The stunning "Sheba" cards, first made by Brown & Bigelow and published by Omega Concepts, Ltd., c.1972, and then made in this limited edition of 10,000 in 1996 by Hoyle and published by Philbee. The designs of the court cards are by Brent Bailer, an African-American artist, active in advertising. The Kings depict Askia the Great, Emperor of Songhay c.1442-1539 A.D.; the Queens portray Makeda, Queen of Ethiopia and Sheba c.1,000-950 B.C. (the "Queen of Sheba"); and the Jacks depict Hannibal, the Immortal Carthaginian General c.247 B.C.-183 B.C.

The idea was to show the deck of cards as it was a book, a book full of stories that it has lived, it is living and it will live itself but that it can tell anyway. In many magic routines it’s normal to use a story as play choreography… telling a story… telling it as a fair to read to children, in order to let the interlocutor go deep inside in the magic’s world. It’s the reason why the ace of spades has written “every deck tells a story”, because cards are the voice and the instrument magic uses to tell about itself… No one like ace of spades could tell it better than others. Oris… the magic’s mouth, one wizard… and their stories.

The company was founded by Leonard Biermans after he had been working for three years for the Brepols factory. In 1875, he started his own company to produce playing cards and colored paper, close to the railway in Turnhout, with ten employees. He married with Marie-Thérèze Poupaert, daughter of Carolus F. Poupaert, who was director of the Van Genechten company. When one of the banks, where Biermans had lent money to fund his company, went bankrupt Fr. Van Dooren and Georges Dupret provided him capital to continue his business and saved his company, AT. When Leonard Biermans died in 1897, his company was incorporated to a N.V., and Georges Dupret became the President of the company, whereas the Management Board of the company was led by Henri Van den Bosch. At that moment the company had already about 330 employees. In 1899, the Biermans factory was connected to the new electricity power supply, five years before the Brepols factory. When France levied high import taxes on Belgian paper products, Biermans started a new paper mill in Lille (France) to circumvent these import taxes. In order to start the new factory, 40 families moved from Turnhout to France and settled near Lille. In 1930, the son of Georges Dupret, Marcel Dupret, took over the management of the company, and decided to start with the production of industrial bags and to expand the printing business and cardboard production. In 1934 the demand for playing cards on the Asian market increased, and a new factory was established in Calcutta (India), which would continue its business until the independence of India. In 1960, the company Copa was founded, which became a strong competitor on market for special paper. When the market for special paper decreased, several paper manufacturers from the Turnhout region, Copa, Mesmaekers, Biermans and Van Genechten, founded Turpa. In 1970 Biermans, together with Brepols and Van Genechten, founded Carta Mundi as a joint venture. In 1971, Biermans was acquired by Van Genechten, to create Van Genechten Biermans (VGB).