Forcolar Playing Cards

There's a lot to unpack in the gimmickry of the Forcolar Playing Cards deck. Founded by a man named Walter Artzt, of all names, this four-colored deck was meant to avoid confusion in card games. Having sat in as a kibitzer in bridge he saw firsthand a heated row concerning suits (diamonds and hearts in this instance) and the idea of four different colored suits came to him.

When rolling out the cards a large department store in every major city was granted exclusive access to selling the brand in 1947 and the gimmick seemingly sold well enough though it wouldn't last as the company seemingly went belly-up just a few years later in the early 1950s. In the early editions of the cards the Aces were also marked with the initial of the suit. The second edition carried this to all of the Face Cards.

Another notable aspect of the deck were the colorful Jokers depicting a fanned out hand of four different colored Aces and a second one showing a King and Queen playing cards with a very brief history of playing cards up to their present ingenious idea. Though copyrighted in 1945 the roll out didn't begin until late 1947 just in time for the Christmas rush. By 1953 adverts for the company completely disappeared.

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A Card Within a Card: 3 Jokers and Theirs

As ruminated upon in a previous post here are three more Jokers who are depicted wielding other cards within their own. The first one is openly presenting the Ace of Spades while concealing three others with a mere Diamond peeking out over one corner of the trumvirate. On the second Joker, from a Scandinavian deck, The King of Diamonds is figured prominently as the Joker leans upon it. His poppet Joker is also holding an Ace of Hearts. What it all means would depend on the manufacturer and artist, I suppose. The last specimen from Longfield Games features an Ace of Spades as the Joker stands upon a depiction of the world as a globe which seems almost 3/4 there but not quite whole. All interpretations of this and the preceding ones would be mere speculation and without knowing the artist and his source inspiration it would mainly be a stab into the void. Which is basically what this entire blog consists of.

Tart Rhymes

I came across this excellent booklet from The U. S. Playing Card Co. on Instagram and then tracked down its source to eBay where I took advantage of the generous photos on the listing and saved them in e-book form because it's the right thing to do for posterity's sake. The booklets contains a very short sequence of rhymes that make for one bizarre folktale that wouldn't cut it in today's cancel culture. Also displayed in the small booklet are some card packs produced by the company which is very helpful towards dating the cards for novices who don't have access to the company's historical records.

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