Posted 7 years ago
FinnishFish
(3 items)
The larger decks are identical on the face side, there's an extra card with a mixture of the pink and green reverse with a blank face, supposedly to replace lost cards? Interesting shape as they aren't quite rectangular but rather "fat" as the sides are bulging out. Overall quite good shape, I'd think these were last used in the 60s or 70s to play Canasta. The backside has a castle surrounded by four helmets.
The smaller deck is considerably more worn, some cards are missing corners. The back side features two birds. The ace of diamonds has a "Pelikorttileima - Spelkortsstämpel" or playing cards stamp with the finnish national symbol, a lion holding a sword. Not sure if this is due to gambling regulations at some point, could ease dating the cards.
I'm guessing the smaller deck is Finnish, could be Russian if pre-1917 as Finland was part of Russia at that time but all your opinions and knowledge is welcome.
Finnish stamps. You can date, since we can't see the stamp.
http://www.endebrock.de/stamps/st-fin.html
I only noticed on closer inspection that the larger cards also have the stamp, yet this doesn't mean for any that they must've been produced in Finland as also imported cards were stamped by the customs. This was done as late as in 1983 when the Card Tax was abandoned and unfortunately it seems the design of the stamp didn't change at all for several decades. Trying to narrow the window but so far a point after 1910 to the abandonment in 1983 is my best guess, disregarding what I've been told by my grandmother.
Another thing I didn't think to mention before is that the larger decks have the cards numbered with aces being 1, jacks 11, queens 12 and kings unnumbered. The larger decks also feature one joker each, not numbered but with a small "jokers hat" in the corner. The smaller deck has aces as A, kings as K, queens as D and jacks as B.
After much digging and stumbling upon an online quiz, I have recognized the larger decks. They depict Turun Linna, a castle in Turku (which used to be the Finnish capital some hundreds of years ago). The faces of the Kings and Queens are those of the rulers of Sweden, all members of the Wasa dynasty, the Kings paired with their respective queens of the same suit. The fact that the cards are numbered rather than lettered only tells us that they were created sometime between 1938 and 1978 when production in Sweden siezed and was moved to Austria, under the Piatnik label. I have yet to narrow the date down further but it should be somewhat possible as the design on the back differs somewhat from those I've found on the web. The convex edges were patented by Turun Kivipaino but the patent has since expired. I'll report back when I find more.
I remember playing with decks like this in the 70's-80's in Sweden. We called them "Åbokorten" (The Turku cards). Didn't know the Kings were the Wasa family, interesting. Makes sense. Good research!
So, my Swedish ansestors must have spent many happy hours with these cards too. (The Wicklunds and the Petersons) Nice to see these. I wish they were mine!!
OOOP spelling mistake-- ancestors--- is the right spelling.