The Hochman Encyclopedia of American Playing Cards

The Hochman Encyclopedia of American Playing Cards is an invaluable and fantastic resource for card collectors of American playing cards. Here's the basics:

What is it?  The Hochman Encyclopedia was printed in 2000 in both hardback and softback by American Game Systems. Judy and Tom Dawson are the authors.  In addition, an online version  second edition was published in 2014. 

There are 33 chapters in  Hochman. The first chapter is about Collecting Playing Cards and the second chapter is about the organization of the Encyclopedia. I personally am greatly pleased to see that the Hochman Encyclopedia - like my website - takes the question of taxonomy and organization very seriously.  The chapter explains the organization of the Encyclopedia like this:

Chapters 3 to 15 cover standard decks with the earliest manufacturers in the earlier chapters

Chapter 16 is new material containing a brief history of Canadian manufacturers and listing of known Canadian decks

Chapter 17 deals extensively with advertising decks

Chapters 18 and 19 deal with the old Volume II categories of transformation and insert decks

War and political categories are covered in Chapters 20 and 21

Chapter 22 covers the entertainment category

Chapters 24 to 27 deal with exposition, souvenir and railway decks

Chapters 23 and 28 to 33 cover the remaining categories of the old Volume III which are bridge/whist, non-revoke, colleges and unions, fortune telling and tarot, oddities, etc. 

Hochman Descriptions and Coding System - Hochman has a coding system so that each deck that it catalogs has a unique code.  These codes are widely used in the card collecting community. Here are two example entries from the digital version (which has more color than the printed one):

History of Hochman -  The origins (Again, I'm quoting or paraphrasing) go back to 1976 when Gene Hochman published Part I and Part II of The Encyclopedia of American Playing Cards. These two volumes constituted a comprehensive, illustrated listing of certain categories of known non-standard American playing card decks. Gene went on to publish Part III in 1978, Part IV in 1979 and Parts V and VI in 1980 and 1981. These books were a prodigious effort.

Around 1989, Gene Hochman asked Tom & Judy Dawson if they would help him finish the rewrite  and arrange the publishing with Stuart Kaplan of U.S. Games. Hochman passed away in 1994 while the massive revision work was underway. In 2000, Tom and Judy Dawson published the Encyclopedia consolidated into one volume through US Game Systems and this new edition became the go-to resource for all collectors of vintage or antique American playing cards.  In 2004, a supplement and price guide was published.  In 2014, Tom and Judy published an updated digital version with more color images, more data and information, and incorporated the 2003 supplement.

What's Available and How To Buy It

Digital Second Edition is available from the Conjuring Arts Research Center for $17.99.
A hardcover first edition is available from Amazon for ~$30 or in softback (used) for ~$40.
American Game Systems' website says that they are sold out of the Encyclopedia but have the 2003 supplement and price guide available for $9. (Usability note on the digital version. It is published in the  .pub format which I find awkward. I converted it from a free online site to a PDF for simplicity of use).

The Future - There has been an enormous amount of research in the last decade so that most collectors agree that Hochman is ready for an update. I would mention than an update would require significant collaboration but both the original and the updates of Hochman were - if their forwards are to be believed - massive collaborations of different researchers, collectors, and collaborators.  It is unclear who might lead the next update effort and how it might work. If anyone is eager and able to take it on, I would be willing to help.

 Tom and Judy Dawson were royalty in the playing card world due to their creation of the modern version of the Hochman Encyclopedia.   Tom and Judy Dawson were collectors of antiques and playing card ephemera for over 40 years.  Before his retirement as a Certified Public Accountant, Tom was a senior partner at the accounting organization Deloitte. Judy pursued  her interests in the areas of antique collecting, gardening, and home design, in addition to having raised their six children. 

Tom and Judy served as officers of 52 Plus Joker, a club for those interested in antique American and International playing cards. Judy also edited the club's quarterly publication, Clear the Decks, for pretty much forever. Sadly, Tom passed away a few years ago. In 2017, the Cary Collection using funds from the Mary Flagler Cary Fund  acquired the playing card collection of Tom and Judy Dawson. 

The Doyenne, The Queen: Judy Dawson with John Edelson
at the 2023 Annual Conference of 52 Plus Jokers in Cleveland

Other articles collectors should read about  resources for card collectors:

First of all this website is mostly about how I organize a very large (many thousands) joker collection.  I've published a visual taxonomy.  Check it out.

• Resources for card and joker collecting that I find useful. Facebook groups, museums, websites, books, publishers, and other collectors. But above all, the Hochman Encyclopedia.
• The USPC Company Joker Poster and my ambition (obsession?)  of getting all 72 of them.
  
• Joker Displays that I've framed and put on the wall.
• My inquiry into the emergence of the joker  in the 1860 and 70ss in the USA. Also, my Old American Jokers Organized by Publisher. Eg Perfection,  Dougherty , ARRCO, or Standard. 
•  I'm particularly focused on the Matching Jokers by Congress, published 1898-1904. 
• The Mechanics of my Joker Collecting
• Other joker collectors that I've met f2f: Dan Nordquist ; Joop, Fred, Ronald, and Jelle, and a bit about me. And an article about attending the 2023 52PlusJoker Conference in Cleveland.
• Portrayals of African Americans on Playing Cards and Rory