Samuel Hart an American Icon in the Evolution of Playing Card production.

Broadstruck

1850’s Samuel Hart & Company, Playing Cards, PA/NY Merchant Store Card, Miller-PA-197A, 29mm Diameter, Copper.

1850’s Samuel Hart & Company, Playing Cards, PA/NY Merchant Store Card, Miller-PA-197B, 29mm Diameter, White Metal.

This neat duel sided pictorial advertising token is far more commonly seen struck in copper then white metal. Half of the white metal strikes I've seen have shown small mounds in the fields which are raised trapped air bubbles. So a planchet mixture issue may be responsible for the white metal strikes being scarcer. Nevertheless the example below is the finest non problematic example I've encountered.

Samuel Hart is a legend in the history of American Playing Cards. He is credited with the introduction of many advancements and innovations which have become the standard features of playing cards available for purchase today in America.

Beginning his career working as an apprentice for his uncle, Lewis I. Cohen, Hart got his start in the family stationer business in New York City. Cohen, a prodigy in his own right, was renowned in his field for being a master card maker.

Hart became acquainted with the business of paper and stationery manufacture from an early age. Hart’s immediate family had been in the business since 1831. His extended family also had similar business interests, having stores and proprietorships extending all the way from Philadelphia to New York.

In 1844 Hart exited his uncle’s business, having learned the trade sufficiently, and ventured out on his own. In Philadelphia he established his first store, and traded under the name “Samuel Hart & Co.” The store was located at 27 South Fourth Street.

By 1849 Hart began to manufacture his first playing cards, and quickly his business grew. From 1849 onward Hart established and maintained offices in New York City as well. During the 1850′s Hart introduced the playing card brands “Mogul” and “Steamboat.”

By 1858 Hart’s business had grown to the extent that he had a plant constructed at 416 South 13th Street. With his new plant, he was able to substantially increase his playing card production.

Hart also receives credit for introducing the Joker to playing card decks sometime on or around the 1860s. During the mid 19th century the game Euchre encountered widespread public popularity in the U.S. The game requires an extra trump card, or Best Bower, and Samuel Hart’s new Joker satisfied the need.

From his plant Hart produced decks which enjoyed notable American popularity. Brands like “Hart’s Linen Eagle,” “Club House,” and “London Club Cards” found themselves in widespread circulation.

During the Civil War troops from both the North and the South spent their idle time playing cards using Hart’s decks.

In 1871 Samuel Hart, along with Solomon Cohen, John Lawrence, and several other successful New York card makers unified their businesses, and formed the New York Consolidate Card Co. Thereafter, Samuel Hart & Co cased to operate independently.

During his 22 year span as an independent playing card manufacturer, Hart produced a vast array of decks and is credited for a number of important milestones. His decks were some of the first which featured satin finishes, rounded corners, and double ends.

Though Hart wasn't the first manufacturer to introduce these features, he was the first to mass produce and make them commercially available to the American public. This led to his cards being the first with all such features to enter widespread circulation.

ricko

Thanks Broadstruck...one of 'other' hobbies is collecting old playing cards... and I have a deck (in pristine condition) that does not have numbers or letters (identification through counting the symbols or knowing the caricatures). When cards with the numbers were first marketed, they were met with suspicion and thought to be 'cheater' cards.
Cheers, RickO

Broadstruck

Thanks Ricko for the additional early playing card deck history!

1630Boston

Thanks for presenting some very interesting history here.

Nap

I have a few old Italian playing cards:

These 8 cards I believe are from an Italian game called Cuccu. They are all stamped "Bologna" where this game was popular during 17th and 18th century.

http://cards.old.no/c/c/

These last two cards I believe are from another Italian game called Minchiate. They do not have a stamp but the game was popular in Florence. These cards in the British Museum look very similar to mine:

http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details/collection_image_gallery.aspx?partid=1&assetid=1608810001&objectid=3058849

I do not have full decks, the cards were obtained as incomplete sets. I think my cards are fairly old, probably 18th century, but it's hard to find much on the web about them. The folded over backs I believe are a hallmark of early playing cards in Italy.

Broadstruck

Nap, Those Italian cards are really cool!

ricko

@Nap.... very interesting... have not seen foreign playing cards... My deck I described above, was purchased by me, from a classmate in sixth grade.... he brought the deck (and others) in to school.. got them from his grandmother's attic, wrapped in news print from 1864.... I gave him fifteen cents (a small fortune for a kid back then) and have had them ever since. Cheers, RickO

EXOJUNKIE

@RickO .... pretty astute for a sixth grader!

Nap

There was a neat exhibit on medieval playing cards at the Cloisters Museum in Manhattan earlier this year:

http://www.metmuseum.org/press/exhibitions/2016/world-in-play

(If you take more than a passing interest in medieval art, do check out the Cloisters the next time you're in New York.)

A few weeks after I saw the expo I found those cards in a dealer's inventory at a local antiques fair. The dealer admittedly knew little about them and neither did I; even with some research it's hard to find out much. He had other old playing cards from France which were probably 19th century. Most were incomplete decks. I would've bought more if I was better informed. Sadly there were no fancy illuminated 15th century cards among his possessions. Have no idea what the ones I picked up are worth.