Prototypes of a deck of cards Russian style. "Russian style" - maps and prototypes

An interesting history of the "Russian style" card deck. October 10th, 2016

Hello dear.
Some time ago my good friend samiznaetekto brilliantly began a story about cards and card decks (the last post on this topic can be found here: http://samiznaetekto.livejournal.com/126596.html). It was very interesting. And this event was one of the two most important factors in order to encourage me to continue the topic with another post. And what was the second factor, you reasonably ask? Well ... one event that I have been wanting for a long time, but I don’t know under what sauce I’ll approach. And the event is a costume ball that took place during Shrovetide 1903 in the Kremlin. IMHO a very cool and beautiful event.

How do cards and a costume ball come together? Yes Easy....
I think many of you at least once in your life held such a deck in your hands:

This is, of course, a modern reworking of one rather old deck. This deck was developed in 1911 at the Dondorf Card Game Factory (Frankfurt am Main, Germany) by order of the Imperial Card Factory, which was a monopoly in this business in our country. After several rejected sketches, the parties came to an agreement, and in 1913 a deck appeared in Russia, which immediately became a bestseller. They called this deck "Russian style". And the point is that it was the Costume Ball of 1903 that became the inspiration for the authors. For some of the people who were there can be seen in the deck.
Let's get down to specifics.
Naturally, now we are not very interested in either the back (back side of the cards), or the cards themselves with digital values ​​​​and Aces. Consider only the King, Queen and Jack of each suit. So...
Let's start with the king of hearts.

The prototype for him was ..... Nicholas II. At the ball, he was in the royal attire of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich - crimson and white with gold embroidery.

And the fact that outwardly does not look like - do not bother you. For it should not be similar, for the current autocratic figure at that time. Although, it seems to me, the author of the sketch cheated a little and depicted a man vaguely reminiscent of the emperor, only another - Alexander III. But at least from this portrait by N. Schilder:

But queen of hearts easy to read. And even similar :-))

The lady was written off from the sister of Nicholas II, Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna (which we briefly talked about here :) Here is her photo at the ball:

Well, the jack of hearts is a composite image. In the deck it looks like this:

First of all, this is the adjutant of the Grand Duke, Admiral General Alexei Alexandrovich, Lieutenant Nikolai Volkov in the attire of a boyar of the 17th century:

And besides him, Lieutenant of the Life Guards of the Preobrazhensky Regiment Nikolai Shter in the outfit of the initial person from the residents

and cornet of the Life Guards Horse Regiment Alexei Tizel in a falconer's outfit.

Let's go further.
The king of clubs is like this:

As a prototype, a suit of 1647 was used in which the adjutant of the Grand Duke, Commander-in-Chief of the Guards and the St. Petersburg Military District, Vladimir Alexandrovich, Yesaul Count Mikhail Grabbe, was dressed

Queen of clubs:

Here, almost without question, the Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna, the elder sister of the Empress and the wife of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, is depicted, dressed in a princely outfit of the 17th century. We talked about it in more detail here:

Jack of clubs

Here, Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich, the younger brother of the tsar, is taken as a basis, in the field outfit of a tsarevich of the 17th century:

Let's go further...
king of diamonds

Most likely, they took as a basis the image of a real state councilor, in the position of master of the horse of the highest Court, Nikolai Hartung (von Hartong) and his costume of a boyar of the 17th century

lady of diamonds

Here again the hodgepodge. The base is taken from the image of Countess Alexandra Tolstoy, maid of honor of Their Imperial Majesties Empresses Maria Feodorovna and Alexandra Feodorovna, dressed as a hawthorn.

But also Princess Vera Kudasheva, nee Countess Nirod:

and also Alexandra Durnovo:

Jack of Bubbles:

This is Grand Duke Andrei Vladimirovich in the festive attire of a falconer.

And finally, peaks.
king of spades

This is most likely .... Ivan IV Vasilyevich, nicknamed the Terrible. The image is written off from the painting by A. Litovchenko "Ivan the Terrible shows treasures to the British Ambassador Horsey". It's strange, but that seems to be the case.

Queen of Spades

Zinaida Nikolaevna Yusupova, Countess Sumarokova-Elston, who appeared at the ball dressed as a noblewoman.


And finally Jack of spades

This is most likely the staff captain, squadron commander of the Cavalier Guard Regiment, adjutant of Grand Duke Nikolai Mikhailovich Alexander Nikolayevich Bezak in the costume of a boyar of the 17th century.

Here's an interesting deck.
Hope you enjoyed it :-))

Look at these cards familiar to everyone since childhood. Surely you or your parents still have such a deck at home? These drawings are so familiar to us that no one knew when playing solitaire or playing the fool that he was holding portraits of members of the royal
families?

