Bartlett's Playing Cards
Bartlett's card design was a copy of the popular cards being made in Boston by Thomas Crehore which were copies of English cards designs.
From left to right; Crehore (Boston), Goodall (England) and Bartlett
To differentiate his cards Caleb hid his initials in the court card designs.
Now, if you look again at the previous Crehore, Goodall and Bartlett cards above, you will now spot the initials on Bartlett's Jack of Spades.
The Queen of Clubs even appears with two sets of initials.
George Cook would do the same thing when he was making Bartlett's cards. (1845-51)
The Pictorial or Transformation Cards
The "Hochman Encyclopedia of American Playing Cards" describes this deck as "U11 CALEB BARTLETT, c1835. One of the most interesting decks produced by Bartlett was his transformation pack of 1833 (see Chapter 18, Transformation Cards). The plates used in the Bartlett Transformation deck (T1) were very expensive to make although based on the identical patterns first used by the Ackermann Repository of Arts, in London, in 1819 and later used by Muller of Vienna and Gide of Paris. Perhaps it was for this reason that Bartlett produced this quasi-standard deck using the transformation courts and aces with standard European style pips
The original designs are believed to be by Rudolph Ackermann and published in the Repository of Arts magazine, London, 1818-19. (All of Volume II, number VI 1818 and only Volume III, number I Jan 1819) The American edition shown here is almost an exact copy of the Ackermann version, except that the colouring is much heavier and brighter than in the originals so that some details of the design are obscured. The deck is accompanied by a booklet in which each card is described in detail.
The "Hochman Encyclopedia of American Playing Cards" describes this deck as "U11 CALEB BARTLETT, c1835. One of the most interesting decks produced by Bartlett was his transformation pack of 1833 (see Chapter 18, Transformation Cards). The plates used in the Bartlett Transformation deck (T1) were very expensive to make although based on the identical patterns first used by the Ackermann Repository of Arts, in London, in 1819 and later used by Muller of Vienna and Gide of Paris. Perhaps it was for this reason that Bartlett produced this quasi-standard deck using the transformation courts and aces with standard European style pips
The original designs are believed to be by Rudolph Ackermann and published in the Repository of Arts magazine, London, 1818-19. (All of Volume II, number VI 1818 and only Volume III, number I Jan 1819) The American edition shown here is almost an exact copy of the Ackermann version, except that the colouring is much heavier and brighter than in the originals so that some details of the design are obscured. The deck is accompanied by a booklet in which each card is described in detail.
The deck was featured in London in Rudolph Ackermann's monthly magazine called 'Repository of Arts, Literature, fashion etc'. The cards appeared four at a time in plate form in the monthly magazine between January 1818 and January 1819.
So far as we know the Ackermann cards were not issued in a playable form.
The figures represented characters from ancient Rome, Greece and Asia Minor. The Spade courts and ace depict scenes from the Viennese story of 'Beatrice'.
The original design was called "Béatrice ou les Fracas". This pack was made by Heinrich Friedrich Müller of Vienna, most probably between 1810 and 1815. The artist was Matthaus Loder. The publisher was Heinrich Friedrich Müller a publisher, arts and book dealer in Vienna.
Heinrich Friedrich Müller (1779-1848) was a Viennese innovator in printing technology and publisher who produced the first German picture-book. In addition to his artistic interests, he was a very inventive and enterprising person, and invented, manufactured and marketed a children's card game which was known throughout Europe between 1840 and 1940, known as Glocke und Hammer or Schimmel (Bell and Hammer or White Horse).
The English deck was made from cutting the cards from engravings. A portfolio of the cards are comprised of 13 mixed method engraved plates on thin card, each depicting four playing cards with classical figures and scenic backgrounds, forming the complete deck of 52 cards (French suits). The court cards had contemporary hand-colouring, red suits with stencilled suit signs. The face cards of the English pack have full backgrounds, whereas those of the Viennese pack are merely figures with no background.
Another known version is a French edition published in Paris by Gide Fils, rue St Marc No. 20. The designs are the same but the plates are new and the court cards are like the Viennese version without backgrounds.
The Bartlett deck was published as "Pictorial Playing Cards" and the court cards included full backgrounds presumably copied from the Ackermann design. The Bartlett cards can normally be easily distinguished from the English version as the cards are coloured very crudely with garish blocks of colour that detracts from the beauty of the designs. In all four versions i.e. Ackermann, Muller, Gide and Bartlett the pip cards have all got transformation designs whereas in this deck all pip cards are standard and presumably more playable.
The English deck was made from cutting the cards from engravings. A portfolio of the cards are comprised of 13 mixed method engraved plates on thin card, each depicting four playing cards with classical figures and scenic backgrounds, forming the complete deck of 52 cards (French suits). The court cards had contemporary hand-colouring, red suits with stencilled suit signs. The face cards of the English pack have full backgrounds, whereas those of the Viennese pack are merely figures with no background.
Another known version is a French edition published in Paris by Gide Fils, rue St Marc No. 20. The designs are the same but the plates are new and the court cards are like the Viennese version without backgrounds.
The Bartlett deck was published as "Pictorial Playing Cards" and the court cards included full backgrounds presumably copied from the Ackermann design. The Bartlett cards can normally be easily distinguished from the English version as the cards are coloured very crudely with garish blocks of colour that detracts from the beauty of the designs. In all four versions i.e. Ackermann, Muller, Gide and Bartlett the pip cards have all got transformation designs whereas in this deck all pip cards are standard and presumably more playable.
Ackermann's Cards
"Cartes Bouffonnes" by "Gide Fils" (Paris, France), 1820