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Thomas de la Rue was born in a small hamlet in Guernsey called Le Bourg in 1793, the seventh child (of nine) of Eleazar and Rachel de la Rue.In 1803, aged ten, he was apprenticed to his brother-in-law Joseph Antoine Chevalier, a master printer in St Peter Port who produced the Gazette de l’Île de Guernsey, the first printed newspaper on the island, gaining a thorough knowledge of printing. In 1813 he set up a joint business printing Le Publiciste, then in 1816 started a rival publication Le Miroir Politique. In 1818 he moved to London with his family and set up shop initially as a straw hat manufacturer, but he soon diversified into bookbinding and the embossing of leather, and then into paper manufacture. By around 1828 his interests had moved to playing cards and he introduced letter-press printing in 1830 together with Samuel Cornish and William Rock, founding a business of “cardmakers, hot pressers and enamellers”. Prior to this, playing cards were flimsy, printed from woodblocks and hand-coloured using stencils. De la Rue’s ‘improvements’ included quicker drying coloured inks, improved glazing technology and the use of enamelled paper, resulting in a much stiffer, glossier and more durable product. In 1831, de la Rue was granted the Royal Warrant to print playing cards, making it the first company to do so; it printed its first pack the following year and came to be recognised as the inventor of the modern English playing card.
Besides manufacturing playing cards and card games, the firm also printed railway tickets and visiting cards using his enamelled playing-card paper. De la Rue’s card games were of the highest quality and tended to be expensive.
De La Rue became the principal printer of fiscal, inland revenue and postage stamps and banknotes for the UK and colonies, and over the years the best engravers and miniature designers worked for De La Rue.
After WWI playing card production took off and De La Rue absorbed the famous card maker Chas Goodall, keeping the name, until the slump of the 30s forced them to help out Waddingtons with their production – a good thing, because when the De La Rue buildings were destroyed during the Blitz in 1940, Waddingtons took over their production in Leeds.
The two firms joined forces, becoming the Amalgamated Playing Card Co, but De La Rue sold out the playing card franchise to Waddingtons in 1971.
In 1970, the entire De La Rue collection of playing cards was sold at auction by Sotheby’s for £12,000 to the Fournier collection, Spain.
Thomas De La Rue International Ltd now specialises in the manufacture of banknotes and other security documents, printing, currency counting machinery and money dispensers. It also has interests in the design and sale of banknote printing machinery.
Black Leather Card Mah Jong set.
A very nice top-end Playing Card set by DeLaRue in very dark green, almost black faux leather case with shot sateen interior. I have a similar set in a yellow card box.
The flip-top case measures 200x100x40mm with 4 compartments; 2 for the cards and 2 for the casein counting sticks and bone dice; a pocket in the top holds the rules written on cards.
swooping crane bambird, elaborate profiled rod Bamboos (incidentally the same as Four Winds tiles), complex wan Craks, complex Circles and nice vase Flowers.
This is in amazing condition for its age, considering that it has obviously been played with.
The cards are plain yellow back, gold edges, measuring 83x51mm and featuring the standard DeLaRue suite of designs (see next images).
This is in amazing condition for its age, considering that it has obviously been played with.
Swooping Crane bambird, elaborate profiled rod Bamboos (incidentally the same as Four Winds tiles), complex wan Craks and complex Circles.
Nice series of vase Flowers.
De La Rue booklet.
Black Case Casein Mah Jong Set.
I was the only bidder on this unusual shape for casein tiles with the curved backs - I've seen it before but it's quite rare - and the sprout #1 Bamboo is not common either.
What was missing from the description was the box! I can't remember seeing another!
It's by DeLaRue, with their distinctive typeface logo in gold.
Inside the flip-top, black, textured real leather box are scenes depicting Chinese tradesmen at their work. The main compartment is missing the separator bar. The Box measures 255x180x50mm.
The top is detached and coming apart at the seams, but easily fixed, however the catch is missing.
Scenes of Chinese tradesmen doing work.
