CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY NE55.L7 W?!" """"'"•^ "^'"^ olin 3 1924 032 520 516 Overs DATE DUE tlUji ^ ^A rt n -r i:&i9-/i,fi S^ m^ g^w fM^ — f' 1Q?'»' 1?^ WVt= — -f — U/ J , f^ "^^ffi > Uf¥ !■* ^ ^^ » A .,! ^ »y- latajMSaaa-.. Sk a' ■' /^5""T*^ P l3 GAYLORD PRINTEDINU.S.A. \1 Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31 92403252051 6 A DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE OF PLAYING AND OTHER CARDS. mrzxasxa PRIMO MOTLL XXXXS/Dfl 49 FROM THE CARTE DI BALDINI ' DESCRIBED IN VOL.1 P. 6 6. PHOTOGRAVURE J.LEITCH i C« LONDON A DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE OF PLAYING AND OTHER CARDS IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM ACCOMPANIED BY A CONCISE GENERAL HISTORY OF THE SUBJECT AND REMARKS ON CARDS OF DIVINATION AND OF A POLITICO-HISTORICAL CHARACTER By WILLIAM HUGHES WILLSHIRE, M.D. Edin. PRINTED BY ORDER OF THE TRUSTEES 1876 5 =^^ ,t^ CHISWICK PRESS : — PRINTED BY WHITTINGHAM ANB WILKIN8, TOOKS CODRT, CHANCERY LANE. PKEFACE. iHE following Descriptive Catalogue of Playing and other Cards comprises several series which are deposited in different departments of the British Museum. It has been deemed advisable to treat the collections as a whole, for the purpose of systematic arrange- •nent, and in order that they might thereby be made more readily available for the purposes of study and reference. The subject of what are technically called Playing Cards is one not famihar, in its historic and Hterary aspects, except to the skilled archaeologist. In order, therefore, to show the special interest which attaches to these objects, apart from their character as materials for amusement, the purely descriptive portion of the catalogue has been accom- panied by succinct explanatory remarks on the several series or divisions, which show the wide range of inquiry vi PREFACE. and discussion necessary for the proper treatment of the subject. The task of arrangement, and of the compilation of the present volume, including the introduction, has been executed by Dr. W. Hughes Willshire, under the super- vision of the Keeper of the Prints and Drawings. Geokge William Reid. April I2th, 1876. TABLE OF CONTENTS. PART I. Section V. VI. GENERAL Histort of Playisg-Cards • • • 3 Section I. Introductory ...... 3 „ II. Origin of Cards ...... 7 „ III. General Nature and Varieties of Cards . . 17 „ IV. Connection with Wood-Engraving, Manufac- ture of Paper, &c. . . . . .24 Size and Form of Marks and Designs on Cards, Divisions into Suits, Terminology ....... 29 Cards of various Countries ...... 35 European Cards . . . . . . . .35 Oriental Cards ......... 55 PART II. Descriptive Catalogue op Playing ahd other Cards Classification of Cards Genera of Cards .... European Playing Cards Italian : Tarots ..... „ Numerals .... „ Cards with a secondary purpose . Spanish Cards . . . . • Trench Cards : Tarots „ Numerals (full Set) „ Piquet .... „ With a secondary purpose „ Of Divination „ Amusing — humorous „ Simply Fanciful . Flemish Cards : Tarots „ Numerals . „ Piquet . 59 61 61,62 63 65 85 86 93 107 no 123 126 138 173 174 179 180 182 TABLE OF CONTENTS. Dutch Cards : Numerals . „ With a secondary purpose „ Miscellanea German Cards : Tarots „ Numerals . „ Suit Marks, National . „ Suit Marks, Animated „ With a secondary purpose „ Miscellanea English Cards : Numerals . „ With a secondary purpose ,, Politico-Historical „ Purely fanciful Miscellanea Varia Oriental Cards ; Hindustani Chinese . PAGE . 183 . 184 . 185 . 187 . 189 . 192 . 207 . 219 . 225 . 229 • 234 243. 245 . 291 . 295 • 323 • 331 . 333 APPENDIX. Chronological Table Noteworthy Series . BlBHOGEAPHT . 339 341 343 Index to Proper Names Index to Subjects . 347 353 N.B. — The contraction Bibl., within parenthesis, followed by a number, e.g. (Bibl. 9, p. 20) has reference to a work recorded in the "Bibliography," page 343- A capital letter within parenthesis, followed by a number, e.g. (S. 20), has reference to a series of cards or other objects describedin the systematic or second portion of the volume. LIST OF PLATES AND THEIR SUBJECTS IN THE SUPPLEMENTARY VOLUME. RONTISPIECE. (First Volume.) The " Primo Mobile,'' from the Carte di Baldini. PLATES I., II., III., IV., v., AND PAET OP PLATE VI. The Twentv-two Tarots, constituting the Emblematic series of Cards. (Vol. n., p. 49.) PLATE VI. — Lower portion. Four examples from the series known as the "Circular Cards, by Tehnan von Wesel." (Vol. 11., p. 69.) PLATE VII. The "Misero," from the Carte di Baldini. (Vol. II., p. 59.) PLATE VIII. The " Marte," from the Carte di Baldini. (Vol. II., p. 60.) PLATE IX. Italian Numerals and their suit-marks. (Vol. 11., p. 61.) PLATE X. Spanish Numerals and their suit-marks. (Vol. 11., p. 61.) PLATE XI. French (and English) Niunerals and their suit-marks. (Vol. II., pp. 61-67.) PLATE XII. German Numerals and their suit-marks. (Vol. II., p. 62.) X LIST OF PLATES, ETC. PLATE XIII. Three G-eraian Card-pieces, from a rare series, having suit-marks of a composite character. (Vol. II., p. 71.) PLATE XIV. A page from the " Book of Cards," by Jobst Amman. (Vol. II., p. 71.) PLATES XV., XVI., AND XVII. Three Sheets from an early series of German Cards. (Vol. II., p. 73.) PLATE XVIII. JFour Valets from the early sequence of French Numerals, described as the " Chatto " Cards. (Vol. II., p. 76.) PLATE XIX. A Sheet of "pip " Numerals from the series of " Chatto " Cards. (Vol. II., p. 76.) PLATE XX. Hindustani Cards. (Vol. II., p. 77.) PLATE XXI. Chinese Cards. (Vol. 11., p. 78.) PLATE XXIL Early representation of persons playing at Cai-ds. (Vol. II., p. 79.) PLATE XXIII. The relative sizes, of a Variety of Playing-cards. (Vol. II., p. 80.) PART I. A GENEEAL HISTOEY OF PLAYING-CAEDS. GENERAL HISTORY OF PLAYING-CARDS. Section I. INTRODUCTORY. ^(^^^^^ HOUGH five hundred years have not passed since what may be termed the positive history of playing-cards began, we now find these objects spread all over the world, and forming one of the more seductive allurements of all classes of society. The hold thus widely and strongly secured depends, no doubt, on the varied and ready ways in which cards may be made to minister both to the lawful amusement of men, and to that which is condemned as the excitement, or vice, of gambling. The latter, based on the vicissitudes of chance, has ever had a forcible hold on humanity. We have records of very early periods in the world's history, telling that men did then, in some form or other, gamble. No doubt the mode of doing so varied, and the purposes, the value of the stakes, and the results for which the dictates of hazard have been appealed to, have altered, both in place and time. From the beginning, how- ever, and associated with circumstances the most opposite in cha- racter, men have sought the determinations of a blind fatuity in preference to the suggestions of a rational guide. From evocation simply of the one in suspense and anxiety, pleasure of the keenest form has been experienced, while from following the other, half the interest has often seemed to vanish. Nor has it happened that under all circumstances this trust in the unforeseen and unknown was necessarily to be reprobated. The commands of the Most High have dictated its pursuance : " And the Lord spake unto Moses . . . 4 GENERAL HISTORY. Aaron shall cast lots on the two goats. . . . But the goat on which the lot fell to be the scape-goat." (Levit. xvi.) Again : " And Joshua cast lots for them in Shiloh before the Lord . . . And the lot of the tribe of the children of Benjamin came up according to their families." (Joshua xviii.) Nevertheless, it must be remem- bered that not any trace is to be found in this remote antiquity among the Hebrews of any of the ordinary games of skill or hazard which were afterwards, and are now, so numerous in the western world. It was not until after the Exile that a great change made itself felt in the manners and customs of the Hebrew people, when Grecian games were introduced by the Herodian princes. In reference to the Egyptians, however. Sir Gardner Wilkinson observes : — " It is remarkable that a game still so common" [mora, micare digito, ludere par et impar] " among the lower orders of Italians, should be found to have existed in Egypt from the earliest period of which their paintings remain, even in the reign of the first Osirtasen." (" Ancient Egyptians," vol. ii. p. 415.) Mora and draughts are represented (vol. i. p. 40) as being played on the sculptures of Beni Hassan in grottoes on the east bank of the Nile, near the Specs Artemidos. This would be 1740 years B.C., or coeval with Joseph and the first Osirtasen. " It is, however, evident that dice were already used by the Egyptians in the reign of Rhampsinitus, that monarch, according to Herodotus, being reported to have played with the goddess Ceres, for the allegorical meaning of the story in no way militates against the fact of such a game having been known at the period in ques- tion, and the Egyptians, his informants, were necessarily persuaded that it dated at least as early as his era." (Vol. i. p. 126.) " Plutarch would lead us to believe that dice were a very early invention in Egypt, and acknowledged to be so by the Egyptians themselves, since they were introduced into one of their oldest mythological fables, Mercury being represented playing at dice with the Moon previous to the birth of Osiris, and winning from her the five days of the epact which were added to complete the 365 days of the year." (Wilkinson, op. cit.) In Case 44 of the Eoom of Egyptian Antiquities (British Museum) , and under the head of " Musical Instruments and Toys," marked 6413-6429, are some Egyptian dice, of the Roman period, along with many latrunculi, or draughtsmen. " I do not suppose," remarks Sir G. Wilkinson, " that the dice discovered at Thebes and other places are of very remote epoch • they may not be even of a Pharaonic period, but the simplicity of their form and mode of notation may lead us to suppose them similar to those of the earliest age." INTltODUCrORY. t, Prom the time alluded to until now various modes of amusement and gambling have been common, but not any appeals to chance and the excitement of hazard have been so generally popular as those which may be effected through the medium of playing-cards. Nor is this to be wondered at, seeing how convenient the latter are for use, that they appeal to a class of combinations and calculations quite beyond the range of dice, par et impar, and similar agents, and that they can be made to afford, in a simplicity of use, amusement and excitement to very illiterate people, as weU as by a more complicated application of their powers, a pastime and the pleasure of intense suspense to cultivated intellects. Unfor- tunately, not any pleasure can be exercised and enjoyed by man without its becoming abused or perverted, and often into a grievous sin. Thus has it been with cards. Scarcely known, in Europe at least, they were made the vehicle for gambling of the most vicious Mndj and as such have continued until the present day. Time and money are often recklessly squandered over them, and though the latter which is wasted may be often comparatively but of slight amount, the time which is lost through the fascinations of card-playing is constantly to be deplored. " How," asks M. Merlin, " is this rapid propagation of cards to be explained ? Is it due to the cupidity of men, or to the tendency of their imagination always to surrender itself to the dreams of illu- sion, and, consequently, to the chances of hazard ? Or rather, should we not attribute it to these causes in combination with that desire for emotion and excitement, which seems to replace the love of the marvellous so natural to nations which are stiU young, and so general in Europe during the middle ages?^' (Bibl. 6, p. 2.) " Let us be just, however. Cards have not created the passion of play ; it has been a moral flaw from the highest antiquity ; but ttiey have developed this passion by offering it at once a more manageable and attractive instrument.^' {Op. cit.) Before the second half of the fifteenth century was completed St. Bemardin, of Sienna, preached against their employment, and his denunciations were succeeded at intervals by those of other moralists, as well as by numerous edicts and laws prohibiting their use. " Gambling," says the old French proverb, " is the child of avarice and the father of despair." Yet not anywhere have there been more affectionate offspring than in the country which gave the saying birth. It is not generally known, we suspect, that in this country play- ing at cards on Sunday is still prohibited by law. In the Queen's proclamation against vice, profaneness, and immorality, read every session and assize, is the following passage : — "And we do hereby strictly enjoin and prohibit all our loving 6 GENERAL HISTORY. subjects of what degree or quality soever from playing on the Lord s Day at Dice, Cards, or any other game whatsoever, either m public or private houses, or other places whatsoever." ( See " Notes and Queries," 1872, vol. x. pp. 311-377.) A prohibition to play at cards enters, or did enter until lately, among the particulars of apprentices' indentures. Its first appear- ance occurs in the form of an indenture for an apprentice, according to Dr. Rimbault, in " A Book of Precedents," printed circa 1566, and compiled by Thomas Phayer, who describes himself as " Solicl- tour to the King's and Queen's Majesties." (" Notes and Queries," vol. ii. for 1852, and vol. v. p. 346.) Notwithstanding the abuses to which playing-cards have been put, there have been always persons, even of the highest moral excellence, who have conscientiously admitted that such a fair and honest use of them might be practised as to render an occasional and festive resort to them quite compatible with strict rules of morality. Archdeacon Butler, e. g., in his sermon on " Christian Liberty," preached before the Duke of Gloucester and the University of Cambridge, on the installation of his E.oyaI Highness as Chancellor in June, 1811, makes reference to the " harm- less mirth and innocent amusements of society ; " and quotes a remarkable passage from Jeremy Taylor, who writes, "That cards are themselves lawful I do not know any reason to doubt. He can tiever be suspected in any criminal sense to tempt the Divine Providence who by contingent things recreates his labour. As for the evil appendages they are all separable from these games, and they may be separated by these advices." " Such," continues the archdeacon, " are the sentiments of one of the most truly pious and most pro- foundly learned prelates that ever adorned any age or country, nor do I think that the most rigid of our disciplinarians can produce the authority of a wiser or a better man." There continue many of Jeremy Taylor's and Archdeacon Butler's way of thinking, and who, particularly at Christmas, and following the good old times, introduce, as a matter of course, cards among their amusements, without having any view of seducing parents to rear their sons as gamblers or blacklegs, and their daughters to " A youth of frolics, an old age of cards." (Hone's "Every Day Book," vol. i. p. 98.) There is another aspect under which cards may be viewed as having taken a marked hold on certain classes of society. This is their application to the purposes of divination and fortune-teUing. According to some authorities, as will be hereafter shown, this particular use of the Tarots cards long preceded the combination with them of a numeral series, and the appliance of the two to INTRODUCTORY. 7 the purposes of gambKng. These cards of emblematic and mystic character, the Tarots, were born, say they, long since in the East, from whence they were brought by the Gipsies in their knap- sacks for thaumaturgic purposes. Thus entering Europe, the nations which received them afterwards added to them the numeral series by which they might obtain the excitement of gambling, and gradually discarded the emblematic sequence as an incumbrance only. Be this as it may, the question may be passed by for the present, it being observed simply, that whatever hypothetic and presumptive value this theory may possess, there is not any certcdnty about it. The positive history of playing-cards, as far as our present knowledge extends, certainly does not commence before the second half of the fourteenth century. Section II. ORIGIN OF CAEDS. [INCE the year 1704, when the Pere Menestrier in his " Bibliotheque Curieuse" (t. 2, p. 174) occupied himself with the history of playing-cards, several learned and interesting works have appeared on the subject. Of these the treatises of Daniel (1720), Bullet (1757), FAbbe Rive (1780) , Breitkopf (1784) , Singer (1816), Cicognara (1831) , Duchesne aine (1837), Leber (1842), Chatto (1848), Boiteau d'Ambly (1854), and of Merlin (1869) are by far the most important. Before the time of Menestrier (1704), however, allusions to cards and various games, along with remonstrances against recourse to them, occur in many works, or cards are separately treated of. The first dis- tinct mention of their origin is in " Das Guldin Spil," of Ingold, printed in 1472 by G. Zaiaer. But such allusions and notices, as likewise the earlier records of them extending back to 1397, are not of that systematic character which is to be met with in the work of Menestrier. Notwithstanding the great amount of re- search and ingenuity evinced by the writers mentioned, it will be found that we are still uncertain where cards originated, and of the exact time when they made their first appearance in Europe. There has not been any want, it is true, of theories and assertions on these topics, but the honest enquirer, after going through the evidence they offer, must return, we think, the Scotch verdict in respect to all, " not proven." 