About Henry d'Allemagne book by Dover Publications

[coredil]

The original book of Henry René d'Allemagne: "Les cartes à jouer du XIVe au XXe siècle" was printed in 1906 and consists of two volumes (504 pages & 640 pages)
One can find some copy of this original edition but saddly not under 4000 or 5000 dollars!

There are two available kind of reprint of this book:

Antique Playing Cards : A Pictorial History
Paperback: 96 pages
Publisher: Dover Publications (October 24, 1996)
ISBN: 0486292657

Antique Playing Card Designs CD-ROM and Book (Dover Electronic Clip Art) Paperback: 48 pages
Publisher: Dover Publications; Cdrom&Bklt edition (March 17, 2005)
ISBN: 0486996476

1. Does someone know how "complete" these Dover books are?
According to the page number I cant imagine that it would be complete!

2. Beside of the fact that one has probably pictures on the CD-ROM do have both books the same content?

Best regards

 

[Ross G Caldwell]

Hi Coredil,

I think either or both of these books would be worth buying.

They are nowhere near "complete" in the sense that the text, which is of the most value for historians of French playing cards, is completely missing.

The original volumes are very difficult to use, due to their size and condition. Many of the images are available in better quality in other sources now, although there are surely some that are not available anywhere else.

Historians refer to the books always for the text; I can't recall a case where D'Allemagne was the only source for a reproduction, so unless you need a detailed - up to that point exhaustive, and still authoritative - account of the French playing card industry, the Dover books will no doubt be satisfactory.

 

[coredil]

Thanks a lot Ross for your informations.
I think I will try to get both books.