Thomas Crehore, ca. 1798-1846 First playing cards manufactured in America.
No. 17813 Crehore playing card
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No. 21787 illustration from https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/thomas-crehore-american-manufacture-playing-cards-3-c-a2d446eb8b
https://www.wopc.co.uk/usa/crehore/crehore-1840
Thomas Crehore (c.1798-1846) was an innovative manufacturer who invented new methods of manufacture. Crehore’s factory was destroyed in a fire in 1846. His name is misspelt in this example because the cards were made by a different manufacturer trading under the Crehore name. The single-headed courts in this example are very similar in design to those produced by Dougherty, c.1855, and to those sold under the name of Continental Card Company, The Union Playing Card Co. and N. Y. Consolidated Card Co. (Samuel Hart) and also those by Russell & Morgan Co., 1881 in its Tiger 101 brand, with and without indices.
No. 22617
https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-4740328
Crehore Deck, circa 1835, Dorchester, MA, Thomas Crehore, 52 of 52 cards. Crehore started producing cards around 1798 and his sons later continued the business. Full-length courts, popularly used in the game of Faro and known as “Faro courts,” no indices, stencil colored, square corners. Back pattern runs opposite direction on some cards. Ace of spades includes 13 stars above an eagle, a ribbon that reads, “American Manufacture,” and the name, Thomas Crehore. Backs are crisscross dots and dashes in light blue. Some minor foxing and discoloration on several cards. Dawson, 12, U3.
No. 22618
No. 22619
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/42760638/crehore-playing-cards/
Advertisement The Evening Post, NY, NY Nov. 3, 1821