Jass Allemand
Egbert Moehsnang produced this contemporary Swiss-suited, double-ended pack, based on original XV century sources, with highly legible indices and colour scheme, but they were simply shunned by card players and the idea wasn't successful.
Egbert Moehsnang: ‘Jass Allemand’
In 1978 the Swiss manufacturer AG Müller decided to redesign the Swiss pattern, in the hope that the traditional designs could be updated and reinstated as a strategy to overcome the foreign playing cards flooding into the market. They commissioned Egbert Moehsnang, who in consultation with a leading art historian took almost two years researching and designing the cards. Moehsnang produced this contemporary Swiss-suited, double-ended pack, based on original XV century sources, with highly legible indices and colour scheme, but they were simply shunned by card players and the idea wasn't successful.
See also: Abstract Bridge►
Above: cards from Egbert Moehsnang's ‘Jass Allemand’ Swiss-suited playing cards published by AG Müller, 1982. The original cards were produced from copper plate engravings, hand coloured with brush and stencils. The designs are flat, 2-dimensional figures rather that 3-dimensional as in older cards.
By Simon Wintle
Member since February 01, 1996
View ArticlesCurator and editor of the World of Playing Cards since 1996. He is a former committee member of the IPCS and was graphics editor of The Playing-Card journal for many years. He has lived at various times in Chile, England and Wales and is currently living in Extremadura, Spain. Simon's first limited edition pack of playing cards was a replica of a seventeenth century traditional English pack, which he produced from woodblocks and stencils.
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