Page 188 - Swann Galleries - Printed & Manuscript African Americana- Sale 2308 - March 21, 2013

342 ● (GAMBLING—“NUMBERS.”)
[LEE, GEORGE, ILLUSTRATOR.]
Dreams Come True! Picture Stories
of Famous People How to Tell What
Dreams Mean. Copious illustrations. 30
pages, stapled; 12mo, original pictorial
wrappers; staples slightly rusted.
New York and Memphis: Black
and White Co, [1948] [350/500]
One of the most interesting of the so-called
“Dream Books,” this one provides thumbnail
sketches of the lives of notables like Frederick
Douglass, Booker T. Washington and W.C.
Handy, Major Richard R. Wright, George
Washington Carver and Fats Waller. The art-
work throughout is of much higher quality than
usually seen in such publications and was done
by the African American cartoonist and illus-
trator George Lee. OCLC locates three copies.
342
343
343 ● (TOYS AND GAMES.) PLAYING CARDS. Sutherland’s Circular Coon
Cards. Black as the Ace of Spades. Fifty-two circular playing cards, plus the joker;
enclosed in the original painted tin box; some general wear to the tin, the cards in fine
condition. Hartley Brothers Ltd.: Melbourne, Australia, circa 1885 [600/800]
A RARE SET OF STEREOTYPICAL PLAYING CARDS. We could find only one other example
located at Yale’s Beinecke Library. The ace of spades is considered the highest value card in the
deck. The expression “black as the ace of spades” seems to have become popular in the post
Civil War period. The ornate design of the card itself stems from the 18th century practice of
taxing playing cards, where the ace of spades usually bore elaborate stamping.