I will sell Souvenir playing cards "RUSSIAN STYLE", A-1-36, 1 deck, 36 cards, French system of suits, 1993
Art. 3С4-02424448. Childhood cards.
Color Printing Combine, St. Petersburg (10 years since it was abolished). Already history, a rarity. And probably antiques. THIS ISSUE'S SPECIAL VALUE (for collectors): the image on the box of a lady♣ is from the Slavic style, not from the native one.
Brand new, ideally unopened!
PRICE: 1.59 tr. for a new, packaged deck.
When buying satin cards, the price of the deck: 1250 rubles. (2 tr. souvenir + satin)
OVER THE YEARS THE PRICE WILL GROW AT TIMES!
Gift for an antique collector; philocartist, artist, art critic, book dealer, foreigner, magician, designer, myself:); a person interested in history, including the history of styles, the history of costume, the history of fashion, as well as anyone whose childhood or youth was spent in the USSR.
There are also satin playing cards on sale, 1993 - 900 rubles.
WHERE: m. Nakhim. Ave., m. Kakhovka, m. Tekstilshchiki, Novaya Trekhgorka, Skolkovo.
CALL, WRITE!
The prototypes of the kings and ladies of the "RUSSIAN STYLE" deck were the participants of the last costume ball at the Romanov court in 1903. Thus, the prototype of the beautiful lady of clubs is Princess Elizaveta Feodorovna (were you in love with her in childhood? ;-), and the prototype of the Queen of Hearts is Princess Xenia Alexandrovna.
All 390 guests of the imperial ball were dressed up as courtiers of all stripes, boyars and boyars, archers and townswomen, governors and peasant women of the pre-Petrine era of the 17th century. The magnificent celebration in the Winter Palace of St. Petersburg went down in history as the most famous and grandiose ball of the time of Nicholas II and as the LAST court ball of imperial Russia. Costume sketches were developed by the artist S. Solomko, a well-known author of postcards on the themes of Russian antiquity. And they were sewn by the best tailors. Photographers captured all the participants, thanks to which it became possible to recreate the images in these cards.
Sketches for the cards were developed at the Dondorf Card Games Factory (Frankfurt am Main) in 1911. The clothes were made in the style of the 17th century; aces - images of shields surrounded by ancient Russian weapons and armor. The cards were printed in St. Petersburg at the Alexander Manufactory, the output was timed to coincide with the celebration of the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty. The proceeds from the sale of the cards went to the benefit of the Imperial Orphanage, where illegitimate children of the Grand Dukes could also be brought up.
After the revolution, the Manufactory was closed for several years. In 1923, the factory again began to produce cards according to pre-revolutionary sketches. The artist Y. Ivanov redrawn the Russian style deck for offset printing. In the 70s, the entire USSR played these cards, without thinking that in front of him were the great princes and princesses from the Romanov family! In the USSR, maps were often used for propaganda purposes - they printed Anti-Religious Maps, Maps of the Nationalities of the USSR, Anti-Fascist Maps, etc. But none of them could compete with Russian Style.
Such a fascinating story accompanies the sold deck of cards, you can flash it over a game or two with friends :-).
TO FAVORITES!

The first playing cards in Russia appeared during the reign of Fyodor Ioannovich. But before Peter I, all cards were exclusively imported. In general, they were considered a great sin. Under the reformer tsar, the attitude to card games (as well as to alcohol, smoking, coffee, etc.) is changing. Even their production begins in Moscow. But it reached a large scale much later, under Alexander I, who monopolized the production of playing cards. This brought considerable income, which was directed to the maintenance of the Empress's department, which took care of orphans.

RUSSIAN TAROQ

Since the last quarter of the 18th century, tarok has been mentioned for the first time among card games in Russia. To play tarok, a very specific deck of 78 sheets is used, including 22 special numbered cards called the Major Arcana. The tarok deck was one of the first to be made in the card workshops of the Alexander manufactory. The need to issue tarok cards was specifically mentioned in a special regulation in 1819 at the establishment of the Card Factory. The tarok deck in the 30s - 40s of the XIX century was the most expensive in the range of the Card Factory and cost 70 kopecks (8 rubles 40 kopecks for a dozen decks). The production of Russian tarok cards continued until at least 1855, when they are last mentioned in the "Table of Prices of Different Kinds of Cards" of the Card Factory.

RUSSIAN PLAYING CARDS OF 1798

Produced at Russian tax-paying card manufactories.

