Samuel Hart

13: Some North American Cards
I deal with some of the US makers in more detail on other pages, but here is a brief introduction.

40: More on Design Copies and Fakes
The issue of design copies needs further consideration and when does a copy become a fake?

43: The United States Playing Card Co.
The United States Playing Card Co. (USPCC) represents an amalgamation of all the major American card-makers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries

Andrew Dougherty c.1850
The idiosyncratic courts used in this deck were used by several other U.S. manufacturers, including Crehore and Hart, and continued into the early 1900s in Faro decks.

Charles Bartlet
Elaborate court cards on a deck by Charles Bartlet, Philadelphia, (who was in fact Samuel Hart) c.1845-60. The pip cards are double-ended. The date may be somewhere between c.1845-65.


New York Consolidated Card Company
The New York Consolidated Card Company was formed in 1871 by the merging of Lawrence & Cohen, Samuel Hart & Co and John J. Levy.

Samuel Hart, 1846-1871
Samuel Hart was a prolific manufacturer of playing cards who commenced business sometime around 1845 in Philadelphia. He had previously worked for L.I. Cohen.

Union Playing Card Co.
Not much is known about this early manufacturer who is reckoned to have traded between c.1860s-1890s.

Why our playing-cards look the way they do
Analysis of early playing card designs: origins, suit differences, standardization, technological advancements and key innovations leading to modern designs.