8 GENERAL HISTORY. A general survey of tlie history and character of playing-cards, as elicited by the researches of investigators since Menestrier, will here be given, in order to render the descriptive catalogue of the numerous examples of cards in the National Collection of greater practical interest and service to those desirous of iaquiring into a not unimportant and rather curious subject. Three chief opinions have been held respecting the country in which cards originated. Firstly : It has been maintained that they had their birth in the East, and thence were propagated in Europe. Secondly : That although there appears to be sufficient evidence for believing that cards are of very ancient origin in India and Chiaa, yet their presence in Europe is due to an original invention in the latter, and not to their importation from the East. Thirdly : That not any satisfactory evidence exists showing that playing-cards were ever anything else than of European origin. In reference to the first opinion, it may be observed that one school of archaeologists asserts that cards sprang up in the East among the Arabs, Saracens, or Moors, who introduced them into Europe by way of Spaia. This is a very old notion, since it was prevalent in Italy at the end of the fifteenth century. Covelluzzo, who then wrote, observes: ''Anno 1379. fu recato in Viterbo el gioco delle carti, che venne de Seracenia e chiamaai tra loro Naib " (Bussi, "Istoria della citta di Viterbo.") The locality in the Bast favoured by others is India, from whence cards are supposed to have made their way into Europe by means of the Gipsies, who carried them about their persons or in their wallets for the pur- poses of divination and fortune-telling, the Moors, who introduced them into Spain, having obtained them from the Gipsies. Other writers have regarded Egypt as their source, recognising in the cards known as pure Tarots, the pages of a hieroglyphic book containing the principles of the mystic philosophy of that antique land, in a series of symbols and emblematic figures. Nor has China been forgotten, it having been maintained that cards were invented there in the year 1120 of the Christian era. The theory of the Oriental origin of cards is based chiefly on the following grounds. First: On the statement of CoveUuzzo before mentioned. Secondly : On the supposed analogy and rela- tions existing between cards and chess, which latter is undoubtedly of Eastern, if not of Hindustani origin. Thirdly : On the analogies present in certain Indian cards and the games played with them, and European cards, particularly, as may be seen, e.g., in the game of cards known as Ghengdifeh, played by the Muhamedans of India. The marks of the suits in these cards, and likewise the rules of the ORIGIN OF CARDS. 9 game, have incontestable analogies with those of the Spanish game of Hoinhre and the Minchiate of Florence. Fourthly : On the apparent analogy of the word naihi, the name of the primitive European cards, and that of naypes (which term is applied to cards in Spain at the present day), to the Hebrew and Arabic words, nabi, naha, nahaa, which convey with them the idea of prophecy. On the analogy between the word Tuchim, early applied in Pro- vence to the valet or knave, and the Arabic tu'chan, signifying darkness, obscurity. On the continued use in connection with the earliest type of cards of certain words apparently of Oriental origin, as, e.g., tarots,mat,pagad (see "French Cards of Divination," posfoa), these verbal relations being supposed to fortify the opinion, also, that cards were originally invented for purposes of divination and sorti- lege rather than those to which European nations have adapted them. Fifthly : On the fondness for and trust that many Eastern people had in divinatory procedures and magic, and the apparent adaptation to such purposes offered by the older European cards now known as Tarots, the series of which seems based on combinations of the number 7, the sacred number of the East. On the ability to translate, as it were, the designs of these tarots into the principles of certain Oriental systems of philosophy and mysticism. The theory of the Oriental origin of cards may be opposed on the following grounds. Firstly : While admitting Covelluzzo's state- ment as satisfactory, as regards the introduction of cards into Viterbo in the year 1379, it cannot be allowed that his assertion that they were of Saracenic origin has any value beyond that of a personal opinion, or at farthest of an opinion prevalent in Viterbo when he ivrote. In other words, Covelluzzo was not contempo- raneous with the time mentioned, for his chronicle terminates in 1480, one hundred years after the date he deals with. Moreover, Covelluzzo was looked on as rather a credulous person by Feliciano Bussi, the historian, who follows and quotes him (Merlin, Bibl. 6, p. 18, note 2). Secondly : The analogies between chess and cards dwelt on are worth very little in respect to the question immediately involved, for between all such games there must be certain inevitable approxi- mations, and these are surely insufficient to establish an identity of origin. It is on other conditions than on those on which stress has been laid that correspondence should be sought, and it is there that it fails. " The game of chess is one purely of calculations and combina- tions. In cards, on the contrary, the chief part of success depends on chance, the combinations coming into play only after chance has operated, the effects of which latter they serve to correct, diminish, or strengthen. In chess all the pieces are exposed to observation. 10 GENERAL HISTORY. their positions are equalized, and it is on the after choice made by the player in the movement of his men that their increased or diminished value depends. In cards, on the contrary, a knowledge of the ' hand ' of the player is carefuUy hidden, not only from ad- versary but from partner. Prom the moment of dealing the cards the game is unequal, hazard has intervened, and the most skilful player may find himself so scurvily treated by fortune that he may be beaten by a novice without having made a trick." (Merlin, p. 21.) Further, between the Indian game Tchaturanga, described by Sir W. Jones and Mr. Christie, which is a kind of chess, and in the course of which dice come into use, the connection lies rather with backgammon than with cards. Fourthly : Admitting that between the Muhamedan game of India, Ohengdifeh {Gunjee fu, Gangeefah) and the Spanish game of Sombre there are undoubtedly relations, quoad marks of suits and rules of play, it may be inferred, nevertheless, that the Muha- medans of India have imitated, in their game, the game of Europe, rather than that the European game sprang from that of the East. The reason for such inference will be given afterwards when Oriental cards are discussed ; sufficient now to say that the pecu- liarities which link the European to the Indian game existed in the former in the year 1488, and Europe did not have continuous com- munication with India until about 1494. Moreover, cards had been known already in Europe for at least a century. Fifthly : Not any Arabic MS. nor document gives to the word naib such a signification as playing-cards, and the first European traveller, Niebuhr, who recorded having seen cards in Arabia, did so in the second half of the eighteenth century, giving to them the title of Lah I'hamar, which means simply " game of chance." The Arabic-French Lexicon of Marcel (1837), who remained in Egypt during the expedition of the first Napoleon, gives to the game of cards the name of Lah I'oureq, i. e., game with leaves of paper (Merlin, p. 18, note). The origin of the modern nalUs and naypes must be sought elsewhere than among the Arabs, par- ticularly since — Sixthly : The invention and use of playing-cards would be a direct contravention of two important precepts of the Koran, viz. the prohibition of games of chance, and the representation of human forms. Moreover, not any allusion is made to cards in the "Arabian Nights' Entertainment," a compilation of about the end of the fifteenth century, in which there would have occurred ample reasons and opportunity for mentioning them, had they been known as a popular pastime, at least. Even now those Muhamedans who play openly with cards are of the sect of the Chiites, or followers of Ali ORIGIN OF CARDS. , ll belonging to India and Persia, and regarded with suspicion by the more faithful followers of the Prophet. The latter, when they so far forget themselves as to play, do so in secret, and at games they have acquired from the Spaniards. Seventhly : The derivation of the word tarot, from the Egyptian, whether according to the version of Count de Gebelin, or of his correspondent, M. Le C. de M (Singer Bibl. 8, Appendix, pp. 303-305), is merely an iagenious play with words, while the inter- pretation of EHphas Levi (see " French Cards of Divination," posfea) , is of too mystical a character to submit to be investigated. Again, the word matto, signifying fooKsh, mad, exists in Italian ; from it the title of the tarot, le mat, is most likely derived, seeing that its significations better apply to the particular emblematic card in question than would those of the Oriental mat, which are, killed, slain, dead. Eighthly : Though it be admitted that the Kabbalah, judicial astrology, and occult science were common to the Semitic nations, there is not any satisfactory evidence that cards, or their analogues, were employed by them in the process of divination. The theories of Count de Gebelin, Alliette, Eliphas Levi, Boiteau d'Ambly, and others, in support of the connection of cards with early Eastern occult philosophy and thaumaturgy, however iugenious, are of too recondite and shadowy a character to admit of satisfactory argument. Ninthly : Whether the Gipsies or Zingari be of Egyptian origiu, or have sprung from the Sudors of Hindustan, who migrated at the period of Timur Beg, they did not appear in Europe before 1417, a period when cards had been known for some time. Tenthly : Resorting to China for the origin of cards is only another mission to the " Eefuge for the Destitute." At any rate we are justified in assuming that if in the celestial empire cards really had a separate and early birth, Europe had not any more hand in robbing her of this progeny than she had in taking from her gun- powder, printing, and engraving, all of which, with other things, are considered by some to have been originally Chinese inventions. Thus, as we have indicated, may reasons be adduced, which render it very doubtful whether the origin of playing-cards should be looked for in the East. A far more positive circumstance is that the objects in question made their first appearance in Europe about 500 years back. On this point our knowledge is so sure and varied as to lead some writers to maintain that cards had their origin about that time, and in Europe. The latest writer of repute on the subject, M. MerHn (Bibl. 6), may be taken as the chief exponent of this theory. Whether we regard playing cards as an original invention in 12 GENERAL HISTORY. Europe, or as introduced there from some other quarter of the globe, an important question arises: What is the earliest date known at which reference has been made to the existence of these agents ? Wot any pretence has been made to show that this occurred before 1278, the sixth year of the reign of Edward I. This king, having been in Syria, has been supposed to have become acquainted there with cards, and to have brought them with him into Europe, a supposition which has been supported by the following passage from his Wardrobe Rolls : Waltero Sturton ad opus regis ad luden- dum ad quatuor reges viiis. \d. ("Archseologia," vol. viii.) Mr. Chatto has, we think, shown satisfactorily that the game of the four kings, played at by Edward I., was chess, and that this name was a literal translation of the Indian one, Chaturaji (Chatto, p. 19) . In a MS. of Sandro di Popozzo [il Governo della Famiglia) , composed, it is said, in 1299, allusion is made to cards. Unfortunately, the copy of it which exists is not of earlier date, according to good authority, than A. D. 1400, and there is not any surety that the allusion in question is not a more recent gloss. The authority of the "Guldin Spil" for 1300, of the statutes of the military order of La Banda for 1332, and of the MS. of " Reynard le Contrefait " for 1341, when carefully weighed, must be admitted as in themselves unsa- tisfactory (Chatto, Merlin) . The same must be said of the MS. " Pelerinage de I'homme " for a.d. 1350, of the Romance, " Jehan de Saintr^" for 1367, and of the MS. " Cite de Dieu" (a translation by Raoul de Presle of the " Civitas Dei") for 1375. (Merlin, pp. 7-8.) Nevertheless, there are reasons for believing that cards made their first appearance in Europe and in Italy about the year 1350, though the earliest direct allusion to them which is acceptable with- out much demur, is that made by Covelluzzo in the chronicle of Viterbo, quoted by Feliciano Bussi, and before referred to (p. 8) . In this chronicle Covelluzzo writes, "Anno 1379. fu recato in Viterbo el gioco delle carti," &c. As respects this date too, it should be borne in mind that Giovanni di Covelluzzo wrote a hundred years after the event in question. It is likewise noteworthy that not any allusion is made to cards, either in the MS. of Hugo von Trymberg who lived during the second half of the thirteenth and the first of the fourteenth century, or in the MSS. of Petrarch and Chaucer belonging to the first and second halves of the fourteenth century in all of which MSS. specific mention is made of other gambling games and agents. According to Passavant (vol. i. p. 7 note) there is in the Library of the Escurial a MS. of the date 1321 composed by order of Don Alphonso the Wise, on the rules of the games of chess and dice ; numerous figures are given, but not a word is said in relation to cards. If Breitkopf, Von Murr and Weigel can be depended on, cards were known at Niir'nberg circa ORIGIN OF CARDS. 