German Shepherd Forcolar Canasta Playing Card Deck

With no corresponding advert I've been having an impossible time with dating my Forcolar German Shepherd set within the company's 6 years existence but having just remembered that it is also a Canasta pack and since that game only came to the United States in 1949 it likely dates to then or thereabouts. Which is consistent with the Buttreys advertisement below:

Great Falls Tribune, November 6, 1949 (enlarge)

Not that I don't trust the 1947 copyright marked on the label but I feel that they never varied from that original imprint and that any dates are arbitrary beyond their inception point.

Anyway, a Forcolar Canasta set in November of 1949 was $1.69 for two decks. Which is equivalent to about $19.55 today.

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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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