Circa 1920-1922 Ferd. Piatnik and Söhne Playing Card Deck

Thank you to http://www.endebrock.de/stamps/st-a.html
for the information on the tax stamp that appears on the VII of bells in this deck, which dates the deck as being from 1900-1920.

Thank you to http://www.dxpo-playingcards.com/xpo/tell/pages/tell-02.htm for the incredibly valuable information on the deck of cards.

According to the site, the cards are known as Wilhelm Tell cards or Four Seasons cards. They're called "Magyar Kártya" or Hungarian cards in Hungary. Jószef Schneider produced these cards in 1837 in Pest, but they've also been manufactured and sold in Austria, the Czech Republic and Germany.

There are different versions of these cards. This deck uses the German suits of hearts, acorns, bells and leaves. The ranks are king (over or ober) and unter (under). Top placement of the suit sign indicates an ober and bottom placement of the suit sign indicates an unter.

There is no usual ace but a "dauss," which is a two and is depicted as one of the four seasons.

This would've been a 32 card deck, but it is missing one card. There was a 36 card deck as well with a VI added to each suit. This deck has X-VII.

In describing the cards, DXPO writes: The figures on the court cards have names, which refer to figures from Schiller's drama about Wilhelm (William) Tell, the legendary Swiss freedom fighter. In this pattern Tell himself is always depicted on the Ober of Acorns. The other names seem to be related to a certain card too, but there are differences. Other manufacturers may give a different name to a certain card, while the design of the figure remains the same as in the original pattern. But always the names belong to characters from the Wilhelm Tell saga.

**Do let me know if you'd like more photos or if you have any questions regarding these cards. As you can see from the photos, some are in poor condition. I can take photos of all of the cards in groups of four or so, front and back, if you're interested and/or you need more photographs. The backs of the cards have a dot and circle design.