Willis W. Russell Playing Cards, Russell's Regents, "Georgian," c.1906

Antiques : Playing Cards U.S : Russell's Regents

 

Excellent, rare deck of Russell's Regent playing cards, made by Willis W. Russell Card Co., c.1895.

Willis W. Russell founded the Willis W. Russell Card Co. in 1905, and it produced fine decks of cards under that name for a very brief few years. Mr. Russell's portrait and signature appeared on every deck of cards produced by that company. In 1909, the company was forced to file for bankruptcy and in 1911 it was bought out of bankruptcy by Benjamin Rosenthal, founder and owner of the Kalamazoo Playing Card Co. Willis W. Russell and Kalamazoo were merged, and became the Russell Playing Card Co. that went on to have considerable success until its merger in 1929 with United States Playing Card Co.

According to Dawson/Hochman, Russell's regents was "the first Russell deck to use the 'long distance pips' concept." The phrases "long distance pips" and "long distance faces" has reference to the different treatment of the suit signs on these Willis W. Russell decks. The spades and hearts have what Russell called "tinting, or ornamenting" to make it easy to distinguish them from clubs and diamonds. According to Russell, these differences "are a practical solution to the frequent confusion of the suits of same colors, particularly in Bridge where one hand is always played at a distance, . . . ." The differences are evident in the pictures of this deck.

Regents were described on the box as "Art Series -- Gilt Edged" and had named pictorial backs. The name of the deck here for sale is "Georgian." The deck is a full 52 cards, with Joker, and Willis W. Russell put patent information on the Ace of Hearts and 2 of Spades as well, no doubt referring to the "ornamenting" of these suits applied in connection with the "long distance" concept. It comes with its original telescope box, and is a wide deck, measuring 88mm x 63mm.

How to describe the condition of these cards? The deck is well used, with the soiling one would expect, and except at the corners, less than 50% of the gold gilt is left. There is a slight tear (5mm) at one corner of the 3 of clubs. Even with these quibbles, however, I would describe the overall condition of the deck as very good, and I think this is a terrific deck of cards.

I have taken pictures of the front of every card, and a representative sample of the backs. The 3 of Clubs is also separately shown, front and back.

Reference: Dawson, The Hochman Encyclopedia of American Playing Cards (2000) p.125, RU2.

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Item ID: T000031