[PLAYING CARDS.]
Complete Deck of 52 Playing Cards.
London, Bancks Brothers, successors to Hunt & Sons, c. 1849.
52 playing cards (each card c. 91 x 63 mm), single-ended courts, HB1 pattern, Old Frizzle Ace of Spades incorporating the full royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom with crowned inescutcheon of the arms of Hanover, no indices, blank versos, Ace of Clubs stamped ‘superfine’ in blue ink; cards a little toned, but a very well-preserved set.
An extremely well-preserved complete deck of playing cards by Bancks Brothers.
‘Bancks Brothers (Anthony Bancks & Robert Olddiss Bancks, card makers) were successors to Hunt & Sons (1790–c. 1840) who was the first maker to ‘modernise’ the court card designs with a complete redrawing, in which some of the idiosyncrasies which had crept into playing card designs were rationalised’ (World of Playing Cards, online).
This deck has the HB1 pattern, with the single ended courts, the queens with larger noses, and the Jack of Hearts holding a leaf rather than a staff, though with the lower part of the staff stencilled in, as was the case with some early packs. These were the new style of courts inherited from Hunt & Sons: ‘These are still full-length figures and the cards have been coloured using brush and stencils. The Jack of Hearts now holds what is clearly a leaf, rather than the top of a staff as in earlier times. The “Old Frizzle” Ace of Spades shows the duty paid as one shilling, and the manufacturer’s name is engraved at the bottom of the ace. Shortly after this, Bancks Brothers produced a double-ended version’ (ibid.).
