print; playing-card

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Object Type: print; playing-card
Museum number: 1896,0501.680.1-53
Title: Series: Jeu de la Géographie
Description: Complete pack of 52 playing-cards plus a title card. Etching Backs plain 1644
Producer name: Print made by: Stefano della Bella; Published by: Henri Le Gras; Published by: Florent Le Comte; After: Jean Desmarests
School/style: French; Italian
Production date: 1644
Production place: Published in: Paris (France)
Materials: pasteboard
Technique: etching
Dimensions: Height: 92 millimetres (approx. size of each card); Width: 57 millimetres (approx. size of each card)
$Inscriptions
Curator's comments: In this pack the title card bears a planisphere, and the other cards bear a female personification of a country or continent, the four suits representing the four known continents. For a full description see curator's comment to 1871,0513.587; each card of that set has been catalogued as an individual entry from De Vesme/Massar 543 to De Vesme/Massar 594. These cards are second state, before letters and numbers were added. Although the address of Henri Le Gras appears on the frontispiece, only those prints of the later states, published by Florent Le Comte, bear an indication of suit and number. When Le Comte purchased the plates of all four games he removed Le Gras's address from only the 'Jeu des Rois' and the 'Jeu des Fables'.
Bibliographic references: De Vesme/Massar 1971 / Stefano della Bella (542.IV-594.IV); Schreiber / Catalogue of the collection of playing cards bequeathed to the British Museum by Lady Charlotte Schreiber (French 115); Schreiber / Playing Cards of Various Ages and Countries selected from the collection of Lady Charlotte Schreiber (II, pl. 25-28)
Location: Not on display
Subjects: allegory/personification
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: Bequeathed by: Lady Charlotte Schreiber
Acquisition date: 1896
Department: Prints and Drawings
Registration number: 1896,0501.680.1-53

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