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Playing-card review 6: Wilhelm Tell cards
Wilhelm Tell cards are fairly common in the Central and Eastern Europe: Hungary, Austria, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Slovakia, western Romania and southern Tyrol. It is a rather beautiful pattern, full of interesting details. The pack has the German suits: hearts, acorns, leaves and bells. Generally, as far as I know, the packs have…
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Playing-card review 6: Piatnik Tarocks
Piatnik makes some very beautiful 54-card Austrian-style Tarock packs with French suits . The first of my playing-card reviews covered one of them; here are the rest. Start with that review, because the packs are actually all exactly the same on the front. What differs is the back and the presentation. Two of the packs…
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Playing-card review 5: Tarock and Schafkopf
ASS Tarock Schafkopf Club and Piatnik Schafkopf Tarock (no. 182211). These packs (ASS on left, Piatnik on right) have the same Bayerisches Bild pattern with 36 cards. The Bavarian pattern has suits of acorns (Eichel), leaves (Graß), hearts (Herz) and bells (Schellen). The face cards have a king and two officers, Ober and Unter. While…
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Playing-card review 4: Piacentine and Napoletane by Modiano and Dal Negro
This time I’m taking a look at some Italian regional packs. I happen to have two copies of the Piacentine pack by different makers, which offers some comparison possibilities. Italy has 16 different regional packs, which are divided to four different styles: northern Latin suits, southern Latin suits, French suits and German suits. Both Piacentine…
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Playing-card review 3: Doppelkopf packs by ASS and Piatnik
This time I’m taking a look at some Doppelkopf packs. These packs have 48 cards, but they are actually made of two 24-card packs. Thus, the packs have A, K, Q, J, 10, 9 in each suit twice. Doppelkopf is a very good game, developed from Schafkopf. In Doppelkopf, or Doko as it’s also known,…
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Playing-card review 2: Modiano Tarocco Siciliano, Noblet Tarot de Marseille
This time I’m taking a look at some Tarot packs that are perhaps better suited for enjoyment as art, not as playing-cards. Modiano Tarocco Siciliano. The first thing one notices is the small size. The cards are as wide as typical Bridge cards, but even shorter. Thus, they are a lot smaller than Tarot cards…
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Playing-card review 1: Piatnik 1935, Carta Mundi Versailles
As a new feature I’m going to review playing-cards. There are quite a few different packs available and finding information about them is hard. So, here’s something and more to come, especially if I get any encouragement. Piatnik Tarock 54 Blatt Nr. 1935. This is an Austrian-style 54-card Tarock pack. That is, 22 trumps and…