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  home   >   collection   >   Conjuring pack from Serravalle-Sesia (Italy)

This pack was made by Fratelli Avondo in Serravalle-Sesia (Italy) around 1874. It was originally a Whist pack but it was modified, presumably for conjuring.
The name of the maker and the place are shown on the Ace of Hearts.

You will notice that I am showing two Kings of Hearts and two Aces of Hearts in the bottom rows. This is intended to demonstrate the modification: A King and an Ace in each suit are glued together, so that the two bottom rows actually show only one card each, the front and the back.

The cards were obviously clipped on the edges. You can best see this on the Aces of Hearts, but it is obvious on most of the other cards, too.

Another special thing about the pack is that there are two tax stamps, actually even four. On the Aces of Hearts is a tax stamp that was used until 1874 and on the Aces of Diamonds a tax stamp that was used afterwards. This makes me date the cards to 'around 1874'.

The design of the cards looks special, but it was also used by at least one other maker, see the cards by Murari from Bari.