1JJ - a few informations for collectors

Seeing these last months some threads about the 1JJ, I made some pictures of two decks of my collection as informations for collectors.
One deck in particular is interesting.

I date the first one with 1965 according to Hoffman/Kroppenstedt "Wahrsagenkarten" 1972 (113)
The second one with 1970 because of the Copyright date by S.R. Kaplan founded in the LWB.

The 1965 deck came in a red slipper wrapped in a sheet of paper.
You can see on the picture of the wrap paper that the deck was called TAROCS No 1JJ.

Hoffmann mentions in his description of the deck that there is a label on the slipcase that reads:
"MADE IN SWITZERLAND AG MÜLLER + Cie Tarok No. 1 JJ"
My copy came without label.

(I also once read in another thread on AT that the slipcase could be blue)

The 1970 deck comes in a two pieces box (red and gold)
On one frontside of the box it reads:

Distributed Exclusively by
WADDINGTON PLAYING CARDS CO. LTD.
40 WAKEFIELD ROAD, LEEDS LS10 3TP
YORKSHIRE, ENGLAND
Made in Switzerland

The 1965 deck came without LWB or additional cards

The 1970 deck came with a little LWB with a US Games adress:
468 PARK AVENUE SOUTH
NEW YORK, N. Y. 10016
and a 1970 copyright by S. R. Kaplan

There are also two additional cards:
one with advertising for Tarot Decks andd other popular gift items and a Waddington adress:
WADDINGTONS PLAYING CARDS CO. LTD
Wakefield Road
Leeds LS10 3TP

The other cards advertises for two games:
Folio Bridge and Crib-Box

Both decks do not have the US games copyright on the cards.

One interesting detail is that the 1965 deck has no additional card number at the bottom right on the pips.

Another interesting detail is that on the shield of the Empereur you can read: "Fabrique des Cartes" on the 1965 deck and not the usual "Fabrique de cartes A. Müller & cie" as seen on the 1970 deck.

These two details made the 1965 deck looking almost identical to the original of 1870 as seen on Trionfi site (deck 2971)
http://trionfi.com/m/d0yyyy.php?decknr=2971
(scroll down to see the pictures of the 1870 edition of the deck)

The cardback uses the same pattern for both decks but the pattern is shifted to 90 degree on the 1970 copy.


Both decks have this wonderful cardstock, quite thick and with a matt finish.
It feels similar to the cardstock of the Blue Box RWS
There is no plastic feeling with this cardstock.

Except for the already mentioned details, I can see no further differences in the drawings between the two decks.
The overall coloring is sligtly different as you can see if you compare the one of Batons and the Roue de fortune.

On a very personal side I appeciate the format of the cards that I find perfect: 61 mm x 110 mm.
Not too big, not too small, different from playing cards, sitting very well in the hand.

Best regards

Thank for the info. It's another piece of the puzzle that some of us have been trying to assemble recently. I wasn't familiar with any other distributer of the 1JJ other than U.S. Games. I had assumed that the first 1JJ decks that Kaplan acquired for distribution in the U.S. were acquired directly from AGMuller. It now looks like that Kaplan acquired them through their English distributers.

It's also interesting to see how recently the little numerals in the corner of pips were added. I'm sure the Swiss 1JJ was originally manufactured primarily for playing card games. I imagine that the little corner numerals were a later addition aimed at the cartomancy market to make it easier for readers to determine reversals.

Alan

coredil said:

The 1965 deck came in a red slipper wrapped in a shit of paper

Click to expand...

Ooops, now that's an interesting marketing technique for selling a deck...

On a serious note, thank you very much for this indispensible information on an indispensible deck