Playing cards — Arms of the European Peers
(London, circa 1712-1720)
Estimate
4,000 - 6,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
Playing cards — Arms of the European Peers
53 playing cards. Hand-colored engravings on paper, by Jo. Rich, after Claude Oronce Finé de Brianville, with hand-coloring, plain versos, red tax stamp on the ace of spades; a few stains, verso of five of spades with blind-etched floral designs. 17 of the cards are mounted in a frame, the rest are housed in a folder attached to the back of the frame.
3 ⅛ by 2 in. (cards); 20 ⅛ by 23 2/3 in.
8.4 by 5 cm; 51 by 65.5 cm
Jaime Ortiz-Patiño (Sotheby's, London, 10 December 2013, English literature, history, children's books and illustrations, lot 230)
Acquired at the above sale by the present collector
Jaime Ortiz-Patiño Collection of Early Playing Cards, #49
An English edition of this widely-copied deck of heraldic playing cards, after one first published by Claude Oronce Finé de Brianville as Jeu du Blason (Lyons, 1655). De Brianville decks can be identified by the Papal coat-of-arms on the King of Clubs, as it appears here. The presence of the sixpence duty stamp on the Ace of Spades is evidence of this deck's having been printed between 1712 and 1720, soon after the Stamp Act of 1711 was passed.
This finely handcolored deck is complete with all 53 cards, including the instruction card that let the owner (or a colorist) know how to identify the five tinctures, or colors, in the coats-of-arms through a system of hatch marks. Though they include the standard suits and ranks, most of space is left over to the images of coats-of-arms, which feature Europe's most important royal and aristocratic families, as well as those of certain high ecclesiastical offices.
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