#508 PIATNIK - DICHTER-QUARTETT and MÄRCHEN-QUARTETT (Nr. 284 and 285) (1955)

I collected two more Piatnik sets from the 50s, those that came in a carboard box, like for example these ones or these ones. I have decided to put these two together, since their themes are related. The first set is a collection of poets from Europe (and their works), while the second one is based on the tales by the Grimm brothers, so both are literature based.

These are especially nostalgic decks, since today such quartetts would be unthinkable for boys and girls. I think most children today wouldn't be able to mention one work from each of these poets, taken that they know who these people are. Even the tales from the Grimm Brothers are now somehow challeged and out of fashion, because they include violent or politically-incorrect situations or characters. What I want to say, is that this toys belong to another "era", which is not very likely to return.

The poet's quartet includes 9 families, each devoted to one poet. The first card of each family is a portrait, while the other three are scenes of three of their plays. This schema is similar to the one used in the Famous Operas Quartett (Opern-Quartett, Nr. 286).   

Goethe and Molière

Shakespeare and Goldoni

Tolstoi and Ibsen

Grillparzer and Schiller

Calderón de la B

The Märchen-Quartett has again 9 families, each one is a famous tale divided in 4 parts, one on each card.

 This set still includes the instructions, that were printed in a separate piece of paper.

Sorry for the quality of the pictures, some are blurry and sometimes you can see the flash reflected on the card.

UPDATE: Alternative Cover for Dichter-Quartett with Shakespeare's bust.

FACTS AND FIGURES

• Name: DICHTER QUARTETT and MÄRCHEN QUARTETT (Nr. 284 and 285)
• Alternative Names: „POETS QUARTET“ and "TALES QUARTETT"
• Year: 1955
• Company: Piatnik Wien (Austria)