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Pigmy Playing Cards

Published October 05, 2011 Updated May 11, 2022

Pigmy Miniature Playing Cards

1890 United Kingdom De la Rue Dexter Pigmy Indices Miniature Patience

Pigmy miniature playing cards manufactured by Thomas De la Rue, c.1890. The deck has square corners and plain blue backs. The "Dexter indexes" are interesting in that the suit-signs in the corners bear a number in white upon them; the 2s and 3s have had their pips moved to accomodate this scheme. The corners of the Aces bear the outline of the respective suit, in which is the word ‘ace’. There is no marking of any sort on the Ace of Spades. The suit signs on the courts bear the letters ‘Kg’ on a King, ‘Qn’ on a Queen, and a ‘Kn’ (shorthand for "Knave") on a Jack. The original Dexter indices placed inside the corner pips had several variants: ‘Kn’ or ‘J’ for Jack; two arrangements of Aces, twos and threes; and ‘1’ or ‘ace’ on the Aces. This type of index was introduced in around 1878 and continued until c.1890. There are no jokers in this edition. The cards measure 3 x 4.5 cms.

'Pigmy' miniature playing cards manufactured by Thomas De la Rue, c.1890

Above: 'Pigmy' miniature double-ended playing cards with 'Dexter' indices manufactured by Thomas De la Rue, c.1890. Images courtesy Anthony Lee.

'Pigmy' miniature playing cards by Thomas De la Rue, c.1900

Above: 'Pigmy' miniature playing cards with standard indices manufactured by Thomas De la Rue, c.1900. Image courtesy Peter Hepworth.

See also: De la Rue patience cards exported to Harrods Ltd, Buenos Aires

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By Simon Wintle

Member since February 01, 1996

Founder and editor of the World of Playing Cards since 1996. He is a former committee member of the IPCS and was graphics editor of The Playing-Card journal for many years. He has lived at various times in Chile, England and Wales and is currently living in Extremadura, Spain. Simon's first limited edition pack of playing cards was a replica of a seventeenth century traditional English pack, which he produced from woodblocks and stencils.


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