C.L. Wüst English pattern comparison
A review of the Ace of spades, court card, backs and joker of English pattern playing cards by Wüst from my collection.
I have in my collection several English pattern packs of cards made by C.L. Wüst of Frankfurt, Germany and thought it might be useful to create a comparison of these by showing the ace of spades, jack of clubs, reverse and a joker (or pip card) from each pack to indicate the many differences which can be found. This does not mean that this is a definitive list of all known variations and I am almost certain that there are more to be discovered. Wüst also produced a single ended version of the English pattern which you can view here (taken from a page in my 2005 Wüst expo catalogue). Please let me know if you have other variations not found in this comparison so that I can add them to the list. You can contact me here.
I have chosen the ace of spades because they are all decorated in the Wüst packs. The jack of clubs always has the Wüst logo of a 5 or 6 pointed star even though it may be difficult to see in the design of the card. If you can't see it look again!
The first three packs have an early Turnhout style ace of spades:
1. Bezique c,1880 Goodall G4 style courts (notice the early 5-pointed Wüst star) Single ended pip cards.
2. Bezique c.1890 Goodall G4 style courts. X instead of 10 on pip card.
3. Indicator No.214 DD4.1 courts, copy of Dougherty. (now with a 6-pointed star)
4. Superfine Playing Cards c.1900 DD4.1 courts
5. Superfine Playing Cards c.1900 G4 style courts
6. Indicator First Quality c.1890 DD4.1 courts. Smaller indices than 4.
The next three packs have Germania aces, looking very similar to those sometimes used in the USA.
7. Indicator No. 217 c.1915 copy of US3 type courts
8. Indicator playing cards c.1915 US3 courts. Notice the ace now states 'Trade Mark' instead of 'Schutz Marke'
9. Pocker cards for the Hamburg-Amerika Linie c.1910 US3 courts. Includes a very rare joker.
The next three packs have the Buffalo trade mark on the ace of spades:
10. Buffalo No.217 c.1920 US4 courts
11. Buffalo No.217 c.1920 US4 courts 
To finish this comparison here is a scan of four different Wüst boxes belonging to packs number 6, 3, 7 and 10 in that order.
The Standard English Pattern, Ken Lodge 2016
Catalogue of Playing Cards from the factory C.L.Wüst, Shaw/Symons 2005
All cards shown are from the collection of Paul Symons ©
By Paul Symons
Member since February 01, 2016
I'm British but I have now lived in the Netherlands for more than 50 years and am still enjoying every minute of it. I started collecting playing cards in the early 1980’s after speaking with my neighbour who was at that time a croupier in a casino. I started with just collecting jokers, but that soon led me to complete packs of cards and eventually to specialising in old and antique playing cards, particularly those of C.L. Wüst of Frankfurt, Germany. I am presently the Dutch representative of the I.P.C.S. and the auctioneer at the IPCS conventions.
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