13 1380-1384, since the " Pflicht-buch " of this city is affirmed to allude distinctly to them. After all, it must be allowed that what may be termed the posi- tive history of playing-cards begins in the year 1392. At the beginning of the eighteenth century Le Pere Menestrier discovered, in the registers of the Chambres des Comptes of Charles VI. of France, an account of Charles Poupart, the royal treasurer. In this account, commencing the 1st of February, 1392, is the item: — " Donne a Jacquemin Gringonneur peintre pour trois jeux de cartes £i or et diverses couleiirs, ornes de plusieurs devises, pour porter devers le Seigneur Eoi pour son ebatement lvi sols parisis." This date, 1392, has never been contested, and since — as M. Merlin well points out — Gringonneur is not alluded to as an inventor of cards, but as a painter of them, and, considering the price paid, it should be assumed that cards were already known. From this date (1392) there are certain and many references to playing-cards. The civic archives, guild books, and registers of the German towns, particularly Niirnberg, Augsburg, and Ulm, record early in the fifteenth century the names of both card-makers and card-paiaters. We know for certain that before the conclusion of the first half of the fifteenth century Germany had established quite a commerce in the production of playing-cards, which were sent to Italy, and against the continued importation of which the Venetian senate was petitioned to interfere. Sermons and edicts against their use, and fiscal regulations connected with them, are of frequent occurrence from the first quarter of the fifteenth century. Bartsch makes the following comment on a print by H. Schaiifelin (n. 36), representing St. John Capistran exhorting by a sermoii the in- habitants of Niirnberg to burn their cards and other gambling agents. " On the impression in the Imperial and Eoyal Library the sub- ject of the piece is described by a contemporary as follows : ' Anno 1452 sind auf eines Cardinals Nahmens Johann Capistran, Predigt, die er allhier in Niirnberg, unter dem freyen Himmel, ver unserer Frauen Capellen gethan hat, 76 Schlitten, 2,640 Bretspiele, 40,000 Wiirfeln, und ein grosser Haufen Karteuspiele wie auch unterschied- lich Geschmeide und anderes, so zur Hoffart dienlich auf dem markt ofifentlich verbrannt worden ;' that is to say, — In the year 1452, in consequence of a sermon delivered in the public place opposite the Chapel of Our Lady at Niirnberg, by Cardinal John Capistran, 76 shovel-boards, 2,640 trictracs (draught and backgammon boards), 40,000 dice, and a great heap of packs of cards, as likewise a variety of trinkets and other objects of vanity, were burnt in the market- place." (Bartsch, vii. p. 256.) The supposed earliest pictorial representation of persons playing H GENERAL HISTORY. at cards yet discovered is a miniature in a MS. volume known as " Le Roman du Roi Meliadus de Leonnoys, par Helie de Borron," written for Louis II., titular king of Naples. This vellum MS. is now in the British Museum, and may be referred to under " Addi- tional MSS. vol. i. 1828-1841, No. 12,228." The miniature is on the verso of folio 313. A king and three attendants are at table playing cards ; three other persons are looking on. One of the party is playing the five of Deniers with the right hand, exposing, as he holds his cards in his left hand, a two of Batons to the spec- tator. Another holds in his right hand the two of Deniers, as if ready to follow the lead of the person on his left. The miniature' is relatively poor in drawing, and but sHghtly and badly coloured. Outline facsimiles of it may be seen in Singer's work (Bibl. 8, p. 68) , and in the "Art Journal" for 1859, p. 87. What is the date of the MS. ? The Library Catalogue places it between 1352 and 1362, adding that " the MS. is illustrated by upwards of 350 minia- tures, the greater portion of which are by a contemporary hand, but others have been added at a later period by inferior artists." Mr. Wright, in his " Domestic Games and Amusements of the Middle Ages" C' Art Journal," ut supra) , places the date of the MS. between 1330 and 1350. On the fly-leaf of the volume is written inter alia, " Mr. Douce is of opinion that it was executed at least as early as the close of the fourteenth century. It has 357 miniatures, in my opinion of different styles and periods ; but in stating this much I am aware that I am at issue with two powerful authorities — Singer in his beautiful work on Playing Cards, and Dibdin in his ' De- cameron.' " (G. H. Freeling.) Unquestionably Singer affirms that the miniatures appear to be all by the hand of the same artist, and that there is not any reason to doubt they were executed about the period at which the MS. was written {loco 67). Dr. Dibdin, however, scarcely advances as much. He writes {op. ait.), inter alia, — "These illuminations are of two characters or modes of execution," and does not assert them to be of one and the same period ; nor does he, it is true, directly deny them this character. In a note at page ccviii. (vol. i.) he remarks : " The later illuminations are slightly yet most unskilfully coloured. . . . The age of the MS. is probably towards the latter end of the fourteenth century." Not any opinion is here offered on the date of the MS., but attention is drawn to the fact that the writers quoted not only differ sixty to seventy years in respect to it, but do not speak confidently in any instance. As regards the miniatures, it may be stated, they have been carefully examined, and the conclusion has been arrived at that those from folio 259 to the close of the volume are not of the same period and style as characterise the ORIGIN OF CARDS. 15 previous illustrations of the MS. Differences in shading and colouring begin about foUo 265, with the light red washes and stippling in red of the fortresses, &c. The card-playing miniature appears to have been executed by an inferior hand, not only in colouring, but also in drawing and the ability to produce a neat out- line. Folio 259 presents the last of the older style of miniature work common to the MS. Thus it may follow that the date of the " Eoman du Roy Meliadus" might be that of the close of the four- teenth century, and the period of execution of the later miniatures might not be earlier than the end of the first quarter of the fifteenth century, or even somewhat later. Should this be the case, this early representation of card-playing cannot be allowed the signi- ficance attached to it by Singer, Wright, and others. Nor should the remark of the first-named authority be passed over as unim- portant, viz. : " It is remarkable that no mention of the game occurs, as far as we could discover by an examination of that part of the MS. to which the miniature is aflSxed." (p. 68.) Mr. Planch^ has offered strong opposition to the credit of this miniature, and his paper in the " Archaeological Journal" for 1871 (vol. xxvii. p. 108) may be consulted with advantage. In Lacroix and Serre's " Moyen Age et la Eenaissance " (t. ii. art. " Cartes A Jouer ") , a large chromo-Uthograph is given repre- senting a number of royal and noble personages playing and looking on at a game of cards. The print is stated to have been copied from a MS. of the fifteenth century in the BibUotheque de Rouen {" SaUe Leber '^), and is entitled, " Le revers an Jeu des Suisses." Le Suisse (B 2) holds three low cards of the suit of diamonds in his hand, and the " Roi de France" (A 1) exhibits three "honours." Another early representation of a card party is a miniature in a MS. French translation made by Raoul de Presle, between the years 1371 and 1375, of the " Civitas Dei" of St. Augustine. It exhibits two ladies with the steeple head-dresses of 1467, and a gentleman with the small cap and long hair of the same period, playing at a round table with cards, of which the " pips" are visible. Mr. Chatto has given a copy of this miniature (Bibl. 4, p. 72), and Mr. Wright likewise, in the " Art Journal " for 1859. What is the date of this MS. ? There is not any proof that it is that of the original translation of which it is a copy. Mr. Chatto was of opinion that the costume represented is more like that of 1422 than of 1364 or 1380, while Planche would assign the date to a period not earlier than 1460. However, let the actual date of the MS. be what it may, it is worthy of note that numeral cards and " honours" like those now in use were known in France at the time when the miniature was painted. In the "Magasin Pittoresque" for 1842 (p. 324) is a cut entitled. i6 GENERAL HISTORY. " Philippe le bon consultant une tireuse de cartes/' copied from a painting ascribed to Jan van Eyok. Though it has been denied that the picture is really by Van Byckj it has been admitted that the costume is that of the reign of Charles VIII., between the years 1483 and 1498. Supposing that the picture does belong to this period, we have thus evidence of cards having been used for the pur- pose of divination before the close of the fifteenth century. Among the prints of the early German masters in the National Collection may be seen a scarce engraving by Israhel van Meckenen, representing a lady and gentleman seated at a table, playing at cards. The gentleman appears to have lost the game. On the table may be seen the three of eicheln, or glands, and in the left hand of the lady a figure card, to which she is drawing the attention of her adversary. There is much expression in the faces and actions of both persons. As remarked by Singer, it may be readily seen from their costumes that the players are of no mean rank, and were even in the extreme of fashion, since they wear the strange shoes with long pointed toes, termed by the French poulains. At the same time the simplicity of manners and mode of domestic life of the period are obvious from various details in the print. The latter is described in Bartsch, vol. vi. p. 302, n. 114, Passavant, vol. ii. p. 197, n. 251, and a facsimile of it is given by Singer, to whose "Ee- searches," &c., it forms a characteristic frontispiece. The original was produced, probably, during the last quarter of the fifteenth century. Another interesting representation of card-playing is that given in the chef-d'oeuvre of the early German master of the initials M Z (Martin Zatzinger). This print is known as "le grand bal" of Bartsch, vol. vi. p. 377, n. 13, and may be seen in the National Collection. The engraving represents a ball given by the Grand Duke and Duchess of Bavaria. The royal personages have retired from it to a recessed place, where they have seated themselves at table to play at cards. The Duchess is pointing to a five of roth or herzen, which she has played out on the table, while the Duke, who is about to play his card, looks attentively at the Duchess with an expression which seems to say, " I wonder what you'll think of this." It should be noticed that the players are shown as each keeping a chalked score on the table. On the window frame above the Duke's head is the date 1500. A copy of the portion of the engraving here alluded to is given in Singer's work, p. 274. There is an interesting print connected with card-playing by Anthony of Worms (a.d. 1529), which will be noticed afterwards. The only other representation of card- playing that need be referred to here is that given in cut xli. of Holbein's "Dance of Death" (ed. 1547). It is a gambling party interrupted by Death and the Devil, the latter being in so great a hurry for his prey that he seems desirous of carrying ofiF his victim ORIGIN OF CARDS. 17 the chief of the party — almost before Death has done his part. On the table the five of diamonds (?) is turned upwards on a pack^ and on the floor lie the ace and three of the same suit. The celebrated cuts here referred to were designed during the second quarter of the sixteenth century. Much controversy has ensued as to whether cards appeared first in Spain, Italy, Prance, or Germany. Those who have supported the theory of their Eastern origin have allotted them to Spain ; such as have maintained their European origin have given them to Italy. There have been writers who have associated them with Prance, as have a few with Germany. The more satisfactory and direct evidence points to Italy as the European district in which they first appeared. The particular reasons which have been advanced during the last few years in support of the theory that cards originated ia Europe wiU be farther alluded to when the old Florentine or Venetian en- gravings, known as the TaroccM of Manteijna, the Garte di Baldini, &c., come under consideration. It is necessary for the proper understanding of our subject that the character and varieties of playing-cards be entered on at once. Section III. GENERAL XATURE AND VARIETIES OF CARDS. JIRSTLT, of the general nature of playing-cards. All cards in use in Europe at the present day are, as far as can be judged from the rare fragments preserved in a few public collections and private cabinets, and such pic- torial representations as have been mentioned, based on the types which prevailed at the time of their origin. These types are two in number, and all true playing-cards may be said to be of two kinds, viz., tarots (proper) and numerals. Tarot cards, or " tarots," constitute a series of pieces generally twenty- two in number, excep- tionally forty-one in the Minchiate of Plorence, and fifty if the early Florentine Garte di Baldini be here included. These card pieces are characterised by their having on them whole-length figures or other designs emblematic of various conditions of life, and of certain vicissitudes happening to humanity. These emblematic figures vary somewhat, according to time and country ; but taking an early yet still common set, they may be described as representing : ^ — ' The plates in "Singer" (p. 284) may advantageously illustrate the present text. C GENERAL HISTORY. No. 1. A juggler. No. 13. Death. 2. Female pope. 14. Temperance. 3. An empress. 15. The devil. 4. An emperor. 16. A tower struck by light 5. The pope. ning. 6. The lovers (or marriage) . 17. A large star, &c. 7. A chariot with warrior. 18. The moon. 8. Justice. 19. The sun. 9. A hermit. 20. The last judgment. 10. The wheel of fortune. 21. The world, or kosmos. 11. Force. 22. A fool, generally un- 12. A man hanging by his numbered, some- foot, head downwards times placed first. (Le Pendu). Though there are Italian, French, Flemish, and German tarots, the titles of these emblematic designs are more frequently in the French language than in any other. Italian titles may be met with, but far less frequently than French ones. As a rule, too, the ortho- graphy is wretched. The names, as usually found printed below the figures, are as follows : — . 1. Le bataleur. No. 13. Title often wanting {la 2. La papesse. 3. Limperatrise. 4. Lempereur. 14. 15. mort) . Tenperance. Le diable. 6. Le pape. 16. La maison Dieu. 6. Lamoreux. 17. Lestoille. 7. Le charior. 18. La lune. 8. Justice. 19. Le soleil. 9. Lermite. 10. La roue de fortune. 20. 21. Le jugement. Le monde. 11. La force. 22. Le mat. 12. Le pendu. These twenty-two card pieces are usually numbered with large Roman numerals in a margin above the design, according to the sequence just given. In those exceptional sets in which the tarots are more than twenty-two in number, symbolic figures of the Muses sciences, planets, and analogous subjects are introduced (Italian tarots, postea) . Though the earliest tarots, likewise, were probably more than twenty-two in amount, such as we have described were those chosen out of the lot by more modern card-makers. These tarots are called likewise atouts, atutU, and triomphes, be- cause in the games played with them, in combination with numeral or common cards, the former override the latter even to the VARIETIES OF CARDS. 19 " kings ;" thus they are above and superior to all. To these same cards the title tarocchi is frequently applied. The origin of the word tarot or tarots has been much canvassed. Some have derived it from Egyptian dialects^ others have regarded it as springing from the term tarotee, which was applied to cards diapered or marked on the backs with lines crossing lozenge-wisej or dotted diagonally with small spots, as such cards generally were. The earlier ones were often painted with much delicacy, like the miniatures of MSS., on gold grounds. They were also occasionally bordered with a silver margin, on which was represented a spiral or tortuous band, formed by similar dots or points. This band being likened to a tare, an " espece de gaufrure produite par de petites trous piques et elignes en compartements," the cards possessing it were called tarots. According to Menestrier, "tare" signifies properly a hole — defaut, dechet, tache, trou — derived from the Greek npiiv, to bore. The dots, points, &c., in the ornamentation alluded to, simulating little hollows, the cards having them were called tarots, or were said to be tarotees. Some of the supporters of the theory of the Oriental origin of cards assign to the word tarot high antiquity, while others of the same school, as well as such as look to Europe for their birthplace, though admitting the cards themselves to exemplify the more ancient type, assert that the term now applied to them is not older than the fifteenth century, their original title being Na'ibis. " Tarots " has been said also to have been derived from ta- rocchi, or tarocchino, which is properly the name of a game played with tarots combined with numerals, some of the latter being suppressed. The name of the game having been applied to the cards with which it was played, they were hence called "tarocchi cards." According to M. Merlin, " C'est par corruption que I'on dit le tarot, le jeu de tarot, il faut dire le jeu des tarots." (Bibl. 6, p. 29, note.) The most ancient, cards which have come down to us are of the tarots character. These are the four cards of the Musee Correr at Venicejthe seventeen pieces of the Paris Cabinet (erroneously called often the Gringonneur, or Charles VI. cards of 1392) fine Venetian tarots of the fifteenth century, in the opinion of some not of an earlier date than 1425 ; and the series of cards belonging to a Min- chiate set in the possession of the Countess Aurelia Visconti Gonzaga at Milan, when Cicognara wrote. The date of the latter may be concluded from the emblematic design of Love having on it the combined armorials of the Prince' Visconti and of Beatrice Tenda, who was married to Filippo Maria Visconti in 1413, and ordained to death by him in 1418. It is true that the cards of the Musee Correr 20 GENERAL HISTORY. are not emblematic ones, and therefore not in themselves true tarots nor atutti, but they are numerals of the particular suit marks, viz., spade, coppe, danari, bastoni, which used to accompany the emble- matic cards of the old Venetian sets, and hence may be assumed to have formed part of a combined tarots sequence, probably the same to which belong the twenty-three cards once in the cabinet of Cicog- nara, and now in the possession of MM. Tross Freres at Paris, and described by Merlin in the note at page 90 of his treatise. These and other early tarots of the first half of the fifteenth cen- tury have been drawn and painted by hand, some of them being of very beautiful character. Facsimiles well worthy of attention may be seen in the admirable series, " Jeux de Cartes Tarots et de Cartes Numerales," published by the Society of Bibliophiles Frangais, 1844, now a difficult work to procure, but a copy of which is in the library of the British Museum. Admirable outline copies of the Correr cards may be found in Merlin (pi. 8 and 9) , and of the Vis- conti pieces in the treatise of Cicognara (Bibl., 6) . These and other early cards are larger than the ordinary ones of the present day, some of them being seven inches high by more than four inches broad. Several are likewise very thick, the material of which they are formed resembling the cotton paper of ancient MSS. Others, on the contrary, like the Garte di Baldini, e.g., are on very thin paper, so thin, indeed, that shuffling, dealing, and playing with them, as we do now with cards, would be scarcely possible. The ancient tarots from which all modern ones have been derived, fragmentary pieces of which have been just adverted to, and vestigia, or copies of which may be seen transmitted in the emblems of the Carte di Baldini or the Tarocchi of Mantegna, constituted the naibis of the early Italian writers. By this term the primitive cards of Europe, if they may be so regarded, were called. Further comment on nomenclature, however, may be dispensed with until the character of playing-cards has been more fully developed, it being sufficient to add that while in accordance with one theory the word 7iaibi, derived from the Arabic, was given first by the Spaniards and transmitted to Italy, as taught by another it originated in the latter country, then passed into Spain, where it is still common, as it is likewise in Portugal in the form of naypes. The other and second kind of playing-cards are numerals, familiar to every one, in the modern form, at least, of the cards in ordinary use. These numerals are known also as " suit," " pip cards " and " cartes de points." They are in full sets fifty- two in number, divided into four suits, or colours, of thirteen cards each suit. Each suit is distinguished by a special mark or symbol, which has varied at different times and in different countries. The more general marks of the suits have been cups, money, swords, and VARIETIES OF CARDS. 