| Suit System: | F |
| Recommended Name: | Mecklenburg pattern. |
This name was first used in the BubeDameKönig catalogue [1982], and continued by Sylvia Mann in "All cards on the Table".
Current understanding is that the Mecklenburg pattern was first produced by Johann Gottfried Tiedemann, Rostock, in 1836. He called his product "sogenannte Rostocker Spielkarten" ("so-called Rostock playing-cards"). It was later produced without changes by at least 6 different makers in four places in Mecklenburg until c.1898. The only known maker not from Mecklenburg was Hermann Timpe, Oldenburg, c.1860 to 1880, but no direct relation between him and the makers in Mecklenburg is known. The pattern went out of use when playing-card production in Mecklenburg ended.
The characteristic feature of this regional pattern is the combination of double-ended court cards from different makers from all over Germany, so that the distant relationship to the original Paris pattern is almost lost. Instead the new pattern was subjected to current fashions. The Kings originally come from Southern Germany, from around Nürnberg; the Queens from Central Germany, from the region Berlin-Leipzig-Weimar; and the Jacks from Northern Germany, with a centre between Hamburg and Hannover.
A special feature is the French naming of the court cards as Roi, Dame and Valet.
King, Queen, Jack and numerals; usually 52 cards.
J.G.Tiedemann Nachf. (B. Theodor Rabe), Rostock, 1875–1903;
F.W. Lorentz Wwe. Bützow, 1839–1847;
C.F.A. Grüder, Schwerin, 1850–1882;
C. Wasserstrat, Schwerin, 1882–1898;
Johann Carl Waschow, Neubrandenburg, 1851–1861.
BubeDameKönig - Alte Spielkarten aus Berliner Museums- und Privatsammlungen, Berlin 1982, Nos. 124 and 154
All Cards on the Table - Collection Sylvia Mann, Leinfelden-Echterdingen und Marburg 1990, p.77
Wilfried Kaschel: Aus der Geschichte der Neubrandenburger Spielkartenfabrik. In: Das Blatt, Nr. 2, Berlin 1990
Wilfried Kaschel: Spielkarten aus Neubrandenburg mit dem Mecklenburger Bild. In: Joker Journal - MGM Joker KG, Spielkartenangebot XX, München 1993
Wilfried Kaschel: Die Spielkartenfabrik der Großherzoglich Mecklenburg-Schwerinschen Hof-Steindruckerei von J.G. Tiedemann in Rostock. In: Das Blatt, Nr. 10, Berlin 1995
Wilfried Kaschel: Die Spielkartensteuer von Mecklenburg-Schwerin. In: Das Blatt, Nr. 16, Berlin 1997
Wilfried Kaschel: Die Spielkartenfabrik zu Bützow. In: Das Blatt, Nr. 17, Berlin 1998
Wilfried Kaschel: Die Spielkartenfabrik in der Landeshauptstadt Schwerin. In: Das Blatt, Nr. 21, Berlin 2000
| Top three rows: | J. G. Tiedemann, Rostock, c.1840. |
| Bottom three rows: | C. Wasserstrat Grüder's Nachf., Schwerin, c.1880. |
| Both from the collection of Wilfried Kaschel. | |
| The International Playing-Card Society | 8/2004 WK |