print;
playing-card
- Museum number
- 1896,0501.651
- Title
- Series: Jeu des Rois de France
- Description
-
Complete pack of 52 playing-cards on the subject of famous kings
In original wrapper and with accompanying booklet of descriptions and instructions in French
Etching
Backs plain
1680-1711
- Production date
- 1680-1711 (published)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 86 millimetres (approx. size of each card)
-
Width: 54 millimetres (approx. size of each card)
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- Copies of the 'Cartes des Rois de France' by Stefano della Bella, one of the four packs of cards designed by Jean Desmarests de Saint-Sorlin on the orders of Cardinal Mazarin as an educational game for the young Louis XIV. This pack is copied from 1896,0501.653, with the same French inscriptions. The original pack of 40 cards plus frontispiece has been extended to 52 cards, and some of the kings who are grouped together in the original pack are here given separate cards. The king of hearts is a whole length seated portrait of Louis XIV when a boy. The pack also contains a booklet of explanatory text in French containing rules of the game and accounts of the kings.For the complete pack, see curator's comment to 1871,0513.441 and for the individual cards see separate entries for De Vesme/Massar numbers from 648 to 687.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1896
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1896,0501.651
