Swiss Scenic Ace Souvenir Cards, c.1850

Souvenir playing cards with Scenic Aces made by Johannes Müller in around 1850. This is the time when Müller was expanding his range of products to include railway tickets to meet the growing demand from the railways being built, which happily coincided with the rise in tourism for which he produced scenic playing cards like these. In time the enterprising Müller widened his playing card range and began developing export trade.
See also:  1860 scenic Aces►

Above: Souvenir pack with double-ended scenic aces made by J. Müller, Diessenhofen, c.1850.

Note from Roddy Somerville

The first pack shown on this page is a more finely detailed version of one by David Hurter (see Schweizer Spielkarten catalogue, no. 112). I have another version by J. Müller but inscribed "Schaffhausen" instead of "Diessenhofen", so post-1863. Also, the aces have different views, each town name printed within a horizontal cartouche. To confuse matters, there is a Canton de Vaud tax stamp (50 centimes) on the Ace of Hearts which was only apparently introduced in 1898, so perhaps it was applied here to old stock - RS.

Above: Swiss Scenic Ace Souvenir Cards, c.1890s

Later Scenic Aces, c.1930s

Later editions had similar picturesque scenes on the aces with other refinements such as rounded margins on the (redrawn) court cards and extra index pips on the aces.

Above: picturesque scenes on the aces, c.1930s. The pip cards have their number inside the top left pip on all but the 2s and 3s. Courtesy Rex Pitts