45: NEW ZEALAND

THIS PAGE IS TO BE FOUND AT:  http://www.wopc.co.uk/blogs/kenlodge/new-zealand
THERE ARE A FEW ADDITIONS TO IT.

There are three main NZ makers that I'm aware of:  A.D. Willis, John Dickinson, and Strong & Ready. They all had idiosyncratic designs.   I know little of the background information about the firms, so I have had to make deductions from the cards themselves.

Willis
An early card-maker.   Their first courts seem to have been copies of NYCCC's US6.1, very similar to ones produced in Turnhout at the time.

Willis, c.1900

They made Five Hundred packs in the early part of the 20th century and used both 4-colour and 2-colour courts.   They produced patience cards, too.

Willis, c.1910-25

Willis 2-colour patience, c.1910

Much more recently the same courts were being used by a firm called UEB Industries, but what the connection with Willis is other than the court designs I don't know.

Two different packs by UEB, c.1985-90

John Dickinson

This firm seems to have appeared later on the scene, some time in the 1930s or even later.   The courts are quite distinctive in both two and four colours.

Dickinson courts, AS and joker, c.1935-60

c.1935

There is an unusual version in which the QC has not been turned, as illustrated below.   Whether this means there was an unturned version of all the relevant courts I can't say.   The firm became the Dickinson Robinson Group (DRG) some time in the 1980s and the courts were reduced in size.

Unturned QC, c.1935       DRG version, c.1990 

Strong & Ready

Again a firm that seems to have started in the 1930s or perhaps a bit earlier.   The first court set has unturned courts in two colours.   The AS is a copy of Goodall's anonymous London PC ace.

Strong & Ready, c.1930

The later version of the courts has six of them turned and is in two or four colours.

Strong & Ready canasta, c.1955

Later courts were smaller in two colours.   The AS here is the commonest one.   What 'Toytown' refers to I don't know, though it could be the name of the factory.

c.1980

At some point probably in the 1990s the firm became Tanner Couch Ltd.   The AS remained the same with the new name but the courts were an unusual version of Waddington's Goodall courts with all the queens and jacks turned.   The joker is an exact copy of Whitman's.   They may have been printed in Singapore or Hong Kong.

Tanner Couch, c.1995

Other cards

Waddington cards were imported into New Zealand in the 1920s.   These were stamped on entry, as in the example below.

Waddington, 1927

The other pack made outside NZ for their market is a pack with 52 photo views of New Zealand placed centrally on top of standard cards.   The courts are copies of the NYCCC ones we saw used as a model in Australia and they were printed in Bavaria for Muir & Moodie.   I have no scan available to illustrate them.

The final pack I know of has unusual courts with profile red kings.   To judge by the number cards, they seem to be by Willis, but are otherwise anonymous.

Anonymous (Willis?) Strand, c.1925