RUSSIAN PLAYING CARDS OF 1815

FOR THE KINGDOM OF POLISH

Cards were issued by the Imperial Card Factory specifically for the Polish provinces annexed to Russia at the beginning of the 19th century and were called "Cards made for the Kingdom of Poland." The most important differences between these cards are drawings of German-type card suits, as well as a different composition of card figures, in which there are no ladies, but, in addition to the king, there are two more “male” persons - the vyshnik and the nizhnik (in relation to Russian cards, this was, as it were, the jack of the elder and low jack).

GEOGRAPHICAL MAPS OF RUSSIA

Geographic maps were invented and compiled by K. M. Gribanov in 1830. This is the first independent sample of cards published at the Card Factory at the Alexander Manufactory in St. Petersburg. The deck of Konstantin Gribanov consists of 60 cards, although the standard full deck has 52 cards. This is explained by the fact that the author pursued the goal of creating a thematic geographical deck depicting all the administrative-territorial units of the Russian Empire. In 1830, there were 60 such units. On the front side of each card, divided into four parts, a playing card, a provincial coat of arms, a local costume and a list of cities in the province are shown. Another feature of these cards is its "back" (reverse side) - on each card it has its own and is geographical map administrative unit indicating the distance to St. Petersburg and Moscow

RUSSIAN PLAYING CARDS 1850

A very rare Russian deck produced at the Imperial Card Factory.

SKETCHES BY A.E. BEIDEMAN

In the early 1860s, the academician of historical painting Beideman was involved in the creation of projects for new playing cards. A talented draftsman and illustrator, Beideman showed classic literary types in the drawings of this deck. The deck has never been released.

Beideman was also a master of humorous compositions, which is evident in the drawings of this deck. A test print was made from the drawings, but the deck was never published.

HUNTING CARDS

The deck of cards was created in 1860 by the court painter of the Russian Emperor Alexander II, Mihai Zichy. All cards depict imperial hunting scenes and miniature images of standard playing cards. The deck was intended for the Card Factory, but was not published.

ROAD

A deck produced at the Imperial Card Factory in the 1860s. Artist A.I.Charlemagne.

NEW FIGURES

One of the decks of cards, prepared in 1862 by Academician A.I. Charlemagne by order of the Card Factory.

EYE

A deck issued by the Imperial Card Factory in 1870.

2 GRADE

A deck also released in 1870.

1 SORT

A deck issued by the Imperial Card Factory in 1875. The quality of drawing is really higher than that of the 2nd grade.

POLISH

The deck has been manufactured by the Imperial Card Factory since 1881. These cards were a collection of images so heterogeneous and unusual that in subsequent years this became the reason for the appearance of various names for it. In Russia, this deck was called “Figured”, in Germany Zirkuskarte (Circus cards), in Italy “Trappola” - according to the old card game, which requires a special deck of 36 sheets.

EXCELLENT GRADE

A deck produced by the Imperial Card Factory in 1897. Artist Karazin.

M.O.MIKESHIN. SKETCH OF PLAYING CARDS

The project of playing cards for the Imperial Card Factory by the famous Russian sculptor and artist M.O. Mikeshin was built in 1890. The project was made "in the Russian style", very fashionable at that time, and includes sketches of halves of 12 figured cards, that is, all the figures of an ordinary card deck, made in the form of characters from Russian fairy tales. The design of the deck was demonstrated at the All-Russian Exhibition of Printing, held in St. Petersburg in 1895, and received very flattering responses there. But the cards did not go into circulation due to "heaviness and lack of freedom of style", as it is written in the "History of Russian Art" edited by I. Grabar.

RUSSIAN STYLE

The deck "Russian style" is one of the most successful card projects in Russia. Repeated attempts to create decks in the Russian national spirit were unsuccessful before. The drawings of this deck were based on the costumes of the participants in the famous "Historical" ball, held in the Kremlin in January 1903. Those present were dressed in Russian costumes of the 17th century, and Emperor Nicholas II was in the costume of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich.

NEW STYLE

For the first time a deck with these drawings was released in 1911 under the name "New Style". When republished in 1935, this name was preserved in the price lists of the State Card Monopoly. In the post-war period, since 1964, the deck was produced under the name "Preference" and consisted of 32 sheets.

Fancy

The deck was released in 1910. The drawings were created by the artist of the famous German card factory Dondorf and were very similar to the drawings of the Mittelalter deck.

ROCOCO

The original deck was released in 1911. In the 1930s, an export version of the deck was developed and produced - with Latin indices, a silver-plated cut. In the post-war period, card design was used for a long time for reduced size solitaire decks.

HISTORICAL

A deck of playing cards, first published by the Imperial Card Factory in 1911 under the name "Historical". The deck began to be produced again in 1930, including in the export version - with Latin indices. Figured maps show representatives of ancient civilizations - Egyptian, Assyrian, Greek and Norman.