21 clubs. Bach suit has three coate, court, or figure cards, likewise called " honours," mostly representing a king, queen, and a valet, or knave, and ten "pip" or "point" cards. The latter commence with an ace, which numbers one pip, the next card has two pips, and so on to the tenth, carrying ten marks on it. The numerals having but few pips are known as " low cards," with the exception of the ace (as) , which in some games overrides all other cards ; those numerals with several pips are " high cards. ^' In some games the whole fifty-two pieces are not used, certain of the lower cards being suppressed. Sometimes, as will be seen hereafter, there axe four figure cards or " honours" in each suit, while in other in- stances a female figure or queen is not allowed, but a " cavalier " is put in her place. Careful research has proved, we think, that at first all the card germs were purely emblematic in character — naibis — simple tarots, as they are now called — not lending themselves to anything like gambling, whatever they might do towards divinatory purposes. As far as Europe, at any rate, was concerned, it is probable that they were intended for instructive diversion, since Morelli, in a chronicle written in 1393, interdicting the use of dice to children, recom- mends naibis : " N^on giuocare a zara ne ad altro giuoco di dadi, fa de giuochi che usano i fanciulli, agli ossi, alia trottola, a ferri, a naibi," &c. (Merlin, p. 52, note.) Further, in the " Life of the Duke of Milan, Filippo Maria Visconti" (born in 1391), written by Decembrio, his secretary, it is stated that one of the favourite games of this prince, when young, was a game played with painted figures — " qui ex imaginibus depictis fit," — and which would scarcely be a gambling amusement, since we are informed after- wards that the Duke played sometimes likewise games of hazard on particular occasions : " Solemnibus quoque diebus nonnunquam alea lusit." Towards the end of the fourteenth century these naibis of instruc- tion were made subservient to the amusement of older persons, probably, as Merlin supposes, by some ingenious Venetians, with the hope of restraining their countrymen from the immoderate use of dice and games of hazard. To effect this intention, and at the same time not to eliminate in toto the element of chance from the new amusement, the theory of numerical values was combined with that of emblems or symboHsm, these values varying in benefit to the players according as chance might operate in the allotment of the cards. In creating the new game the principle followed apparently was to take about half only (twenty-two) of the original emblematic pieces, and while retaining some of the emblems, as of the re, imperator, papa, justicia, temperancia, luna, sol, &c., to have displaced others by emblems of a moral character, more directly 22 OENETtAL HISTORY. bearing on the dangers and consequences of gambling play, such, e.g., as tbe roue de la fortune, le pendu, la mart, le diable, le jugement dernier. The figure of a juggler, placed first in the series, was in- tended, perhaps, to point as caution against the way in which certain dexterous hands might play the cards which followed in the sequence. A distinct series of fifty-six cards was then added to the above, in which numerical values were to play a part, and into which series four emblematic cards only were admitted, viz., le roi (or re) , regina, cavalier (or chevalier) , valet (or fameio) . These fifty-six cards were divided into four suits of fourteen cards each suit, the latter being distinguished by the symbols of the two theologic and two cardinal virtues of the original naibis, as represented in the fourth decade (B) of the Garte di Baldini, viz., Fede, Charita, Jus- ticia, Fortezza. One suit had for its mark the cup [coppa) of Faith, another the money {danaro) of Charity, a third the sword {spada) of Justice, and a fourth the club {hastone') of Force. Bach suit had the four emblematic pieces — re, regina, aavallo, fante — king, queen, knight, and knave, the remaining ten numerals of the suit being marked with increasing numbers from one to ten of the particular sign of the suit. These two series — tarots and numerals — being brought together, made up a total of seventy-eight cards. To the first twenty-two emblematic pieces, or tarots proper, was given the privilege of being superior to all the other cards when the game was played, each tarot having a number regulating its order and value in its own suit. To these pieces the name of atuiti was also applied, and then very commonly the term of tarots was assigned to the general combination of atutti and numerals, though properly belonging to the atutti only. In this way most probably originated the two characteristic types of playing-cards, which two types were united together at a very early period, or at least as soon as cards began to be used for the recreation of grown persons, or for the purposes of gambling, and the latter was unquestionably soon efiected. It would appear that to this combined series of atutti and numerals the original term naibis also continued to be applied for some time after the union, since we find contemporary writers and moralists countenancing one kind of instructive amusement in which chance went for little or nothing as afibrded by the employment of naibis, and another game which they reprobated, since it led to gambling as bad and as surely as did the use of dice. St. Bernardin of Sienna, writing and preaching against their use (circa 1430), thus expresses himself in a sermon contra alearum ludos : " Et idem est judicium sicut de tabulariis ita etiam de tabellis taxillis taxillorum, tertii autem participantes sunt qui fiunt parti- cipes ex Naibis sen Oharticellas de quibus innumerabilia mala egre- diuntur." VARIETIES OF CARDS. 23 The loTe of excitement and gambling, however, was too strong for the moralist to subdue ; men were captivated by the new amuse- ment, and even the clergy were not always proof against its seduc- tions. The use of tarots [i.e., naibis combined with numerals) spread rapidly throughout Europe, but each nation soon began to modify and alter the combination and marks of the cards according to its own particular fancy. It does not seem possible now to determine which was the first, Spain, France, or Germany, to imitate the original Venetian tarots game of seventy-eight cards. The Germans unquestionably were not only very early in so doing, but began to be the card-makers for other nations, favouring Venice in particular with their exportations, against which her own card-makers publicly remonstrated. In Italy itself Florence soon began making alterations in the new and popular game, increasing the emblematic pieces to forty in number, and producing her Minchiate. At a later period Bologna suppressed some of the numeral series, reducing the pack of seventy-eight to sixty-two cards, thus establishing her TaroocMno, while Venice her- self very early instituted changes connected with both atutti and numerals under the name of Trappola. Among the various modifications to which the old tarots game was early subjected, the most important was undoubtedly that of the elimination of the whole of the atutti, or emblematic series proper, leaving the numeral series to stand and work by itself under some such forms as we have it now. The more men played with cards the more fascinated they became with them, and strove to render them less cumbersome than they were, more amenable to rapid and exciting play, and their games still more dependent on hazard. So the first of the five suits, the true tarots, was thrown aside, the emblems of justice, temperance, death, and judgment not being needed, beiag, in fact, found de trop. The four suits of the numeral cards were taken, and one coate-card or "honour" expunged from each suit ; variations were made in the figure designs and in the marks of the suits, while of the thirteen numerals of each suit left different nations suppressed certain pieces in establishing what may be deemed their national games. Spain had its Hombre, Prance its Piquet, and Germany its LandshnecTitspiel or Lansquenet. Though such was the rule, some games still retained an emblematic series, and to this day cards may be purchased in Italy and the south of France of the true old tarots character. The pervading principle throughout all the changes — with one exception, the Minchiate of Florence — which the original Venetian game has been made to undergo, has been the principle of reduction. Nor is this to be wondered at, considering the purpose to which cards tended at the outset to be popularly applied. As observed by MerHn : — 24 GENERAL HISTORY. " The game of tarots with its numerous cards was a game of intricate combinations, which could never please the taste of common players accustomed to dice, in the use of which chance alone gene- rally governed everything. Prom the new game, therefore, every- thing that could render its course difficult or slow was eliminated. Its members were reduced to less than half their number [in certain games], and it was at this price that cards became popular." (p. 62.) Popular indeed have they been, and still are. As these pages are being written remonstrances are appearing in some influential public journals against the continuous and "high play" which is introduced, surreptitiously, as it were, into clubs which have standing rules against the practice. Mr. Chatto pointedly remarked : — " He who devised the game of cards as now usually played appears to have had a thorough perception of at least two of the weak points of human nature, for next to man's trust in his ' luck ' in all games of chance is his confidence in all games of skill. The shuffling, cut- ting, and dealing of cards, together with the chance afforded by the turn-up of the trump, place the novice, in his own conceit, on a par with the experienced gamester, who, on the other hand, is apt to underrate his opponent's chance from his over- confidence in his own skill." (p. 79.) Section IV. CONNECTION WITH WOOD-ENGRA.VING, THE MANUFACTURE OF PAPER, &c. |,HB general history of playing-cards thus far developed ^ includes the periods of the last quarter of the fourteenth and the first quarter of the fifteenth century, or a few _ years more. Within this time is likewise embraced the origin of wood-engraving, the earliest known example of which, with a date to it generally allowed to be authentic, is the " Buxheim Saint Christopher of 1423." Still there is suflacient reason for thmkmg that the St. Christopher was not the first of its kind, and that for some years before the date connected with it the art of wood- engraving had been known and practised. Nevertheless the positive history of wood-engravmg can be said to commence a.d. 1423 only as the positive history of playing-cards begins in 1392. In both cases dates are connected with recorded objects. One object, the Saint Christopher, still exists; while the other, the so-called Gringonneur CONNECTION WITH WO OD-ENGBAVINO, ETC. 25 cardsj though questionable, yet unequivocally affords in the history associated with it the record of the precise date of the production of certain cards, and the price paid for them. It has been maintained by some that wood- engraving must have been known and well practised, too, before 1423, since playing-cards never could have been in anything like general use without their production by some comparatively facile and cheap procedure. That cards were obtainable by the commonalty in 1397, however they may have been manufactured, is unquestionable, for on the 22nd of January in that year, the Prevot of Paris issued a decree forbidding working people to play at tennis, bowls, dice, cards, and ninepins on working days. Heinecken, Von Murr, and Leber advanced the doctrine that the first wood-engravers were card-makers, and that the production of the more profane objects preceded and, as it were, led to that of the Melgen, Melglein, or "little Saints" and Scriptural pieces, which were among the earlier efforts of the wood-engraver. Mr. Chatto was once of the same opinion, remarking in his " Treatise on Wood-Engraving " (1836) : — "It has been conjectured that the art of wood engraving was employed on sacred subjects before it was applied to the multiplica- tion of those '' books of Satan ' — playing-cards. It, however, seems not unlikely that it was first employed in the manufacture of cards, and that the monks, availiag themselves of the same principle, shortly afterwards employed the art of wood-engraving for the pur- pose of circulating the figures of saints, thus endeavouring to supply a remedy for the evil, and extracting from the serpent a cure for its bite." At a later period the same authority expressed himself as fol- lows : — " As there are no cards engraved on wood to which so early a date as 1423 can be fairly assigned, and as at that period there were professional card-makers established at Augsburg, it would appear that wood-engraving was employed on the execution of Helgen before it was applied to cards, and that there were stencilled cards before there were wood-engravings of saints. Though this conclusion be not exactly in accordance with an opinion which I have expressed in another work, it is yet that which, on a further investigation of the subject, appears to be best supported by facts, and most strongly corroborated by the incidental notices which we have of the progress of the Briefmaler, or card-painter, from his original profession to that of a wood-engraver in general." (Bibl. 4, p. 87.) It is now impossible to decide whether cards were or were not the first objects on which the wood-engraver .practised his art; but taking into consideration what has been already stated, and what has 26 GENEBAL HISTORY. to follow, it must be conceded that wMle there is mucli evidence, apparently of a positive kind, against their having been so, there is only presumption, based on hypothetic grounds, that they were. In the first place, as before observed, the most ancient cards which have come down to us have been executed by hand, and records exist of other early cards having been so executed, as well as for whom, and the price paid for them. In the second place we are told that when Saint Bemardin, of Sienna, preached at Bologna in 1423 against the use of " Charti- cellas seu Naibos," and so forcibly that his hearers made a fire in the public place and threw their cards into it, a card-maker who was present and heard the denunciations even against those persons who supplied the obnoxious article, exclaimed : " I have not learned, father, any other business than that of painting cards, and if you deprive me of that, you deprive me of life and my destitute family of the means of earning a subsistence. ''■' To this appeal the Saint re- plied, " If you do not know what to paint, paint this figure, and you will never have cause to repent having done so." Thus saying he took a tablet and drew on it the figure of a radiant sun, having in the centre the sacred cipher, I.H.S. In the Paris collection of prints, there is a celebrated engraving of the style known as the Maniere criblee, a. d. 1474, supposed to bear reference to this story. The Saint is holding aloft, in his right hand, the symbol which he recoianxended to the card-painter. A facsimile of the engraving may be seen among the early pieces in the