You will often find these cards listed as "Amidon Remy", which is incorrect, for it not only fails to notice that the correct inscription is "L`Amidon", Amidon is simply French for starch. The actual issuer was, as we say above, E Remy & Cie, and it was founded in 1855, in Louvain, by a Belgian called Edouard Remy, who was, at that time, a miller.
His product was natural rice starch, which had two benefits, it was great at stiffening linen, and it was also kind to the skin.
Monsieur Remy was one of the biggest employers in the area, with a factory at Wijgmaal, just to the north of Louvain. And he seems to have been a kindly man as when he died a statue of him was put up in Louvain. His family also kept the business going, right until 1970, when it was bought out.
This set is also often described wrongly, as being Chinese costumes and traditions, but it is "coutumes", or customs. That`s not helped by the way it is wriiten though, nor that our brains are wired to find a familiar, even if it is wrong, in a jumble of words.
In Cavanders Ltd`s set of "Ancient Chinese", card eleven tells us that "The dragon is a familiar object in Chinese decoration and typifies all that is powerful and terrible. The Imperial dragon is armed with five claws on each of its four feet, and is used as an emblem by the Emperor`s family and by princes of the two highest ranks. The four clawed dragon is used by princes of the third or fourth class. The three clawed dragon is the one commonly used for decoration."