?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 600 - $ 800
RARE ROUND PLAYING CARDS (TOYS AND GAMES.) PLAYING CARDS. Sutherland's Circular Coon Cards. Black as the Ace of Spades. Fifty-two circular playing cards, plus the joker; enclosed in the original painted tin box; some general wear to the tin, the cards in fine condition. Hartley Brothers Ltd.: Melbourne, Australia, circa 1885
a rare set of stereotypical playing cards. We could find only one other example located at Yale's Beinecke Library. The ace of spades is considered the highest value card in the deck. The expression 'black as the ace of spades' seems to have become popular in the post Civil War period. The ornate design of the card itself stems from the 18th century practice of taxing playing cards, where the ace of spades usually bore elaborate stamping.
