Card. (Stiff wraps).
1897 · Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati, Ohio: The Fireside Game Co. The United States Playing Card Company, 1897. Card. (Stiff wraps). . Very Good. Scarce card game trade catalogue, with only a single catalogue of this line found on OCLC First Search, and that particular catalogue is for a later year (1899) and somewhat smaller as well. (Held by the Ohio Historical Connection.) Oblong, 12 by 16.5 cm. Title page, price list and 18 chromolithograph plates. The card games being promoted in this catalogue all have a supposed educational benefit. The games are called "Strange People"; "Election"; "Wild Animals"; "Oak Leaves"; "The Pines"; "Maple Grove"; "Our Union"; "Populations Around the World"; "Flags of All Nations"; "In the White House"; "In Dixie-land"; "Artists". Some of the games are very much of their period, reflecting the mores and prejudices prevalent then. The most egregious example of this is, you guessed right, "In Dixie-Land", which carries the caption: Characteristic glimpses of southern negro life. Happy sketches of a happy people", and which, in the card shown as a specimen features two black boys eating watermelon. Other games, such as those relating to trees, concern the identification of various types of pines or maples, exercises that one can not imagine being a part of the curriculum, or even sub-curriculum, today. Overall the games are about the accumulation of facts, such as populations, or the names of castles. The United States Playing Card Company (USPCC), established in 1867 as Russell, Morgan & Co. and founded in its current incarnation in 1885, is a large producer and distributor of playing cards. Its many brands surviving to the present include Bicycle, Bee, Tally-Ho, Congress, Hoyle, Aviator, Aristocrat, KEM, and several others. It also produces novelty and custom cards, and other playing card accessories such as poker chips. Dating of the catalogue based on price list page which is dated 1897-1898. Condition: light wear.
(Inventory #: 006740)