The set is missing a few tiles, but they are easily recreated. They are hand-carved, some of them pretty badly - the Bams especially - but the Flowers are very nice. The tiles measure 30x22x9mm.
Close-up of the tile material and also showing the tile thickness.
Burgundy Leather Card Mah Jong Set.
The flip-top case measures 200x100x40mm with 4 compartments; 2 for the cards and 2 for the casein counting sticks and bone dice; a pocket in the top holds the rules written on cards.
The cards are plain yellow back, gold edges, measuring 83x51mm and featuring the standard DeLaRue suite of designs (see following images).
Swooping crane bambird, elaborate profiled rod Bamboos (incidentally the same as Four Winds tiles), complex wan Craks, complex Circles and nice vase Flowers.
This is in amazing condition for its age, considering that it has obviously been played with.
Nice vase Flowers.
This is in amazing condition for its age, considering that it has obviously been played with.
Booklet.
DeLaRue Electrical Card Mah Jong Set.
I have a few of these, but having the outer cover, as shown here, is unusual so I snapped it up.
This was produced by DeLaRue for the Western Electric Co as a promotional item at the 1924 British Empire Exhibition in the Empire Stadium, Wembley, London.
The cards are very unusual, abandoning the normal suits in favour of Western Electric's product lines; Cables, Phones and Radios.
Very stylish and beautiful Art Deco designs make this set very collectible - I now have 4 in various states of repair - this is one of the better ones.
The box measures 180x120x30mm with a flip-top housing the 4 'suits' in compartments with silk lift tabs, Compliments slip, instruction booklet and score card.
The cards measure 83x51mm with a phone and lion on the back and gilt edges.
Interestingly, in the 1920s Western Electric were the world's largest producer of phones, producing over half the world's supply, so it made sense for them to engage the biggest card maker to create this iconic set.
This was produced by DeLaRue for the Western Electric Co as a promotional item at the 1924 British Empire Exhibition in the Empire Stadium, Wembley, London.
The box measures 180x120x30mm with a flip-top housing the 4 'suits' in compartments with silk lift tabs, Compliments slip, instruction booklet and score card.
The cards measure 83x51mm with a phone and lion on the back and gilt edges.
The cards are very unusual, abandoning the normal suits in favour of Western Electric's product lines; Cables, Phones and Radios.
Very stylish and beautiful Art Deco designs make this set very collectible - I now have 4 in various states of repair - this is one of the better ones.
The cards measure 83x51mm with a phone and lion on the back and gilt edges.
Interestingly, in the 1920s Western Electric were the world's largest producer of phones, producing over half the world's supply, so it made sense for them to engage the biggest card maker to create this iconic set.
DeLaRue Yellow Box Card Mah Jong Set.
Vintage Pre-War Mah Jong in Card Form by Thomas De La Rue & Co c. 1920s-1930s.
Box generally a bit grubby and with one corner split but otherwise very nice.
The box is covered in yellow buckram bookcloth, the grubbiness cleaned up with Blu-Tack (repeatedly dab the surface to remove dirt - careful round printing, as that can lift off too!)
Splits and loose buckram/paper glued. A very clean & presentable set
Hinged box with drop-down flap and three compartments.
DeLaRue Yellow Card Mah Jong Set.
The 3rd of my generic playing card sets from De La Rue, in a tall yellow slip-case with one compartment, measuring 58x52x90mm.
It was in a bad way, very scuffed, with old sellotape round the top and bottom, but fortunately it was so old, it just fell off, the glue residue was removed with solvent and the top and bottom glued in place with cyanoacrylate (superglue).
Then the scuffs were touched up with yellow ochre acrylic paint which is almost a perfect match for the colour and finish.
The cards are plain yellow back, gold edges, measuring 83x51mm and featuring the standard De La Rue suite of designs; swooping crane bambird, elaborate profiled rod Bamboos (incidentally the same as Four Winds tiles), complex wan Craks, complex Circles.
Again, the nice vase Flowers.