British Museum. At the date above mentioned (1423) wood- engraving was already practised, since the Saint Christopher is of the same period ; yet we learn that cards were still painted. In the third place, though card-making was a regulsT trade in Germany early in the fifteenth century, and the name of a Kaj-tenmacher occurs in the burgess books of Augsburg for 1418, yet the name of a wood-engraver proper, i.e., Forinschneider , is not to be met with until 1449, when it is entered in the civic archives of N"iirnberg, and as for twenty years afterwards it is frequently entered on the same page with that of a card-painter, Kartenmaler, there can be scarcely a doubt that there was a distinction between these avocations, though like the barbers and surgeons of former days, the followers of each business belonged to the same guild or company. " Prom the circumstance of so many women occurring as card- painters in the town books of Niirnberg between 1423 and 1477, there appears reason to conclude that they at least were not wood- engravers." (Chatto, p. 82.) In the fourth place, though it be admitted with Lacroix, that " in CONNECTION WITH WOOD-ENGRAVING, ETC. 27 the interval between 1392 and 1454, means had been discovered of making playing-cards at a cheap rate, and of converting them into an object of commercej" and that painting or hand-work alone could scarcely suffice for this purpose, yet it by no means follows that cards were the work of the wood-engraver. According to Chatto, on the oldest cards he had ever seen the figures had been executed by means of stencils, this being the case both in the cards of 1440 (G 122) and those known as the Stukely cards. The oldest German examples which had come before Passavant belonged to the first half of the fifteenth century, and had been produced from stencils. (Vol. i. p. 12.) In the fifth place, it is quite possible that more stress has been placed on the statements of the old chroniclers with respect to the extent in which cards were spread among the commonalty than is justifiable. To quote the words of Merlin, " Doubtless cards were then [1397-1423] known, .... but we would add that at the beginning of the fifteenth century they were not in such general use probably as has been supposed." .... "Women's labour would then perfectly suffice to keep pace with the demand for them, and if the interdictions launched against their use during the first half of the fifteenth century show that the taste for them made advances alarming to morality, they do not prove that cards were then destroyed as quickly as they are at the present time. The more they cost the more carefully would they be husbanded. Are not houses, and even public places of resort in the country, to be found in our own day, where the same cards have lasted for several years ? To change cards when they have become a little soiled is quite a modern luxury, and a duty to which our ancestors attached but little importance." (p. 68.) After all that can be said, however, in favour of the opinion that the earlier cards were painted and stencilled, and not the work of the wood-engraver, the question is yet an open one, except as regards such " cartes de luxe " as were executed with great delicacy, like the miniatures of MSS., on gold grounds, diapered on the backs and richly bordered. Leber thus wrote : — " The greatest adept in a knowledge of the earliest products of xylography. Baron Heinecken, was satisfied that the first im- pression which appeared in Europe received from a coarsely en- graved block, was a card. In his opinion, which we think well founded, the engraving of cards led to that of the figures of Saints, which in its turn gave rise to the engraving of inscriptions or legends, from which sprung the art of printing. To think that a card should produce the press ! What a mother, and what pos- terity ! " ("Etudes Historiques," &c. p. 3.) On this Chatto remarks : " He who can thus persuade himself that the germ of wood-en- 28 GENERAL HISTORY. graving in Europe is to be found in cards, will doubtless feel great pleasure in tracing its interesting development ' ce n'est que le premier pas qui coute/ ''•' and therein lies our diflBculty. A circumstance wortby of notice is that cards were in use in certain countries before the manufacture of paper went on there. Such cards must then either have been introduced ready made, or manufactured from paper imported for the purpose. Exceptionally they may have been itade of other material, as we find to be the case still as respects some Oriental cards, which are thin painted tablets of wood, ivory, metal, and even dried leaves. Canvas and leather cards have been recorded, embroidered silk cards have been exhibited at Kensington, and the writer has been assured by a dealer that cards of tortoiseshell and of small tiles had passed through his hands. Both Breitkopf and Merlin refer to cards on silver plates, the latter giving copies of thirty-four such cards in his own possession (plate 68). Cards were well known in England in 1463, and if they were made of paper, and in this country, the material must have been imported for such purpose, since paper is not considered to have been made here before the reign of Henry VII., or 1485- 1509. As late as the reign of Queen Anne (1702) there were imported annually 40,000 reams of Genoa or white paper, chiefly for the manufacture in question. Nevertheless, it is reasonable to suppose that cards were manufactured, as well as imported, in this country during the first half of the seventeenth century, from the circumstance of the tradesmen having petitioned Parliament, in 1643, against their importation, which could matter to them only as interfering with their own monopoly. Further, by a proclamation of Charles I. of June, 1638, it was ordered that all foreign cards should be sealed at London and packed in new bindings or covers (E 227) . Prom Samuel Rowland's satire, the " Knave of Hearts," we may assume that cards were made here in 1612 also (E 235 — B239). tf^^ MARKS, DESIGNS, ETC. 29 Section V. SIZE AND FORM OF, INIARKS AND DESIGNS ON CARDS, DIVISIONS INTO SUITS, TERMINOLOGY, ETC. ^P the large size of some of the earlier cards of the tarots character, mention has been already made. A long, narrow form continues to be given to tarots, par- ticularly for the tarocchino game. The early cards were often very stout and inflexible, and so have been some of more recent Italian manufacture, which are peculiar likewise in having a narrow layer of paper, sometimes coloured, folded over the edges of the card in front so as to form a slightly elevated border. Some small metal plates were early engraved in Germany to serve as cards, and in recent times extremely diminutive packs have been manufactured ; the " Cartes AUemandes, jeu Lilliputien en Argent," given by Merlin, pi. 68, measure only | of an inch long and slightly more than ^ of an inch wide. Some modern French cards, to be afterwards described (F 63), measure 1|- by ^ of an inch. The Italian tarots, I. 8, are but 1^ long, by -|- of an inch wide. The Cartes Suisses, represented in plate 68 of Merlin^s treatise, slightly exceed 1 inch in length and -| of an inch in width, but whether these are reduced representations, or are of the actual size, we cannot say, but we think the latter. Chinese cards are small and generally narrow in proportion to their length, not being wider than 1 inch and I- at the utmost. The cards of the Hindus and Persians are often circular, and of an average diameter of 2^ inches. As a contrast to these small examples, the Stuttgart cards, of the end of the fourteenth or of the beginning of the fifteenth century, may be recalled to mind, which measure above seven inches in height and four inches in breadth. The figures on the coate-oards, or court-cards, or honours, of the numeral suits, represent in the early cards a king, queen, cavalier, and fante, or man-servant. When the numeral series was dis- joined from the emblematic set or the atutti, one of these figure cards was suppressed. The cavalier, or man on horseback, was the piece more generally omitted. The Spaniards, however, would not allow of a lady or dame in their packs, and retained a king and a first and second caballero or caballo, or a king, a cabcdlo, and a sota, or valet. The Germans had with the king often an upper and an inferior knave in place of queen and knave. The figures on 30 GENERAL HISTORY. some of the older coate-cardsj as also on certain of the modern ones, have occasionally resemblance to the persons and objects they were intended to represent. But about the latter time of the reign of Charles VII. of France, and the reign of Henry VII. of Eng- land, the figures on the honours began to change, and- grad- ually passed into the grotesque and strange-looking things to be seen on the true old-fashioned English cards, and in many foreign packs. For some time past in Prance, and more recently in Eng- land, there has been a tendency to displace the whole-length figures and to substitute for them mere heads or busts, printed double and in reverse on each honour. Whichever way a card may be thrown the design on it thus becomes at once manifest. In most cases the busts have the strange and conventional character belonging to the upper portions of the old full-length figures, but in others it is much modified, and sometimes altogether displaced by a type quite modern or quasi historic. The French appear to have been the first to place on the coate- cards the names of well-known persons, such as David, Hector, Alexander, Rachel, Pallas, Judith, and others. This practice con- tinued from about 1480 to the beginning of the eighteenth century, since which time it has been resorted to only exceptionally. The suits of the numeral cards from their first introduction have been always four in number. The signs or marks of the suits have varied, however. Those of the earliest cards have been coppe, clanari, hastoni, and spade, or cups, money, clubs, and swords. These marks have been very generally retained in aU tarots packs and in the cards of the Spanish people, though exceptionally in some modern tarots the marks are spades, clubs, hearts, and diamonds, which is likewise the case in some packs manufactured by the French for the Spanish market. The Germans early employed other marks for the suits, viz., henen {roth,) sohellen, laub {grim), and eicheln, or hearts, bells, leaves, and glands (acorns) . Some of the more ancient cards exist- ing have these marks of suits. During the second quarter of the fifteenth century the French adopted the signs of coeurs, carreaux, trefles, and piques, or hearts, diamonds, clubs, and spades. These marks have been very gene- rally employed throughout Europe for pure numeral sets {i.e., cards without any emblematic figures), and as before remarked may occasionally be found even in tarots packs, and in cards used by the Spaniards. Germany and England also generally accepted the French sym- bols. The former nation, however, during the latter part of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth century, frequently had recourse to animals, real or chimeric, flowers, fruit, and fancy MARKS, VESIGyS, ETC. 31 objects for marking the suitsj the pieces composing many of which have been termed animated cards. From some of the few remaining of early hand-executed cards, it is evident that miniatori and decorative painters of great abi- lity in their time, were occasionally employed in the production of these objects, both emblematic and numeral. The desirable volume published by the Society of Bibliophiles Francais, on the " Jeux de Cartes Tarots et de Cartes Numerales," proves this in its carefully executed facsimiles of the fine Venetian tarots of the fifteenth century, as do also the copies of the four numerals of the Mus^e Correr on plates 8 and 9 of ilerlin's treatise. The four large and beautiful cards of the Stuttgart cabinet, represented on plates 60 and 61 of the same work, are likewise further evidence. These latter examples of early art are supposed by some to have been productions of the end of the fourteenth century, though others with more probability refer them to the commence- ment of the fifteenth century. How exquisitely the French could work in this way is shown by plates A and B of Merlin's treatise, where fourteen cards of the fifteenth century, in the cabinet of Le Carpentier, are represented. " The grace and slender delicacy of the figures, the good taste of the ornamentation, the elegance and lightness of the scroll-work and floriation running round the ' pips,' and connecting them to- gether, do not allow us to doubt that they were the work of an artist of talent and belonged to a set destined for some rich and im- portant person." (p. 107.) It is on record that a set of cards " containing figures of the gods with their emblematic animals and figures of birds likewise," was painted for Filippo Visconti, Duke of Milan (who died in 1447), and cost 1500 pieces of gold. According to Cicognara the piece pre- viously mentioned commemorating the union of Beatrice Tenda with Filippo Visconti belonged to this series, but this is doubtful. Even as late as the last century playing-cards have been exe- cuted solely by hand. A pack was exhibited at a meeting of the Archeeological Association, in January, 1857, by Mr. Syer Cuming, the pieces of which had been painted by one E. Locker, in 1799, whose name was inscribed at the lower corner of the ace of diamonds. " They are not printed but limned — the whole of the figures are spiritedly executed and well coloured — the character of the pack may be described as of the amusing character." (" Archgeological Journal," vol. xiii. p. 244.) In Germany, particularly, some of the best engravers of the time, i.e. a.d. 1460 to 1550, undertook occasionally the production of cards. Thus we have the "cards of the Master of 1466," those of 32 GENERAL HISTORY. the " Master of the round cards," copies of the latter by Telman von Wesel, the cards with the signature F. C. 7i., the cards by Virgil Solisj by Erhard Schoen, H. S. Beham, and at a somewhat later period those from the designs of lost Amman. In Italy the beau- tiful engravings known as the Taroochi of Mantegna (now generally ascribed to Baldini and Botticelli) j were produced, likewise the Vene- tian tarots of 1491 described by Cicognara, and of the Albertine Cabinet of Vienna (Pass. vol. v. p. 129), and the tarots of JSTicoletto da Modena (?) (Pass. vol. v. p. 132.) In France, at a later period, the artistic series of card-pieces by Desmarests and Stefano Delia Bella saw the light. Examples of most of these cards are now of great rarity, and some realise in the print market extraordinary prices. Further details connected with the subjects of this section will be given when describing the cards of various countries. The following tabular arrangement of the chief marks which have been employed in diiferent places to distinguish the numeral suits, along with a short commentary, may appropriately conclude the present division. Marks and names of the suits in early numeral cards ivhen combined with tarots ij)roper) or an emhlematic series. Cups. Monet. SWOKDS. Clubs. Italy . . Coppe . Danari . . Spade . Bastoni. Spain . Copas . Oros or Dineros Bspadas . . Bastos. Portugal . . Copas . . . Oiros — Ouros . Spadas . . Paos. France . Coupes . . Deniers . Espees . Bastons. Of the early cards of Germany. . Roth or Herzen Schellen . . LauborGrtin Eicheki. Of the suits of numerals from the times of Charles VII. of France and Henry VII. of England, and when unconnected with tarots (proper) . France . . Coeurs . . . Carreaux . . Piques . . Trefles. Do. (Cuori) . . Do. (Quadri) . Do. (Picche) Do. (Fiori) Do. (Corazones) Do. (Ladrillos) Do. (Picas) . Do (Palos) Do. (Herzen) . Do. (Rauten) . Do. (Spaten) Do. (Kreuzen). Do. (Hearts) . Do. (Diamonds) Do. (Spades) Do. (Clubs). The following remarks of M. Merlin in connection with this portion of the subject are worthy of attention. " That the Italian and Spanish cards have descended in direct line from the ' Jeux de tarots V^n^tiens,' is at once evident from observation of the cards — the distinctive signs of the suits are the same ; but this is not so apparent as regards the French and German cards. Nevertheless, on reflection we may recognise the parentage of the latter, and show how, in spite of their Italy . Spain . Germany Enjrland MARKS, DESIGN'S, ETG. 33 differences, the French and German cards may be restored to an Italian origin. " In the first place, let us determine the geographic distributions of the three types which M. Leber has truthfully arranged in three regions according to their distinctive marks. "1. Southern region (Italy, Spain, and Portugal), cups, money, swords, and clubs. "2. Central region (France, England, and at the present day nearly aU Germany), coeurs, carreaux, piques, et trefles, or hearts, diamonds, spades, and clubs. "3. Northern region (Ancient Germany, Switzerland), hearts, bells, leaves, and glands. " At first sight these three families of signs do not appear to have any analogy with each other, but let us study their names and com- pare their forms, and we shall find the family connections, which were not before