PART II: Victoria — The Day of "El Gallo"

8/02/2026

PART II: Victoria — The Day of "El Gallo"

This is the second installment regarding the origin of the Victoria deck housed in the Fournier Museum. As mentioned previously, these posts are not intended to be read independently, as crucial context and details would be lost; readers are kindly encouraged to view them as a single, continuous article. For your convenience, links to Parts I and III are provided below:

⬥ ⬥ ⬥

Having analyzed the relevant ASESCOIN publications from 1996, 1997, and 2001, it would be easy to assume that the Victoria deck was indeed Argentine, and that a separate deck sharing the same name and featuring different artwork was made in Mexico. However, we are still missing the key piece of the puzzle: the 2006 issue, to which we now turn.

ASESCOIN — No. 34 (2006), "Una hipótesis sobre el origen de la baraja Gallo de Clemente Jacques" [A Hypothesis on the Origin of the "Gallo" Deck by Clemente Jacques]: The article's title is quite revealing on its own, dropping two key names that will immediately turn any card enthusiast's thoughts toward Mexico: Clemente Jacques and the Gallo [Rooster] deck. The piece originally aimed to clarify whether or not its artwork was derived from Fournier designs. For our purposes, however, that takes a back seat, as the text provides what I consider near-irrefutable proof of our pack's Mexican origin.

The article displays several decks alongside their corresponding photographs, attributing all of them to Clemente Jacques in Mexico in the early 1900s. They are arranged in chronological order, with our pack included in the list and Gallo as the last item in the sequence. But that's not all: nestled between both is another deck that provides what I consider the coup de grâce—an intermediate stage that, when placing the cards side by side, perfectly illustrates the evolutionary transition of the designs. Best of all, inquisitive readers don't need to take my word for it, as the images follow below. In all of them, from left to right: Victoria, the "missing link", and Gallo.

It is fascinating to watch the transformation of these designs unfold. While the details are far too numerous to list in full, several key highlights warrant a closer look:

Ace of Coins: Particularly illuminating, this card shows an intermediate stage sharing traits from both the earliest and final forms—most notably the presence of palm leaves across all three.
Court Cards and Their Attire: The garments display a progressive increase in ornamentation, yet the figures maintain virtually identical poses throughout.
Feminization of the Knaves: This is one of the most striking details. The Knaves grow noticeably more feminine over time, a well-known hallmark of the Mexican variant of the Castilian pattern.
King of Batons: In the initial state, he is shown wearing a knee-length tunic—a trait shared with early iterations of Fournier's artwork. In subsequent packs, the king's robes lengthen gradually, though without reaching his ankles as seen on the other kings of the set or in Fournier's current design.

I reckon all this evidence firmly puts the origin debate to rest. We can now safely certify the pack as Mexican, suggesting the Fournier Museum catalog entry stems from a simple, unreviewed clerical slip. Only one small loose end remains: the "Victoria" deck shown in ASESCOIN's earlier issues, which fueled the initial confusion. Here too, the 2006 volume comes in handy. Preceding ours, it features a deck identical to those found in earlier issues—effectively an almost exact replica of late 19th-century Fournier designs that likely served as the initial spark for what eventually evolved into the Mexican playing cards we see to this day.

⬥ ⬥ ⬥

A FEW WORDS ON CLEMENTE JACQUES AND THE GALLO DECK

Born in France, Clemente Jacques arrived in Mexico in November 1880, where he established a manufacturing and distribution company for a wide variety of goods. Chief among these were edible products—particularly canned preserves—alongside lead shot, cork, and timber.

It was at this point in the company's history that the Gallo brand name first emerged, widely applied across a vast range of their offerings, such as Cerezas El Gallo [El Gallo Cherries] or Chiles Serranos Extra Excelsior El Gallo [Extra Excelsior El Gallo Serrano Peppers].

Eventually, they concluded that printing their product labels in-house would be more cost-effective than outsourcing them to third parties. This paved the way for their venture into commercial printing and stationery, which initially offered—among other items—postcards, party novelties, and even memorial cards. Playing cards were hardly a priority at this stage; in fact, they were originally produced as mere promotional giveaways handed out with client orders and at trade expos. Over time, however, they started to gain popularity and ultimately earned a permanent spot in the company's commercial lineup.

The first half of the 20th century marked the golden age for their playing cards, featuring a rich variety of models such as El Fénix, El Tigre, El León, and, of course, the famed El Gallo. Following Clemente Jacques's death in 1940, his children inherited the company and continued card production, though they scaled back the catalog to focus on their best-selling lines.

From 1967 onward, the company changed hands several times, and today it operates under the name Pasatiempos Gallo. The complete deck featured in this post bears this trade name on several cards, and it's the same pack I used for our comparative study. The cards feature a grey background and a matte finish—seemingly lacking any varnish or plastic coating—and the Ace of Coins displays the inscriptions "Gallo" and "Intrasparente".

⬥ ⬥ ⬥

Lastly, as a special bonus, I'm including some cards from another edition of this deck, kindly shared by blog reader Manel, whose thoughtful gesture I greatly appreciate. On the Ace of Coins, we spot the additional inscription "Extra", and the cards feature a yellow background. It's a higher-end edition, boasting a plastic-coated finish and slightly superior cardstock.