Tally-Ho

Introduction

It all goes back to playing cards. If my grandparents had not passed down their love of card games, my life would be drastically different. The decks I distinctly remember them using most often were Tally-Ho. Even though these cards are quite common, I have never once encountered them anywhere but my grandparent’s house. These designs will be forever bound to my childhood memories. There was no question as to which cards to feature in the very first episode of Card Conscious.

I’m sure with more practice and more episodes, the format will evolve over time. But I think I succeeded in producing something in line with my vision.

Video Transcript

My journey with cards began with normal old playing cards. Specifically these, Tally-Ho.

History

These decks have a very long history going back to the late 1800s. I'm not going to do a deep dive on that history, because you can do the same web search I did and read the same information, and I'm going to waste your time. But I do want to discuss a few items that appear on the box itself.

So the first thing you can't escape missing is this name a Dougherty. Andrew Dougherty. Andrew was an Irish immigrant who came to New York City and started a printing company that was so successful they were printing millions of decks of playing cards every single year.

Andrew and his company are responsible for a lot of innovations in playing cards that we take for granted. Cards having rounded corners so they don't poke you? That's Andrew Dougherty. Cards having indexes in the corners so that when you fanned them out you can see what's in your hand easily, right? That's an invention of Andrew Dougherty.

Another thing you're going to notice when you look at the box is this mention here of a linode finish. Back in the day, before cards had any kind of finish on them, they would just be paper and get stuck together and weren't great for shuffling. Andrew, developed some sort of linen-based finish. Plastic wasn't invented yet. That let the cards not stick together and made it nicer to shuffle.

Nowadays, a lot of people ask about this because if you look at a deck of Bicycle playing cards, it'll say on the side that it has an air-cushion finish. And if you look at a deck of Bee playing cards, it'll say that they have a Cambric finish. All of these cards today are manufactured by the US Playing Card company, and they all have the same finish. They're the exact same cards today, no matter which ones you buy, except for the artwork on the box and on the cards.

Why does the US playing card company make these Andrew Doherty playing cards? It's because when Andrew Dougherty passed away, his children sold the company to the US playing card company. Around that time and over the years, the US playing card company sort of amalgamated all the various competitors into one monstrous company which still dominates playing card manufacturing in the United States today.

The last thing you can't miss when you look at this box is in the corner. No. 9. What is number nine all about? Well, it turns out that Andrew Dougherty, when he would produce cards, he would number each and every different kind of deck, different artwork, different card sizes.

A pinochle deck versus a poker deck. All those decks had different numbers on them. And I guess the idea was that if you could just remember which number you needed, you would go to the store and say, give me a number nine. And that's going to be a Tally-Ho 52 card deck.

I tried to research online what all the numbers were. How high did the numbers go? How many decks did they make? I was able to find quite a few of them, but even, like, one through eight, I couldn't find. Do you think this would be easy to find? So if anybody knows all the different numbers of Andrew Doherty playing cards, let me know. I'm really interested to find out.

Design

Over the very long time that these cards have been in production, there have been only a few design changes.

The Joker used to be in the olden, olden days, sort of a traditional jester. Jolly joker. Now, and for longer than I've been alive, it's been the fox hunting Tally-Ho joker. It's a fox hunter, he goes tally-ho! I don't know what he's got there in his hand. Is that supposed to be a fox pelt? He's got a whip and a top hat, but you get it. You get a colored one and you get a monochrome one. Someone let me know what that is in his hand.

The ace of spades now has this design, which it's had for also longer than I've been alive. I've never known any other ace of spades. And for me, this is the best ace of spades design, at least of the standard ones. And originally it was a different Andrew Dougherty trademarked ace of spades design.

One thing you do want to note about this is if you look inside the spade, it says “N”, and then there's this wheel which is an “o”, and then there's a “9”, number nine. So they've incorporated the No. 9 from the box into the ace of spades. So you won't see this ace of spades in a non number nine Tally-Ho deck.

Okay. As for the back of the cards, the deck we've been using here is the standard blue circle back. The circle back, you know, with its detailed and symmetrical design, is really great for flourishes and cardistry. Just a really good default choice. And it also comes in red.

If for some reason, the circle back is not what you're looking for. Tally-Ho decks also come in fan back, blue and red. These are all default choices. There are tons of variants, but these are the defaults.

The fan back has sort of this East Asian aesthetic going on with the fans and the birds on the branches. And it really sort of evokes an East Asian royalty. And I think royalty is a really appropriate theme for the back of playing cards, when it's always a theme on the front of the playing cards.

