Catalan pattern manufactured by Simeon Durá, Valencia, Spain, c.1880. Guillem de Castro address on 4 of coins. The reverse has an orange ‘weave’ pattern. Later editions of the ‘El Cid’ brand (shown below) adopted the Castilian pattern which had recently been introduced by Heracio Fournier.

Standard 'El Cid' playing cards manufactured by Simeon Durá, Valencia, Spain, c.1900

Standard 'El Cid' playing cards manufactured by Simeon Durá, Valencia, Spain, c.1920

'El Cid' Bezique cards manufactured by Simeon Durá, Valencia, Spain, c.1930

Above: three more different editions of Simeon Durá's standard ‘El Cid’ Spanish suited playing cards. These packs were produced in a wide choice of editions, with different numbers of cards and from luxury to basic quality. The example in the bottom row is a special version for the game of Bézique. The designs are based on an earlier 'fantasy' edition designed by E. Pastor in c.1875.