appreciable. In the first place, let us compare the names of the suit marks of the French cards with those of the Italian. " The Italians name their suits . Coppe, Danai-i, Spade, Bastoni. „ French „ . Coeurs, Carreaux, Piques, Trefles. „ English „ . Hearts, Diamonds, Spades, Clubs. " The latter a translation of the French terms, as the English adopted our cards from the first. " Now is it not evident that the word spades [hoyau, heche) , given by the English to our piques, recalls the spade of the Italian symbols ? That the term clubs, by which they distinguish our trefles, and which means in English massue, is equally a remi- niscence of the Italian bastone? It is, therefore, more than pro- bable that our last two signs represent weapons like those of the jeux d'ltalie. "Another indication: — It has been shown (page 19) that in the jeux de Tarots, and afterwards in the national game of the Spaniards, Sombre, the four numeral series are divisible in two sections : one composed of cups and money, in which the value of the cards is in an inverse ratio with the number of the pips ; the other formed of swords and clubs, where the value is pro- portionate with their numbers of points. " This arrangement has passed over in the games which France borrowed from Spain, as ia Sombre, and in Qicadrille and Mediateur, derived from it; but in order to render it practicable with our cards, it became necessary to divide our four French marks into two groups — a red and a black group. In the red division {coeurs et carreaux) the value of the cards in the games mentioned is like that of the Spanish in cups and money, viz., inverse to the number of D 34 GENEBAL EI8T0BY. points ; while in the black division (piques et trefles) this value follows the number of points, as in swords and clubs. It niay be added, also, that in these games of Spanish origin, the ace oi piques is called espadille {petite epee) , and the ace of trefles haste (baton) . "Thus, then, may be perceived the character oi piques and treflss, which were regarded by our fathers as replacing swords and clubs. Further, there is another proof which does not admit of the least doubt ; when the Portuguese employ our cards, they term our coeurs, copas J our carreaux, ouros ; our piques, espadas ; and our trefles, paos." (Bibl. 6, p. 64.) Italy . Spain . France Germany England , Equivalents of the coate, court, figure cards, or honours in the numeral suits. Ee . . Eegina or Reina . . Cavallo . Fante. Eey . .1st Caballo or Eeyna Caballo . Sota. . Eoi . Eeine or Dame Valet. . Konig . Ober-mann Unter-mann. . King . . Queen Knave or Jack. Terms for Playing-cards. Italy .... Carte da giuocare. Spain . . . Naypes ; Naipes cartas. France . . . Cartes a joner. Germany . . Spiel-Karten ; Karten; Briefe. Italy . . Spain . France . Germany Ensfland . Tertns for a paclt of cards. . Un mazzo (or pajo) di Carte. . Una baraja de naypes. . Un jeu de Cartes. . Ein Spiel Karten ; Ein Spiel Briefe. . A pack of cards. In a note to a recent edition of Massinger's plays, it is stated that " in our old poets a pack of cards is called a deck." In Shake- speare's Henry VI., part 3, act v. scene i., occurs : " The king was slyly fingered from lie deck." And in the well-known song, "The night before Larrey was stretched," it is said that " De deck being called for dey played Till Larrey found one of dem cheated." A correspondent in "Notes and Queries " (vol. v. p. 198 1870 • vol ii p 405, 1850) informs us that "a pack of cards is so called [dech] at this day in the states bordering on the Mississippi river " Formerly a pack of cards was called likewise a " paier of cards," as by Eoger Ascham in his " Toxophilus," e.g. (see note in Singer, p. 56). ° ' CARDS OF VARIOUS COUNTRIES. 35 Section VI. THE CARDS OF VARIOUS COUNTRIES. flTHOUT considering it proven that playing-cards had their origin in modem times and in Europe, and not in remote ages and in the East, we are yet of opinion that there is more direct e"ndence in favour of the first hypothesis than for the latter, which appears to derive its chief support from theories of a fanciful and romantic character. Erom what has been abeady stated, and that which may be found in sub- sequent pages where tarots and cards of divination come under dis- cussion, it will be seen, however, that the views of those who have adopted the Eastern, and in particular the Egyptian, theory, have not been neglected. In accordance with the views towards which more decided incli- nation is here given, Italy will be regarded as the birthplace of cards, as seen in the primitive naihis, and Venice as that particular district which so modified them by changes connected with the emblematic series, and the addition to it of a numeral sequence, as to acquire a right of parentage in respect to modern playing-cards not readily to be set aside. It is true that the earliest engraved examples of Italian cards,'' the so-called Taroeehi of Mantegna, or the Carte di Baldini, have more of the feeling of the Florentine school than of any other, though the names below the figures on them are in the Venetian dialect. But these pieces, it must be recollected, transmit a form of the old instructional naihis combined with more recent emblematic figures, constituting a sequence scarcely adapted or intended for the purposes of ordinary play. Between the time of the production of this set of fifty pieces and that of the original or primitive naihis (of which latter many of the former were purely transcripts) , there had sprung up a series combining an emblematic virtue and a numeral power, offering the excitements of chance and gambling, along with whatever purpose the emblematic series might subserve. It was to this arrangement that Venice probably gave birth, an arrangement which was the positive source of the playing-cards of modern times, as seen in the ' The word " cards" is here used in a general sense, not in that of our modern numerals only for games of hazard ; the assumption is made likewise that the engravings in question come under this category. The question is discussed further on. 36 GENERAL HISTORY. numeral series divested of all association with cards of emblematic character (antea, p. 23). Though various nations hastened to adopt the acceptable modifi- cation of the Venetians, they did not hesitate, sooner or later, to make changes of their own, and to stamp their cards and the games played with them with national characteristics. What these were it is now our business to inquire, and we shall first notice how Italy herself undertook to modify the character of her offspring. It must be admitted that Italy in general long continued to preserve the tarots game, i.e., the game played with both an em- blematic and a numeral serieg, while other nations very soon dis- carded it for games played with the numeral series only. The latter, however, exceptionally retained the tarots game, and even now tarots packs of cards are published both in France and Germany, while in modern Italy they are stiU more common. In recent tarots proper the designs, particularly in Germany, are often of a totally different character from those in the older and typical series. In Italy there were formerly three kinds of tarots games, two of which have been preserved to this day. These games are known as the tarots of Venice or of Lombardy, the tarocchino of Bo- logna, and the mincMate of Florence. The first of these — the old Venetian tarots — is the parent of all. The sequence con- sisted of seventy-eight cards in toto, i.e., of twenty-two tarots proper (or twenty-one numbered atutti, and one unnumbered, the fool) , and fifty-six numerals, made up of sixteen figure cards, or " honours,^' and forty pip cards, i. e., four suits, of four honours and ten plain cards in each suit. As might be expected, the subjects, as well as the actual designs of the emblematic series in the old Venetian sequence, approach more closely those of the encyclopaedic or instructive naibis, as seen in the Garte di Baldini, than do those in the Florentine modification. The matte has a positive resemblance to the misero of the naibis, while in the mincMate it has the attri- butes of the true " fool." " The figures of the Venetian tarots offer but few particularities requiring notice ; still there is one point worthy of remark, which is the introduction among them of a figure entitled la Papesse. What motive, it may be asked, could the author have had to prompt him to recall to mind in these designs that absurd fable of a woman asserted to have occupied the Chair of St. Peter, a fable that rea- sonable Protestants themselves. have abandoned? No doubt the Venetians were often at war with the Popes, but how many times were they not leagued with them against their common enemies ? Besides, the manner in which this design is composed does not reveal any malevolent, nor even an ironical intention. Per- haps the author designed his tarots at a time when the story in GARBS OF VARIOUS COUNTRIES. 37 question still continued to be generally accepted. Or it might be that this singularity was the result of a contemptuous whim of the artist. The original author of the tarots, after having copied the design in the naibis, where the Pope is represented without a beard, desired to oppose to him the Patriarch of Constantinople, and in order to distinguish the latter adorned his second design with an oriental beard. This explanation receives some support from the fact that in the modern minchiate cards where the Pope does not appear at all, an emperor of the west and an emperor of the east are to be found, the first being characterized by an eagle, the second by a star placed above the globe of the world, which the personage holds in his hand. It should be noted also that, like the beardless Pope of the naibis, la papesse of the tarots holds a book on her knees. In the case of the old hand-painted tarots, as in the minchiate cards of the present day, we do not find any names inscribed on the latter ; this want of indication would readily assist in the error of the earlier engravers, and such error might be transmitted without attracting attention." (Merlin, pp. 81-83.) The Pope in the seventeen tarots of the French Cabinet, known often as the hand-painted cards of Charles VI., is without a beard, while in the tarocchino cards of Mitelli there are two bearded Popes, one being seated, the other standing. The second tarots game — the tarocchino of Bologna, though a direct descendant of the ancient Venetian tarots, is not so old as the third game, or minchiate of Florence. The tarocchino sequence consists in toto of sixty-two cards, i. e., twenty-two tarots proper, and forty numerals. The emblematic subjects and designs are nearly identical with those of the Venetian series ; slight modifica- tions occur in modern sets, which will be afterwards noticed. The chief characteristic of the tarocchino of Bologna is the sup- pression in it of the two, three, four, and five of each numeral suit, thus reducing the numeral cards to forty, which in the Venetian series are fifty-six in number. This modification of the tarots game was invented at Bologna, early in the fifteenth century, by Francesco Fibbia (Prince of Pisa) , an exile in that city, dying there in 1419. So pleased were the Bolognese civic authorities with the ingenuity of the new game that they awarded Fibbia the privilege of placing his own shield of arms on the queen of bastoni, and that of his wife, who was of the Bentivoglio family, on the queen of danari. (Cicognara, "Bibl.^S.) According to Cicognara the emblematic designs of the tarocchino remained very similar to those of the Venetian tarots until the end of the fifteenth century. After- 1513 the Republic of Bologna passed under Papal domination, and then the designs began to vary slightly. Some of the more modern ones are very bad, and 38 GENEBAL HISTORY. one or two designs have been borrowed evidently from a Florentine mincMate set. At the beginning of the eighteenth century an attempt was made by an artist and engraver of Bologna — Giuseppe Mana Mitelli — to introduce a series of tarocchino cards of unquestionable artistic merit. This series will come under notice afterwards. (I. 7.) The word tarocchino is a diminutive of tarocchi, a name early applied to any game with tarots. Thus may be found in " Costa e Cardinali Dizionario della Lingua Italiana, Bologna, 1826;" " Tarocchi sorta di giuoco ; ed anche diconsi ' tarocchi ' alcune deUe cartCj con che si giuoca. " Taroccare dicesi del giuoco deUe Minchiate quando alcuno non ha del seme delle cartacce dove sono figurati Danari, Coppe, Spade e Bastoni e conviene che risponda aUa data con qualche ' tarocco.' " The third tarots game is the minchiate of Florence. This, instead of being simpler than the old Venetian game, is much more complicated. In place of the twenty- two atutti of the latter, there are forty-one in the Florentine series, which contains, with the numerals, ninety-seven cards in toto. (See Merlin, p. 87, and plates 13 to 19.) The designs of several of the Venetian tarots are frequently altered, and the twenty additional ones are often of grotesque cha- racter, as, e. g., in the emblems of the four elements of the ancients ■ — fire, air, earth, and water, and in those of the signs of the zodiac. jffot any title or name is printed below the subject; the relative value of the card is indicated by a number above. The concluding eight atutti are drawn on a red ground. There are differences in the numeral series likewise. The cavalli are chimeric figures composed of human busts on equine or other trunks, with tails, while the fanti or valets are warriors in the suits of spade and bastoni, and servants {fantiglie) in those of copjie and danari. The marks of danari have heads in their fields, with the exception of those on the nine, which have birds on them. The marks of spade are straight swords instead of curved ones, as in the Venetian numerals. Finally, in some of the blank spaces between the marks of the suits there are all kinds of small ornaments in the way of cats, elephants, monkeys, deer, and other things, though not to the overcrowding of the field. These ornaments would appear to be proper to the minchiate cards, since they may be found both in the older and more recent packs. Nevertheless: — " However numerous have been the additions made by the Florentines to the tarots of Venice in order to devise a new game, these changes cannot prevent us from perceiving that the founda- tions of the latter exist in the Venetian series. If we take from the Florentine emblems the three theologic virtues, the four elements, and the twelve signs of the zodiac, we arrive very closely to the Venetian tarota from which the other tarots games have descended CABDS OF VARIOUS COUNTRIES. 39 aa the tarots of Venice themselves have been derived from the fifty encyclopaedic Naihis." (Merlin^ p. 87.) According to Singer, in a comparatively modern version of min- chiate, published at Munich, the number of cards had been in- creased to 103 by doubling the twenty-two atutti, the king and knave of hearts, (p. 30.) The derivation of the term " Minchiate" is not known ; it ia one " dont on ne retrouve aucune trace dans nulla langue connue, et qui par sa structure comme par sa signification accuse pour ety- mologie le nom du jeu de Florence." (Merlin, p. 85.) Costa and Cardinali [pp. c'd.) give its character as a game only : " Egli si fa al piu in quatro persone o in partita ai compagni a due per due (e questo e il vero giuoco) ovvero ciascheduno da per se separatamente. Dicesi altrimenti ' tarocchi ' e ' germini.' " There is a tradition extant that minchiate was invented by Michael Angelo to teach children arithmetic. Information concerning the methods in which the preceding tarota games were played may be obtained on reference to Singer's treatise (notes 12 and 13, pp. 349-354, Appendix). Venice herself was not long before she modified her original game of tarots, and this she did with decision enough, if not with moraUty. Some of her people were satisfied that they could gamble far more quickly if they suppressed not only all the atutti, but like- wise some of the numerals. So a game was formed and termed Trappola, in which the true tarots were abolished, as likewise the three, four, five, and six of each numeral suit. This game waa still in vogue in Silesia when Breitkopf wrote (1784), and according to Merlin packs made up on the trappola principle are to this day published at Vienna under the name of Brapulir Earten, the suits and figures retaining their old Italian names (modified) and symbols, viz., reh, reina, cavall,fantell; coppe, danari, spade, and bastoni. Singer is surely in error when he states — influenced, it is likely, by the remarks of Gazzoni — that " Trappola is probably the most ancient European game at cards" (p. 236), and " probably played with the very cards obtained from the Arabians, if it be not the Eastern game itself." (p. 22.) It may be fairly assumed that the reduction and suppression of the pieces before mentioned were made solely for the purpose that chance should play a very im- portant part in the game, and necessitates the previous existence of more perfect series, and of games less hazardous in character. If Singer's supposition be correct, all these changea were made by Muhamedans, and the result— a simple and perfected game for gambling forwarded aa a preaent to the unsophiaticated European ! A like priority haa been bestowed by othera on the games of Hombre and Lansquenet. 