#542 JSJW - GROßSTÄDTE DER WELT (Around 1953)

I love this deck of cards and the pictures of the world´s most important cities, as they were in the 50s. The pictures show interesting views of the cities, like the Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament in London, or the Vatican City in Rome (not very accurate, but we get the point...).

Especially interesting are the oriental cities, which have today millions of habitants and their downtowns have hundreds of skyscrapers. My favorite cards are Singapore and Hong Kong. In the 50s it was different. Also interesting are pictures from cities whose most important monument was not built yet, like, for example, Sidney.

The quartett game is made by Josef Schneider Jr. from Vienna around 1953, and it is therefore one of the oldest quartetts I have. The markings on the box are: J.S.J. W.

Unfortunately there is very Little information I could find about this man and his factory, except that it was founded in 1928, then vanished and then re-started in 1946 after WW2, remaining a few years more with their production. It is interesting to mention, that Vienna those days was divided in four sections, controlled by foreign powers, and in general they were very hard times for the people living there. The access to materials for fabrication of anything was very difficult, and the means to build them were also obsolete, so most Austrian games from these years are not very qualitative.

The cards are not very accurately cutted, note the card on the right.

JSJW was basically a card manufacturer, although they also produced several educative and strategic board games.

The cards back then were usually a bit bigger than usual, and the box is also quite big. It represents a book, with cover and spine and a nice appearance of leather.

FACTS AND FIGURES

• Name: GROßSTÄDTE DER WELT
• Year: Around 1953
• Company: JSJW – Josef Schneider Jr. Wien (Austria)