New Era No.46
“New Era No.46”, based around European fashions, was soon followed with “Circus No.47”, “Hustling Joe No.61” and “Ye Witches No.62”.
Around 1895 the recently incorporated United States Playing Card Company began creating exciting new brands featuring different, or non-standard, court cards in order to celebrate their new beginning and to keep up with the increasingly competitive market. “New Era No.46” was the first of these colourful new decks, based around European fashions with an Art Nouveau flavour, and was soon followed by “Circus No.47”, “Hustling Joe No.61” and “Ye Witches No.62”. These titles were listed in catalogues for a few years but today they have become very scarce to find.
Above: 'New Era No.46' playing cards first published in 1896 by the United States Playing Card Co., Cincinnati. Images courtesy Rod Starling.
Right: the box and back design. Click to zoom→
REFERENCES
Dawson, Tom & Judy: The Hochman Encyclopedia of American Playing Cards, U.S. Games Systems Inc., 2000
All images on this page are from the collection of Rod Starling, author of "The Art and Pleasures of Playing Cards".
By Rod Starling (1936-2023)
Member since January 09, 2013
Rod Starling was one of the founding members of the 52 Plus Joker card collectors club. He authored many articles for the club's quarterly newsletter, Clear the Decks. His collection encompasses both foreign and American decks. Rod also authored a book titled The Art and Pleasures of Playing Cards.
Related Articles
Never Mind the Belote
Limited edition Belote pack with designs by a collective of 24 street artists.
Playing card designs by Franz Exler
Reconstruction of playing cards from the original 1903 designs.
MITSCHKAtzen
Clever cat designs by the Austrian artist and illustrator Willi Mitschka.
22 Pittori in 22 Arcani
Collaborative Tarot with contributions from 22 different Italian artists including Menegazzi and Tav...
Get Decked
Black and white cartoons devised by Sam Wagner with help from artist Lindsay Bevington.
Whist by Ditha Moser
Ditha Moser created this minimalist Whist deck in 1905, in the style of the Vienna Secession art mov...
Beowulf
Jackson Robinson's Beowulf playing card deck inspired by the Old English pagan poem.
Alan Tarot Deck
Reprint of a Tarock pack originally designed by Argio Orell for the Austrian Lloyd shipping company....
Keith Haring playing cards
Energetic graffiti images by the American artist Keith Haring.
The Tarot of Meditation – Yeager Tarot
Marty Yeager’s original Tarot of Meditation from 1975, republished later by U.S. Games Systems, Inc....
Adobe Deck
The first digitally-produced deck of cards.
Seminole Wars deck
Seminole Wars deck by J. Y. Humphreys, Philadelphia, c.1819.
Carte di Natale
Designed by Pier Canosa as a Christmas pack for the Cortina Art Gallery in Milan.
The UCR Deck
Giant-size cards designed by Thomas Sanders to advertise courses and facilities at UCR.
Queen of Arts
A wide variety of women artists celebrated on cards with illustrations by Laura Callaghan.
Fredericks & Mae playing cards
A rainbow pack from the design team of Fredericks & Mae and Benjamin English.
Most Popular
Our top articles from the past 28 days