40 GENERAL HI8T0B7. Breitkopf, Leber, and others, have spoken of trappola cards as if they were cards having characteristic marks of suits. But they are not so ; numerals of any suits, no matter what their marks may be, having the three, four, five, and six of each suit suppressed, are capable of being converted into trappola cards, i.e., cards with which to play trappola [postea, G. 121). The marks usually on the cards are, however, not more necessary for trappola than for hombre, which the Spaniards play either with the same marks, viz., swords, cups, money, and clubs, or with those of piques, cceurs, carreaux, and trefles, just as we could play whist with cards the marks of which were spade, coppe, danari, and bastoni. With respect to the derivation of the word " trappola,'' Peignot observes: " Selon le Dictionnaire de la Crusca le mot ' trappola' signifie cosa vngermese insidia, una sorta di reta, et trappolatore est la mSme chose que ingannatore, giuntatore (trompeur, fripon). D'autres font deriver ce mot de trappe, pi^ge." It will have been understood from what has been already stated, that the marks of the suits of numerals attached to the Italian tarots proper are coppe, danari, bastoni, and spade. Italian nu- merals very often retain these marks when not any longer combined with an emblematic series. Yet modern uncombined Italian nu- merals have frequently the French marks — coeurs, carreaux, trefles, and piques. A distinctive character of the marks themselves in the suits spade and bastoni of Italian numerals, is the mode in which they are interlaced or connected together in place of standing separately or apart. The curved forms, too, of the spade or swords are specially Italian in design. Spanish Caeds. — Not any remains of very old Spanish cards have reached our time. It is true that some specimens in the Eouen Cabinet have been accorded by some archasologists to the last quarter of the fifteenth century, but it is probable that Merlin is right in the statement that the earliest examples now known had not an origin before 1600. (Merlin, p. 99, note.) But if there be not evidence in the shape of actual cards of Spain's early possession of the new materials for play, strong proofs of it are apparent in the name which always has been and still is applied to playing-cards, viz., Naypes. Spain as the inventor of cards found a strong champion in the Abb^ de la Eive, whose tractate may be found in the appendix to the work of Singer. He maintained that they were given to Italy by Spain at the time when the Spaniards entered Sicily and Calabria under the Castilian princes, in 1267, or under Peter III. of Arragon, circa 1282. But although several passages have been brought forward from early MSS. alluding to cards in Spain, they GABB8 OF VABI0U8 COUNTRIES. 41 have turned out on close inquiry to have been glosses and interpola- tions of an after period. De la Rive stated that Guevara, recording in his " Epistola Familiares" the statutes accorded in 1332 to the military order of La Banda, had mentioned that Alphonso XI. of Castile had included amongst them a prohibition to play at cards. Now it has been found that not one of the earlier Spanish editions of these epistles (1539) contains a syllable about cards, which latter are first mentioned in Gutery^s translation of the Epistles into French in 1588, and which it seems the Abb^ de la Rive must have made his authority. Further, in the " Recopilacion de las leyes destos reynos," 1640, a prohibition of John I. of Castile is given — de jugar dados ne naypes en publico ne escondido — yet the word naypes is not to be met with either in the edition of the " Orde- nances Reales de Castilla" of 1545 (Medina de Campo) , nor in the edition of 1508. It was simply an addition made to the Recopila- ciones of 1640. It must be admitted, nevertheless, that the cha- racter of the two national games, Momhre and Quadrille, proves that they had their origin in a chivalric age, and that the Flemish author Bckeloo, or Pascasius Justus, who lived about 1640, and had travelled in Spain, represents the people as passionately fond of cards, and says that " he had travelled many leagues in that king- dom without being able to procure the necessaries of life, not even bread or wine, yet in every miserable village cards might be met with." The Spaniards took with them this passion for play to the New World, and finding themselves in St. Dominique unprovided with the necessary agents, they made cards of certain leaves and of leather, according to De la Vega. " Herrera mentions that upon the conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards Montezuma took great pleasure in- seeing them play at cards; this was in 1519, and it shows that this amusement must for some time previous have been common in Old Spain." (Singer, p. 88.) Spanish cards are characterised by certain peculiarities evinced to us in actual examples, and by historical allusions. It should be observed, in the first place, that Spanish tarots are unknown, and it is doubtful if such ever existed. All Spanish playing-cards are of the numeral kind. Secondly, in a legitimate Spanish pack there are only forty-eight cards, instead of fifty- two. This arises from the suppression of the ten in each suit. Thirdly, in agree- ment with certain Oriental and some German cards, not any queen, dame, or woman is admitted among the honours. Her place is supplied by a caballero or eaballo. Fourthly, the old Italian marks are retained as eopas, oros, espadas, and hastos, but the Spanish designs differ from the former, as they do likewise in the figures on the coate- cards. " While the Italian kings are seated the Spanish kings are erect. 42 ' GENERAL EISTOBY. and their vast mantles are surcliarged witli large ornaments, as m the case of the French kings. As regards the points (pips)j the swords are straight double-edged rapiers, the batons are knotty branches of trees, and these knotty branches and rapiers are placed sometimes horizontally, sometimes vertically, close to each other, but always so arranged that they are never interlaced in the inconvenient manner common to the numeral cards of the Italian tarots. Herein lies an undoubted advantage, as the power to count at a glance the number of points on each card is much facilitated." (Merlin, p. 97.) It is not known when Spain first began to manufacture her own cards, but there is evidence to show that France early supplied the Spanish market. To some extent she does so now, and this ex- plains why in some modern packs of Spanish cards the marks of the suits are coeurs, carreaux, piques, and trefles, and that a dame is admitted in place of a cahallo. Eeferring to plate xxx: in his " History of Playing-cards," Mr. Taylor remarks that, ''though of Parisian workmanship, it is a Spanish knave of clubs under the form of a Peruvian, with crest of blue and scarlet feathers. Singer says that the Spanish govern- ment maintaias a monopoly of cards, but we have besides this another proof of that country being supplied from otter quarters in the Senora Morin, who we have seen made naypes for the Spanish market at Paris in the Rue Greneta, and immense quantities of cards are produced in London, many of which have the suits of cups, money, clubs, and swords, those intended for the Spanish settle- ments being actually marked de la Real fabrica para las Indias ! " (p. 177.) {postea, S. 15.) M. Merlin states that the oldest cards truly of Spanish origin that he had seen, were four kings kindly presented to him by M. Carderera, court painter to the Queen of Spain, and author of the beautiful work on Spanish iconography. " The pale and slightly bistre-coloured ink with which they have been printed might, on first inspection, cause them to be attributed to an early period, did not a circumstance, easily to be overlooked, betray their more recent origin. This is the number twelve en- graved at the corners of each of these four cards. We have seen that the Spaniards have, suppressed the tens and the dames, which reduces their pack to forty-eight cards or twelve per suit, from this it results that the valet, the cavalier, and the king are the three cards superior to the nine, and possess the numbers ten, eleven and twelve. The custom of inscribing on the cards of each suit the numbers of their values is comparatively modern, and of which we are ignorant of any example before the eighteenth century." (p. 98.) {postea, cards of Jehan Volay, S. 15, of the game alluetie, S. 43.) CARDS OF VARIOUS GOUNTBIES. 43 PoETUGUESH Caeds. — Copies of Portuguese cards may be seen in the " Jeux de Cartes Tarots at de Cartes numerales." (Bibl. 2.) The coate-cards in this pack, supposed to have been executed in 1693, are king, queen, and cavalier, and the suits money, cups, clubs, and swords. The "honours" and aces have letters on them both at top and bottom indicating the suit, the rank, and names of the cards. The presence of the queen must be regarded as exceptional to the Portuguese series. " In a pack," writes Chatto, " of modern Portuguese cards now before me, there is no queen, and the suits are hearts, bells, leaves, and acorns. The figures of the coate-cards are half lengths and double, de duas Gahegas, so that a head is always uppermost which- ever way the card may be held." (p. 261.) Was not this pack made in Germany for the Portuguese market ? French; Cards. — That France possessed cards very early there ia direct historic proof, from the entry in the accounts of the treasurer of Charles VI., a.d. 1392. That she did not have them, of a gambling character at least in 1369, is fairly presumable from the circumstance that cards are not mentioned in the long list of games prohibited by Charles V. in that year, while there is an order of the Prevot of Paris extant of 1397 forbidding their employment. The earliest French cards known are probably those of the Carpentier collection, described by Merlin, p. 107, and plates, A. B. 38-39. These cards are fourteen in number, painted by hand about the commencement of the fifteenth century. The pieces are numerals, being all the "honours " (except the dame de cmurs), with the six oi piques and the five of trefles. The costume is that of the previous century. Not any names are on the cards. The next examples are those of the sheet of strange figure pieces bearing the name of F. Clerc on a scroU held by the valet of carreaux, and which are in the collection at Paris. These cards belong probably to the last quarter of the fifteenth century. The third specimens of old French cards which follow, are known wherever the history of playing-cards is studied. They are termed the Coursuhe cards, and belong to the last quarter of the fifteenth century ; though it has been maintained by some that they were executed as early as the first quarter. It is evident from the Carpentier cards that early in the fifteenth century the French cards did not necessarily retain the old Italian marks of the suits, but had new ones of their own. The cups, money, batons, and swords had given place to coeurs, carreaux, piques, and trefles, and so persistently were these marks maintained and introduced on cards exported to all countries, that a regular type or class of cards became known as French cards, as opposed 44 GENERAL HISTORY. to Italian cards on the one hand and to German cards on the other. Thus, in fact, became established the geographic types of cards before mentioned (p. 83), at the beginning of what may be termed the second epoch of playing-cards. At this epoch, too, the art of wood- engraving gave to the designer the power of easily and perma- nently fixing national characteristics. Our limits prevent all discussion on the origin and hidden mean- ings of the French marks of suits. These subjects may be found copiously treated in Chatto, p. 206; Merlin, p. 105, and in other systematic writers. At first the figure cards or honours were without names on them, but about the last quarter of the sixteenth century names were attached, the earliest example of this practice known being found in the Goursuhe pieces before mentioned-. These cards belong to the Paris Cabinet ; they are ten in number in two rows of five pieces each row, in the following order : valet, roi, dame [trefles) ; roi, dame (carreaux) ; valet, dame, roi (piques) ; dame, roi {cceurs) ; on each card-piece, except the roi de cceurs, is an inscription in Gothic letters. On the king of earreaux is the name Goursuhe, on the king of piques is Apollin, the queen of piques bears the motto Leaute due (leal homage), the queen of earreaux, en toi te fie, while other cards have other legends (Jeux de tarots, &c., Bibl. 2, pp. 13-17, and plates) . Pour very early knaves in the British Museum cabinet (F. 42), bear the names Lancelot, Hogier, Eolant, and Valery. On other early French cards may be found the names of the Knights of the Round Table, the Neuf Preux, and of various heroes of chivalry. Some specimens in the Dijon Cabinet bear historic titles, such as la Pucelle, the Dukes of Burgundy, Normandy, Guyenne, the Counts of Flanders, associated with mythologic and legendary personages. Paris, Helene, Venus, La Sybille, Melusine, likewise make their ap- pearance. Some cards found at Narbonne present a very strange mixture, but the only example which need be particularized is the rare sheet of the fifteenth century, in the collection at Paris, and which for the first time bears the names of Alexander, Julius Caesar, Charlemagne, and David {neiif preux) , and which at a later period, under Henri IV. and Louis XIII., were definitely adopted as the names of the four kings. Until then, judging "from the often com- plete absence of names, as likewise from the variety of those which occur, it may be reasonably concluded that the card-makers did not follow any determinate rule nor definite system, and that the Parisians were the only ones who finished by fixing and retaining the names which prevail to the present day." (Merlin, p. 112.) With these names for the kings, viz., David, Alexander, Caesar, and Charlemagne, became associated Rachel, Argine, Pallas, and CARDS OF VARIOUS COUNTRIES. 45 Judith for the queenSj and Hector^ Lancelot^ Roland^ and Hogier, for the valets. French playing-cards having on them the suit marksj eceurs, car- reaux, trefles, undpiqiies, are often termed Piquet cards ; the game of piquet being supposed to have originated about the time the Coursube cards were made, the latter being considered, therefore, the earliest piquet cards known. Nevertheless, there is not satisfactory evidence to show either the date at which piquet was first played, or that the ten-figure Coursube specimens belonged to a piquet pack. The game of piquet, it should be borne in mind, is one in which the pack for playing it, up to the beginning of the eighteenth century, consisted of thirty-six cards, i.e., the two, three, four, and five of each suit were suppressed, as in trappola, and the taroechino of Bologna. From the date mentioned, the six of each suit has been omitted Hkewise, so that the piquet pack has now but thirty-two cards. The Coursube cards, being aU figure cards, da not assist us in deter- mining whether the game was in use at their period. Further, piqxiet was clearly not the primitive French game in which numerals having the present marks of suits were used, for the beautiful cards belonging to the early part of the fifteenth century, done by hand and in the Carpentier cabinet, present both a five and six of trefles. Endeavours have been made to associate the origin of this game with the epoch of Charles VII., but a decisive solution of the ques- tion cannot be attained. Singer observes : " those who know the game well, agree that it is one of the most amusing and most com- plete games played with cards." In Macready's Diary is the entry in 1840, " October 9th, played at piquet in order to learn the game for the new piece, ' Money .