Playing cards are still very popular today. You can find a wide variety of deck designs: based on films and TV shows, a certain focus, but still the most popular are the usual Russian images of ladies, jacks and kings.

Most likely, there is not a single person who grew up in the USSR and did not play cards called "Russian Style". Most of them are still stored in the "walls" and dressing table.

If you look only at the faces of jacks, ladies and kings, it seems as if they are quite ordinary Russian people, but if you look lower, you can find quite complicated, but royal clothes on those depicted. It turns out that the deck "Russian style" was copied from the guests of the royal ball of the Romanovs in 1903.

Mysterious images of ladies and kings: Romanov cards

famous ball

The February ball of 1903 went down in history as the most magnificent event during the reign of Nicholas II. The dress code for this evening was costumes made under the era of the 17th century. The idea belonged to the Empress herself.

You can see that eminent guests became prototypes when creating maps. The ball consisted of approximately 390 guests, who had their own costume created for him. The best tailors of the entire Russian Empire worked on the design of the outfits, and the great watercolorist and artist Sergey Solomko was specifically involved in the dresses. The costumes embodied the images of courtiers - boyars and boyars, archers and townspeople, governors and peasants.

In addition, the ball was so brilliant that it stretched over three evenings. February 11 was dinner, cotillon and Russian polka. February 12 was remembered precisely for the costume part, dinner, as well as honorable guests - the Dowager Empress and the younger brother of Nicholas II. On February 14, there was a separate ball with Count A. D. Sheremetyev. It should be noted that the guests were also in their historical attire.

The Maslenitsa ball became a significant event not only because of its scope and theme, but also because it was the last joyful event in the life of the Romanov family. This was followed by such sorrows as the loss of Japan, Bloody Sunday, Troubles and, of course, the Revolution.

The history of the creation of the "Russian style"

To create images of jacks, queens and kings, real photographs of people from the archival album of the masquerade ball in the Winter Palace were used. It consisted of ten huge folders with engravings and photocopies. All details were completely transferred to playing cards. On the aces, it was decided to depict armor, weapons and a shield, similar to those depicted in Litovchenko's painting dedicated to Ivan the Terrible.

Work on the Russian Style began in 1911, just in time for the 300th anniversary of the Romanov family's reign. The cards were issued in 1913 in St. Petersburg at the Aleksandrovskaya Manufactory, which alone had the right to print this deck.

There were 53 cards in the deck. One extra card was the sign of the publisher. It was printed with a pelican with chicks that ate the mother's heart, and the proceeds from her sales were transferred to orphanages. Therefore, in the works of art of that time, one can find mention of card players who boast that they help orphans.

Since the Revolution, "Russian Style" has been banned, but in 1926 the cards came out again. Since then, they have not been changed until, in Soviet times, Yuri Ivanov redrawn the images, which were then printed through a blanket cylinder. That is, the artist's drawings were not mirrored on paper, but directly, like source codes.

Real jacks

Jack suit:

• Worms - military. There are several names for this prototype - adjutant N. A. Volkov, second lieutenant Shter N. P. or cornet A. R. Tizdel. Boyar costume.
• Tambourine - Prince Andrei Vladimirovich in the attire of a falconer.
• Clubs - the younger brother of Emperor Nicholas II, Prince Mikhail Alexandrovich in the field suit of the prince.
• Peak - commander and adjutant A.N. Bezak in the outfit of a boyar.

royal ladies

Lady suit:

• Chervey - Princess Xenia Alexandrovna in the dress of a noblewoman.

• Tambourine is a high-ranking lady who has not been positively identified. Perhaps this is Countess and maid of honor A. D. Tolstaya, or Princess V. M. Kudasheva, or Princess S. P. Durnova. Hawthorn costume.
• Clubs - Princess Elizaveta Feodorovna dressed as a princess.

• Peak - Princess Z. N. Yusupova in the dress of a noblewoman.

High ranking kings

King suit:

• Worms - Majesty Emperor Nicholas II himself in a crimson-white suit with gold embroidery of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. In the portrait image playing card there is no resemblance to the king, because this could be considered insolence.
• Tambourine - State Councilor N. N. Gartung in the outfit of a boyar.
• Clubs - Count M. N. Grabbe in the costume of a tenant - a service rank in the Russian Empire.
• Peak - not among the guests. Image of a man dressed as Ivan the Terrible.

After the Soviet reissue, the Russian Style cards were revived and received extraordinary recognition among the inhabitants of the USSR, despite the fact that such reverence for the royal family could pass for propaganda, and anti-religious and anti-fascist decks were produced in multiple editions.