print; playing-card

Please enable JavaScript in your web browser to get the best experience.

Object Type: print; playing-card
Museum number: 1896,0501.1235-1287
Title: Series: Jeu des Fables
Description: Complete pack of 52 playing-cards with mythological subject matter Etching Backs plain 1644
Producer name: Print made by: Stefano della Bella; After: Jean Desmarests; Published by: Henri Le Gras
School/style: Italian; French
Production date: 1644
Production place: Published in: Paris (France)
Materials
Technique
Dimensions: Height: 88 millimetres (approx. size of each card); Width: 57 millimetres (approx. size of each card)
$Inscriptions
Curator's comments: One of the four sets of educational playing-cards designed for the young Louis XIV by Jean Desmarets de Saint-Sorlin. Each card contains subjects from Ovid's "Metamorphoses" represented by a mythological figure or figures with title, description and indication of suit. This pack, in the second state, has the heart and diamond suit-marks only in outline. For a full description of the set see curator's comment to 1849,0421.226; each card of that set has been catalogued as an individual entry from De Vesme/Massar 489 to De Vesme/Massar 541. For the states of this series, see Phyllis Massar in 'Print Quarterly', IV 1987, pp.411-17.
Bibliographic references: De Vesme/Massar 1971 / Stefano della Bella (489.IV-541.IV); Schreiber / Catalogue of the collection of playing cards bequeathed to the British Museum by Lady Charlotte Schreiber (French 106); Schreiber / Playing Cards of Various Ages and Countries selected from the collection of Lady Charlotte Schreiber (II, pl. 15-18)
Location: Not on display
Subjects
Associated names: Associated with: Jean Desmarets de Saint-Sorlin; Associated with: Cardinal Jules Mazarin; Associated with: Louis XIV, King of France and Navarre
Acquisition name
Acquisition date: 1896
Department: Prints and Drawings
Registration number: 1896,0501.1235-1287

Free entry

Opening hours