Tobacco advertising
Advertising decks made in Belgium by A. Van Genechten, 1960s.
Van Genechten: Tobacco advertising

Above: two different tobacco advertising decks made in Belgium by A. van Genechten, 1960s. The court cards and jokers are the same in each case.
The company’s sales and production facilities were finally merged, along with Brepols and Biermans, into the newly formed company Carta Mundi in 1970. The courts are significantly different to the early Carta Mundi courts, drawing a clear distinction between the two styles.

Above: Van Genechten’s standard English style courts, 1960s.

Above: the two boxes; the right-hand box has a U.S. Internal Revenues stamp affixed at the end (Click image to zoom).
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By Matt Probert
Member since March 02, 2012
I have adored playing cards since before I was seven years old, and was brought up on packs of Waddington's No 1. As a child I was fascinated by the pictures of the court cards.
Over the next fifty years I was seduced by the artwork in Piatnik's packs and became a collector of playing cards.
Seeking more information about various unidentified packs I discovered the World of Playing Cards website and became an enthusiastic contributor researching and documenting different packs of cards.
I describe my self as a playing card archaeologist, using detective work to identify and date obscure packs of cards discovered in old houses, flea markets and car boot sales.
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