print; playing-card

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Object Type: print; playing-card
Museum number: 1896,0501.685.1-51
Title: Series: Jeu de la Géographie
Description: Incomplete pack with 51 of 52 playing-cards plus 1 title card (missing) and including a duplicate queen of spades Etching Backs plain
Producer name: After: Stefano della Bella; Published by: Pierre Mortier; After: Jean Desmarests
School/style: Italian; French
Production date: 1680-1711 (published)
Production place: Published in: Amsterdam (Netherlands)
Materials
Technique
Dimensions: Height: 85 millimetres (approx. size of each card); Width: 54 millimetres (approx. size of each card)
$Inscriptions
Curator's comments: This pack is copied from 1896,0501.680. For full details of the pack see curator's comment to 1871,0513.587 and individual entries for De Vesme/Massar numbers 543 to 594. This pack is missing the title card, 4 of hearts and queen of clubs but has two impressions (one unmounted) of the queen of spades. All inscriptions are placed on suspended drapery. Each card has a female personification of a country or continent, the four suits representing the four known continents.
Bibliographic references: De Vesme/Massar 1971 / Stefano della Bella (542-594) (copies); Schreiber / Catalogue of the collection of playing cards bequeathed to the British Museum by Lady Charlotte Schreiber (French 117)
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: 1896,0501.685.1-51

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