Antique Playing Cards by Tiffany & Company Designed by Charles E. Carryl

1862 Civil War playing cards with stars, flags, shields, & eagles, and face cards illustrating civil war officers and lady, Columbia, ca 1862, Benjamin Hitchcock, New York 1862 Civil War playing cards with suits represented by stars, flags, shields, & eagles, in lieu of the traditional French suits of hearts, diamonds, clubs, and spades. The face cards feature Union Army officers and Lady Columbia [a.k.a. Lady Liberty, Goddess of Liberty]. Entitled “Union Playing Cards,” two versions of this deck were produced in New York by Benjamin W. Hitchcock’s “American Card Company.” This is the earlier of the two. The other was released in 1863. There are 52 cards in total with the ace of spades doubling as the title card, as was often the case during the 19th century. The telescoping box...

“Visit To Camp,” an extraordinarily rare card game by mclaughlin brothers of new york, circa 1871. This extremely rare card game, designed with Civil War context, was made by McLoughlin Brothers in New York City. The set includes 12 (complete) chromolithographed, character playing cards, and 68 (out of 72) object cards, with various accoutrements. All of the above are housed in a wooden storage box with a slide lid and a chromolithographed, paper label. Played in an ad-lib, story-telling format, the characters include the Colonel, the Captain, the Zouave soldier with red pantaloons, the Rifleman, the Artilleryman, the Riding Master, the Musician, the Ferrier, the Surgeon, the Sapper (engineer), the Sutler (cook), and the Vi Vandeer (a woman who takes care of the troops). Each character was originally linked to 6 objects, which were to be produced by players on demand during a spoken reading of the game’s convoluted story-line. There are actually 69 cards included here, one of which is an object card for “the Chinaman.” Since the card matches the style exactly in printing, shape, and scale, and since there was no Chinaman in this game, I presume that the card must have once accompanied another McLaughlin ad-lib deck. The instructions (reproduced, in scale) list 13 possible players, with the 13th acting as narrator. I could locate only 3 other copies of this extremely rare game, all of which included 12 cards. McLoughlin Brothers is said to have pioneered the systematic use of color printing technologies in children’s books. The publishing firm opened in 1820 and was active until 1920, when it was sold to Milton Bradley. During the early years, the product line included toys in addition to books, among which were games, blocks, and paper dolls. Artwork from famous illustrators such as Thomas Nast, William Momberger, Ida Waugh” (Laura Wasowicz), Justin Howard, and Palmer Cox...

Masterpiece quality American game board with fancifully painted cherubs, ca 1870 This is one of the greatest American painted Parcheesi boards extant. The fine quality of this is ...

Red, black, and ochre white-painted, folding backgammon game board with leaf-like medallions, circa 1870-1890 American Backgammon and checker board, made of softwood, with a case ...

Antique carrom large wooden game board double-sided no. 1 Archarena Style (E). Antique Carrom Company 1907 Wood Game Board Double Sided, made in USA...

A beautiful double deck set of vintage game playing cards in black and gold with Greek-Key design, circa mid-20th century, Europe, possibly Italy. This set of two decks reside in ori...

This is a good and complete English resin moulded "weighted" chess set game of 32 pieces, in a jointed pine box, all dating to the early/ mid 20th century, Circa 1930's. The chess p...

Backgammon spotted with solid walnut case. Backgammon lid's covered with genuine leather with a spotted pattern in relief. With magnetic closing system. With leather inlaid...