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Astronomical - 1719

2004 reproduction of the original, as in the collection of the Fournier Museum in Vitoria, Spain.

I can't sem to find much info on these. These are more archaic but a bit similar to the reproduced 1828 cards in the Installation deck of "Time and Space" that Jase posted to the England thread.

The cards show constellations as painted figures, with their stars in black. The suits are the German Leaves, Bells, Hearts and Acorns. Courts are a King (Konig) and 2 Knaves - an "over"(Ober) and an "under"(Unter). Aces are called Das Daus and you can see them first below, with 2 - 5 of the Leaves suit below that in the same picture. Sorry but all the scans show smallest to largest from right to left.
Here are the rest of the Leaves suit.
2 through 9 of Bells.
10 through King of Bells and 2 through 5 of Hearts.
6 through King of Hearts.
2 through 9 of Acorns.
10 through King of Acorns, and the 2 Title Cards, along with a card back.
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1966 Neue Altenburger Spielkarte
DDR pattern by Walter Krauss
DDR, Deutsche Demokratische Republik = GDR, Germam Democratic Republic

This is a beautiful deck and definitely one of my faves. Each suit has its own dominant colour - Green for the Leaves (Spades), Red for the Hearts, Orange/Yellow for the Bells (Diamonds) and that wonderful Blue in the Acorns (Clubs). The deck I have has only 24 cards, courts and aces with 9s and 10s, but I believe this is usually found as a Skat deck of 32 cards, courts and aces with 7s - 10s.

Here are the Aces and Kings (Konigs)
There are three main versions of this pattern called: DDR #1, DDR #2 and DDR #3. Cards in all versions show German suits, and no index on the Aces.

Here are the Ober and Unter Knaves.
The first DDR #1 versions of 1964/65 were not successful.
In 1966, there appeared a new edition with modified figures on the court cards, and that is the one you see here - DDR #2 - using the German court card indices of K (Konig/King), O (Ober/Over Knave), U (Unter/Under Knave).

Here are the Pips and back of card.
A third edition, DDR #3, was released in 1969 and had Queens instead of Obers. It used the German court card indices of K (Konig/King), D (Dame/Lady), B (Bube/Knave)
Walter Kraus designed all three versions.

To see all the variations of this pattern go to this excellent article written by Ulrich Knüpfer for the Alta Carta web site:[/color]
http://www.altacarta.com/english/resear ... ttern.html

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All I know is my "Look into" list of European decks keeps growing, there are some absolutely beautiful decks out there.

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Well.
How good are these, unique ex descriptio .... ?
You're not the everyday Diamond, Jase.

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I've always been fascinated by the pomegranate suit in this deck, especially since the clubs/batons, swords, and cups are all the usual Latin suits.

I love the bit about the curiousity cabinets being great preservers of old cards.

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Fantastic find of the Arnold transformation reprint!

I agree with the joe - great find in that Black Cat transformation deck.
Arienti's decks are always done up beautifully. Was there a box or other wrapping?

I'm really enjoying all your latest postings here Jase. Great to see you back.