Grandparents

So my family loves to play card games, but for some reason in our house, every deck of cards was like some souvenir deck we got when we were on vacation. And it was terrible to shuffle and it was always missing cards. We would count the cards before we played any game, and sure enough, something was always missing.

At my grandparents house this was not a problem. The children did not live there 365 days of year ruining everything. I specifically remember next to the dining room table, there was a China cabinet, and it had, you know, glass cabinets and also some open shelves where my grandmother is. Norman Rockwell plates were on display. We still have the plates.

The drawers underneath the shelves were sort of like the wide, shallow drawers. And the drawer on the right had these columns in it, and each column was exactly the right width for one deck of playing cards. And so there were a whole lot of treasures in this drawer of various kinds. But I remember there were a lot of playing cards in there, and most of them were Tally-Ho. The cards were always in good condition and all the decks were full.

So on the left side of the drawer there, I remember specifically, there was this double deck of 104 blue fan back cards all together. The double deck is for a game called canasta that my grandmother played. I don't know the rules of canasta. I've still never played it.

I thought it was like a dead game, but it turns out that my aunt and uncle, who live in Florida, recently told me they're still playing canasta. That's awesome. Maybe I need to learn how to play if this game isn't dead, I hope it's a good game. But yeah, whenever playing cards, my grandmother, I seem to remember she usually would reach for the fan back deck.

I don't know if there's a reason behind it, but I remember the old Jewish ladies sort of had this affinity for the East Asian aesthetic and decor. Right? You know, they all like to play mahjong, or at least their version of mahjong, which is not the same one that's played in China or Japan. But it's still the tiles are the same.

And very often the decor in their home would have East Asian and esthetics and motifs. And I know several old Jewish ladies, who had home decor of this nature. The fan back pattern from the back of the cards would not be out of place as wallpaper or upholstery in their homes.

So if the fan back reminds me of my grandmother, the circle back, it reminds me of my grandfather. This man, he was an auto mechanic his whole life. He owned an auto shop and I think he sold it shortly after I was born. The man was just always fixing things and making things. He had an old car in the garage that I don't think he ever fully restored.

And in his basement workshop. Always making something. Looking back, I wonder that drawer that had the rows in it for the cards. Did he install those there? Because I can't really imagine that that antique furniture would sort of have that to begin with. But, I guess he must have done it before I was even born.

But, you know, my grandfather was a nerd, I think, who was born too soon. In his basement he had a huge collection of National Geographic magazines. After dinner, he would always watch nature documentaries on PBS. And the man loved to play games, right? He loved to play backgammon, shuffleboard, golf, bowling. And of course, he loved card games.

He taught me to shuffle cards when my hands were still too small to succeed. But thanks to him, I can riffle shuffle basically better than most people I know. Usually when we play card games I'm the one who ends up on shuffling duty. But my cardistry skills, that's where they end.

My grandfather taught me how to play most of the basic card games. We started out with, you know, war. But he wasted no time as soon as our brains could handle it. Leveling up to various poker and gin rummy variants. Whenever I see the circle back, I can't help but think of him. Only now, later in life, do I understand. He was probably responsible for my nerdiness and the nerdiness of my family in general.

The Present

All right. We've discussed how the Tally-Ho deck connects us with the past. But how about the present? What does it mean to play with a Tally-Ho deck today? When the Tally-Ho deck heads the table? What does it say? How does it make people feel to see this artwork when they're playing cards? If people know playing cards right, then for them, a bicycle deck is sort of like Mario, and I think it Tally-Ho deck is sort of like Link.

It's a default choice, but it's not the default default. It's a little bit more refined for people who are in the know. If someone has no recognition of these cards whatsoever, no memory, no special attachment, then these designs still class things up quite a bit. You know the vibe you get from Tally-Ho is fancy, old timey, rich people playing cards in a parlor. It's not a low class saloon sort of style, right? Even if you play Klondike solitaire by yourself with Tally-Ho decks, that can elevate things a little bit.

For me, these decks just bring a wave of nostalgia. And I think if there's a particular deck of playing cards out there that is similarly meaningful to you, and you don't have the deck in your possession, I would encourage you to seek it out. It's not going to be expensive or difficult to find. And no matter how rarely you use playing cards, I believe there should be at least one complete solid deck of playing cards in every household, even if that deck is the same quality as one from the drugstore. The different design can make things a little special. For me, that special deck will always be Tally-Ho.