Playing cards — "Popish Plot Cards," with suits stenciled red
(London: Robert Walton, c. 1679 or later)
Estimate
4,000 - 6,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
Playing cards — "Popish Plot Cards," with suits stenciled red
52 playing cards. Engravings on paper, with hearts and diamond stenciled red; one tiny spot, an uncommonly bright and clean deck. 13 cards are mounted in a frame, the rest are housed in a folder attached to the back of the frame.
3½ by 2 ⅛ in. (card); 26 by 20 in. (frame)
8.75 by 5.25 cm; 66 by 51 cm
Jaime Ortiz-Patiño (Sotheby's, London, 10 December 2013, English literature, history, children's books and illustrations, lot 221)
Acquired at the above sale by the present collector
Jaime Ortiz-Patiño Collection of Early Playing Cards, #19;
The Fournier Museum Catalogue, Volume I: British Isles, #9
A complete set of "the horrid Popish Plot" cards, engraved after designs by English artist and engraver Francis Barlow, whose original drawings survive in the British Museum. This deck was first issued in about 1679, soon after the fictitious conspiracy by English Catholics to murder Charles II and replace him with his brother James II was "discovered" by Titus Oates in 1678. Anti-Catholic decks of playing cards remained popular into the eighteenth century, with about a dozen different designs produced, including ones about the Spanish Armada and the Gunpowder Plot.
This set seems to have some cards with reworked plates, but as all the versos are uniform, it is evident that the deck was issued as such. The Fournier collection has an earlier set with the text at the head of the court cards. In the present deck, the text has been replaced by roundel portraits and crowns (though the knave cards still read "Knave").
For other examples of "Popish Plot" decks in this collection, see lots 52 and 54.
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