Woolley & Co Transformation c.1880

Although this pack of ‘Floral Moguls’ would have been manufactured by Woolley & Co sometime between c.1870-1880, according to references on the three of diamonds the pip cards seem to have been transformed by hand using pen & ink in around 1879-80.

It is often the case that practice improves the artist’s hand who then reworks her ideas, returning to make the deck a second time: see another example here→

The Court Cards

Above: the twleve court cards, unturned, with square corners and no indices, as used between c.1865-1875. Unfortunately the ace of spades is missing but the most likely contender is here. Images courtesy Stuart McEwan. (Missing ace of spades provided by Ken Lodge).

REFERENCES

Goodall, Michael H: Minor British Playing Card Makers of the Nineteenth Century, (vol.2) Woolley & Company, Woking, 1996

Lodge, Ken: The Standard English Pattern (second revised and enlarged edition), Bungay, Suffolk, 2010