Wiener Spielkartenfabrik Ferd. Piatnik & Söhne, commonly referred to as Piatnik, is an Austrian

playing card A playing card is a piece of specially prepared card stock, heavy paper, thin cardboard, plastic-coated paper, cotton-paper blend, or thin plastic that is marked with distinguishing motifs. Often the front (face) and back of each card has a f ...

and

board game A board game is a type of tabletop game that involves small objects () that are placed and moved in particular ways on a specially designed patterned game board, potentially including other components, e.g. dice. The earliest known uses of the ...

manufacturing company based in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

History

The company was founded in 1824 by the card manufacturer Anton Moser (1784–1842) in Vienna's 7th district. Upon his death, his professional colleague the Hungarian-born Ferdinand Piatnik (1819–1885) took over in 1843, marrying Moser's widow a few years later. Piatnik's three sons joined the ranks in 1882 adding their names to their father's company name. Ferdinand died in 1885, leaving the successful business to his sons and his widow. In 1891, a new factory building was built on Hütteldorfer Straße in the 14th district. In 1896, the firm of ''Piatnik Nándor és Fiai'' was founded as a sister company. Piatnik continued to expand and in 1899 bought the playing card manufacturer, ''Ritter & Cie'' in Prague. As early as 1923 Piatnik received an 'irrevocable' national award and thus the right to use the Austrian coat of arms in its business in perpetuity. In 1939, the Viennese parent company was incorporated into the family limited partnership ''Wiener Spielkartenfabrik Ferd. Piatnik & Sons''. After the war, multi-colour offset printing was introduced in 1951. In 1956, the playing card factory expanded its range to include board games, and puzzles have also been produced since 1966. Piatnik Wien has since established itself as a major business, having sold 25 million packs of cards (including

Tarot Tarot (, first known as ''trionfi (cards), trionfi'' and later as ''tarocchi'' or ''tarocks'') is a set of playing cards used in tarot games and in fortune-telling or divination. From at least the mid-15th century, the tarot was used to play t ...

, Tarock,

Bridge A bridge is a structure built to Span (engineering), span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or railway) without blocking the path underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, whi ...

, Préférence,

Schnapsen Schnapsen, Schnapser or Schnapsa is a trick-taking card game of the bézique (ace–ten) family that is very popular in Bavaria and in the territories of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire and has become the national card game of Austria and Hung ...

, Double German and French packs), one million puzzles and one million board games (such as ''Activity'', ''Tick Tack Bumm'', ''

Abalone Abalone ( or ; via Spanish , from Rumsen language, Rumsen ''aulón'') is a common name for any small to very large marine life, marine gastropod mollusc in the family (biology), family Haliotidae, which once contained six genera but now cont ...

'', '' Pass the Pigs'' and ''

Scrabble ''Scrabble'' is a word game in which two to four players score points by placing tiles, each bearing a single letter, onto a Board game, game board divided into a 15×15 grid of squares. The tiles must form words that, in crossword fashion, re ...

'') in over 72 countries. The firm offers more than 200 social and family games and 1,000 play card pack variants. In 1962, the factory premises in Vienna were expanded to include several reinforced concrete halls, and again in 1985. In 1990, ''Activity'' was released, an entertainment game for children and adults that has been translated into five languages. Meanwhile, 15 different variants of the successful party game have appeared. Thanks to the

ProSieben ProSieben (, ''sieben'' is German for "seven"; often stylized as Pro7) is a German free-to-air television network owned by ProSiebenSat.1 Media. It was launched on 1 January 1989. It is Germany's second-largest privately owned television company ...

game show, ''Extreme Activity'', this variant is now also available for purchase as a game. The first subsidiary was founded in 1989, Piatnik of America. It was followed by subsidiaries in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

and

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

. Today Ferdinand G. Piatnik (4th) and Dieter Strehl run the business and the next generation is already in training. The company has around 200 employees worldwide, around 150 in Vienna. According to the company, around 10,000 board games, 100,000 playing card packs and 4,000 puzzles are sold in over 60 countries around the world every day.Piatnik spielt Erfolgsbilanz ein
at derstandard.at, 11 March 2010. In 1997 in Vienna, Penzing (14th district) the '' Ferdinand-Piatnik-Weg '' was named after the founder of the company. In 2010 over 2 million games, 1 million puzzles and 25 million game packages were produced in Vienna. The turnover was 27 million euros. Today, with sales subsidiaries in Germany, the Czech Republic, Hungary and the US, Piatnik is Austria's largest game publisher and a leading provider of games in Europe. The traditional Viennese company is represented in 72 countries with board games, playing cards and puzzles.

References

External links

* (German and English)
Piatnik UK

Spielemuseum.at: ''175 Jahre Wiener Spielkartenfabrik Ferd. Piatnik & Söhne''
(pdf; 1.8 MB) * Eva Offenthaler: ''Auf die richtige Karte gesetzt: der Spielkartenfabrikant Ferdinand Piatnik I''. �
Biography of the Month on the home page of the Austrian Biographical Lexikon (July 2015)
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Piatnik and Sohne Manufacturing companies based in Vienna Companies established in 1824 1824 establishments in the Austrian Empire Playing card manufacturers Austrian brands Jigsaw puzzle manufacturers

History

See also

References

External links