^ " From the circumstance that certain cards dealt may be discarded by the players, and others taken from the stock undealt in then- stead, there is a choice, as it were, granted to each player. " From this choice Bullet pretends the game has its name, for piquo in Keltic signifies to choose, and the word still preserves the same meaning among the people at Besan9on; choice grapes or choice cherries are called pique des raisins or pique des cerises. The word is still in use among the military. A piquet is a certain number of men chosen by companies, to be ready to mount at the shortest notice." — Singer, Appendix, p. 272. At the end of the eighteenth century the French Revolution not only changed governments and dethroned kings of the earth, but overthrew those of cards. Yet — " In effacing the signs of royalty it had not destroyed the passion for play ; indeed, it had never dreamt of doing so, for in granting free trade to cards it had, on the contrary, offered more facilities to players. But it was obliged to pursue royalty vigorously, even on 46 GENERAL HISTORY. to cards, and it was in the choice of subject that the revolutionary spirit found its scope. Since, however, the imagination of the card- makers was not very fertile, the same circle was continually gone round, but few entirely distinct types were evolved, and fewer still of designs from clever artists. Once more we find the kings de- throned, and by whom ? by emblematic personages, by sages, by philosophers ; the valets are displaced by warriors, or Roman heroes, or by sans-culottes ; and the queens have to resign in favour of the virtues and liberties ; and what liberties ! the liberty of marriage, of worship, of the press, and of commerce." ...."' As soon as the period of sanguinary executions and of public terror had passed by, the passion for play revived, and with it returned the old cards." . . . . " The conqueror of Marengo and of Austerlitz endeavoured to cicatrize the wounds opened by the Republic." . ..." The civilizing genius, whose glance embraced everything at once, did not pass over the designs on cards, and on the 13th of June, 1808, the painter David was appealed to." (Merlin, p. 114.) David, Mongez, and Gatteaux obeyed the high decree, and the artistic cards of 1809 and 1811 were the result. (See P. 57 (2) postea.) Nevertheless — " Whether it was that players did not appreciate the changes, or from some other reason, the new designs were not of long duration, and from the year 1813 the old cards reappeared, and triumphing so completely over the innovations, that the official mould was adopted by the Restoration, which contented itself with only sub- stituting the fleur-de-lys for the bees and the imperial eagle." (Merlin, p. 114.) Again, fresh attempts were made in 1816 to introduce other designs, but the enterprise did not succeed, and cost the Govern- ment a considerable sum of money. " To-day," says M. Merlin "we have returned to the mould of 1813, which is multiplied by the galvano-plastic process in sufficient numbers to keep in constant activity three steam presses at the Imperial Printing Office " (p 116.) Geeman Caeds. — It is generally allowed that Germany rightly claims a high place in the early history of playing-cards. According to trustworthy authorities allusion is made to them in the " Pflicht- biicher" of Nurnberg for 1384, and there is extant an ordinance of the Town Council of Ulm for the year 1397, prohibiting their em- ployment. Even by 1441 the Germans imported cards into Venice to such amount that the senate were appealed to to stop the supply, as injurious to the interest of the Italian card-makers. It is probable that the Germans very soon altered for themselves the Italian marks of the numeral suits, making use of the figures of GABDS OF VARIOUS COUNTRIES. 47 ammals for differentiating the latter. At any rate^ the earliest German cards known — those of the Stuttgart Cabinet — have dogs, falcons, stags, and dncks for the suit marks. These " animated" cards were, however, soon followed by a series having the more national signs of roth or herzen, laui or griin^ eieheln, and schellen, or hearts, leaves, glands, and bells. The latter cards were of smaller size than the first animated ones, which were purely handwork. But though numerals sf the national suit marks continued to be manu- factured, some of the early German copper-plate engravers of the end of the fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth century reverted to the animated types, and exercised their talents in designing cards in which all kinds of animals — natural and chimeric — flowers, and fruits, were made to do duty as marks of suits. Some examples of these engraved cards known to the iconophilist are admirable speci- mens of the early German burin, and are highly prized and paid for by the collector. The German cards of the end of the fifteenth and of the sixteenth centuries are much more ornamented than are the cards of other countries, for — " In addition to the pips or the marks of the suits, they fre- quently contain figures of men and women, quadrupeds, birds, foliage, and such like, introduced by way of ornament at the caprice of the designer. These ornamental appendages are frequently of a grotesque character, and sometimes indecent." (Chatto, p. 236.) Very peculiar devices were sometimes employed. There is a set of cards by Jost Amman, in which the marks of the suits are books, printers' inking-balls, wine cups, and goblets with bosses of glass or earthenware. Some very pretty dimiautivS cards, having leaves, bells, hearts, and acorns for the marks of the suits, were produced by the Germans during the sixteenth century. Much has been written concerning the origin of these national signs, but most interest attaches to the source and meaning of the sign, schellen, grellot, or bells. Reference may be made for informa- tion to Chatto, pp. 239-245, and to the work of Boiteau D'Ambly. A peculiarity of the true German pack is that the queen is omitted from the court cards, and an upper valet or obermann is put in her place; thus the honours are composed of king and superior and inferior valets. In modern packs, and particularly those made on the French principles, the queen displaces the superior valet. A German writer of the seventeenth century, in pointing out that tarots figures should always be regarded as symbolical, observes that even the marks of the German numeral series are intended to have a deeper meaning than is usually supposed. For example, the initial letter of the suit schellen (bells), S, with that of the suit aicheln (glands), A, of the suit roth (hearts), R, and with that of 48 GENERAL EISTOBY. the suit grim (leaves) , G, compose the German word 8ARG, equiva- lent for coffin. " Alii ex literis initialibus colorum istorum aus Schellen, Aicheln, Roth, und Grun einen 8arg, composuere quia chartse historic sffipe fiunt marsupii et lusoris sepulchrum." (Lehmen, " De Varii Ludendi Generibus.") Like other peoples, the Germans fashioned a national game of their own. This was LandshnecMspiel, or Lansqmenet. The actual date of its invention is uncertain ; some have stated that it was known in France in 1392, in the reign of Charles VI. ; if so, it must be indeed a very old game, since the French borrowed lansquenet from the Germans. The military and German origin of the game is evident from its title, which is derived from landshnecht, lanzen- hnecht, or lanzknecht, i. e., a foot soldier armed with a lance, such as may be seen, e. g., playing at cards in the print by Anthony of Worms (Bartsch, vii. p. 491, n. 10), of which a copy is given by Singer, p. 235. Lansquenet is still played, and, writes Singer, "if it be the same game which has come down to us, and that now bears the name, its invention required no mighty effort, and it might easily be learned and played by the common soldier." (p. 44.) " The pipe was not then invented to solace their bivouac, and where so likely an origin of .a game requiring so little talent to com- prehend it, and yet offering such opportunity for trickery, as a corps de garde of these rough warriors?" (Taylor's Ed. of "^^ Boiteau d'Ambly," p. 279.) Lansquenet is described in the edition of " Hoyle's Games," pub- lished at London in 1786, and must have continued to have been played occasionally as a gambling game in French houses to within the last twenty years, since Paul de Musset, in a " recit des moeurs contemporains" (" Histoire d'un Diamant"), in the "Revue des Deux Mondes" for September, 1874, tells us that the hero of his tale, " se laissa mettre a une table de lansquenet. En moins d'une heure il y perdit douze mille francs." It has been before stated that cards having the old Italian marks of suits, cups, swords, money, and clubs, are still employed in cer- tain parts of Germany in playing a trappola game borrowed from the South. True tarots games, also, are yet occasionally played, and modern sets of cards published for the purpose. The designs on these latter cards, however, are often totally different from those of the old emblematic series. They are numbered in the same way, which serves, we presume, the main purpose of the modern player. Spielhagen acquaints us in his "Aus meinem Jugend Stadt" (1868), SMtzenbuche, p. 27, that both tarots and hombre were played, with other games, at the " Abendgesellschaften" in his youth- fal days. CARDS OF VARIOUS COUNTRIES. 49 " The entire company had now placed themselves by threes and fours — according to whether tarot, hombre, luhist, or boston was to be played — at tables." After the party had broken up — " The host went from table to table to take up the ' card money' that had been placed in the ' pot' — full price of two packs if the cards had been quite new, if not, a discretion." Jip. 29.) "We desired," writes M. Merlin, " to be able to point out in a satisfactory manner what were the names and structure of the Ger- man games, but have not met with information precise enough on the subject. We must be contented with communicating a few remarks with which the examination of cards has furnished us. " For figures we meet with kings, superior and inferior valets. Sometimes the kings are seated, sometimes they are on horseback. " The point cards are the ten, nine, eight, seven, six, and two, a composition resembUng our own Piquet, in which the ace has been displaced by the two. This structure is that of our own Lilliputian silver series represented on plate 68. It is likewise that of the Saxon game termed Schwerter Karte — cartes a I'epee. " What appears to confirm our conjecture as to the analogy of piquet with this jeu a I'epee, is the fact that in the modem cards manufactured at Vienna for playing the German game, and in which the kings are mounted, and we see the flute and the drum (as in the old cards of the Musee Hal at Brussels) , the six is suppressed, as it is in the French piquet since the end of the seventeenth century." (p. 121.) The adoption of the French marks of suits is followed in German packs, which often refuse to reinstate the dame or queen in the place of the obermann or superior valet. In such cards double busts, in place of whole-length figures on the coate-cards, are usual. Swiss Caeds. — The old cards of Switzerland were evidently de- rived from those of Germany at a time posterior to the period of animated cards. " There are always four kings, four superior and four inferior valets, and one, two, six, seven, eight, and nine, in the cards of Schaffouse, and from one to nine in those of Soleure. The marks of the suits are slightly different, for while the glands and the beUs are retained, the hearts are displaced by shields, and the leaves by /owers. Further, the attitudes of the figures, with their naive and bourgeoise tournure, indicate design of the commonest character. "The Swiss have retained the marks of the aces on banners, such as may be seen for example in the small cards from engraved wood-blocks pre^rved in the Musee Hal at Brussels." (p. 122.) Modem Swiss cards are either French or German. so GENERAL HISTORY. English Caeds. — It is most probable that cards made their way into England through France, and it must not be forgotten that once Normandy, Touraine, Anjou, Maine, Poitou, and other dis- tricts were either in the real or nominal possession of the kings of England for nearly three hundred years. When cards were intro- duced here is not known, but we are safe in believing they were not in use among us until after the reign of Henry IV. (1405), and that they were certainly employed previous to 1463, for in the Par- liament Eolls of that year (Edward IV.) their importation was pro- hibited. About 1484 they formed a common English Christmas pastime, at least among the upper classes, and in 1495-6 (eleventh of Henry VII.), an edict of the king expressly forbade their use to servants and apprentices, except during the Christmas holidays. That the English made cards as well as imported them by 1463 is clear, or the card-makers would not have petitioned in favour of their own monopoly. Such cards as were home-manufactured must have been made of imported paper, or else of some other material. England appears to have adopted at once the French suit marks, and the king, queen, and knave of the figure cards or honours. Nevertheless, the names of the suit marks are in part of Spanish descent, e. g., clubs for hastos, and not trefoil for trefles, and spades for espadas, instead of spear for piques. Some writers have as- serted that Spanish cards, in fact, were introduced into this country before the French, and point out that our knave or jaoli, and jack- a-napes have more affinity with the Spanish sota or the Italian fante than with the French valet, which in the earlier French cards bears the name of some person in romance or history. If Spanish cards were introduced early into England they must have soon yielded place to the popular French ones, though at an after period attempts were made to bring them into fashion, as the following from the "Postman," of December, 1702, testifies. " Advertisement. " Spanish cards lately brought from Vigo. Being pleasant to the eye by their curious colours and quite different from ours, may be had at Is. a pack at Mrs. Baldwin's, in Warwick Lane." Most inquirers have failed to meet with any proof that the old tarots cards were ever used, or even known in this country. Singer remarks, p. 240, however — " We gather from the following passage, in Cleland's 'Institution of a Nobleman,' that Taroceo was played in England in the early part of the reign of James I. (1603) . Chap. 24 of ' House Games :' — His Majesties permission of honest house games, as Cardes, French Cardes called Taraux, Tables and such like plaies, ft sufficient to pro- tect you from the blame of those learned men who think them hazards," &c. CARDS OF VARIOUS COUNTRIES. 51 The English figure cards or honours retain to the present day more or less of the character and costume marking the reign of Henry VII., when they were probably first designed. Mr. F. A. Repton in an article on "the costume of Coate-Cards," in the " Gentleman's Magazine " for November, 1843, vol. xx., New Series, p. 471, writes: " Many of the readers of the ' Gentleman's Magazine ' may not be aware that the dresses represented on our coate-cards are actu- ally the same as those which prevailed about the time of Henry VII. or Henry VIII. The lappets which fall on each side of the faces of the queens are in fact a rude representation of the dress of the females of that period, i. e., about the year 1500-1540. But the crown or coronet as being placed at the hach of the head, may be traced as late as the reign of Elizabeth or James." " . . . . The knave of hearts in Rowland's poem (a.d. 1611) com- plains against the old-fashioned flat caps. These flat caps having several cuts round the rim may be compared with the old paintings and the tapestry of the date 1500-40 So late as 1585 Strutte, in his ' Anatomie of Abuses,' mentions the flat caps as being ' broade on the crowne Hke the battlements of a house.' . . . The knave of hearts also complains against the striped stockings, ' My stockings idiot-like red, grene, and yalowe.' These striped stockings may frequently be found in old wood-cuts, particularly in those in the Triumph of Maximilian." {Op. cit.) Mr. Taylor writes : " The costume and attributes of our modern court-cards vary slightly in difi"erent packs, though they have a general similarity. The knave of clubs still holds his arrow, now distorted into a bed- post, with the ' head-end upward,' but with the feathers gone. It has been suggested that the instrument held by some knaves of spades is a kind of spring fork, formerly used by constables to catch runaway ofi'enders. Hearts has the ' rustic browne bill,' and dia- monds apparently what Falstaff (Hen. IV. Pt. 1, act ii. sc. 4) calls a Welsh hooh, which Mr. Knight says was a pike with a hook placed at some distance below its point, like some of the ancient partisans." (Bibl. 9, p. 185, note.) England does not appear to have worked out, at an early period, a national game of her own. The game of Primer (Spanish or Italian) , was probably one of the earlier games played in this country, and it continued to be the fashionable amusement at cards during the reigns of Henry VIII., Edward VI., Mary, Elizabeth, and James. A game termed Mawe succeeded Primero, then came Gleeh, Hombre, Q,uadrille, Beversis, and Bassett. Ruff and Honours introduced Whist, now, par excellence, the English game. Some time about 1650, according to Barrington, however, he 5^ GENERAL HISTOBY. "learned from a gentleman, much adyanced in years, in 1786, that whist was not played upon principles until about fifty years before, when it was much studied by a set of gentlemen who frequented the Crown Coffee House, in Bedford Row ; of these, the first Lord Folkestone was one ; before that time it had been chiefly confined to the servants' hall with All-fours, and Put." (Singer, p. 271.) A tax was levied upon cards first in the reign of James I., 1615 (E. 225, B. 226) . In 1825 the duty was 2s. 6d. per pack; in 1827 it was reduced to one shilling ; it is now threepence. In 1850, duty was paid on nearly 300,000 packs. A paragraph in the " Times " of February 20, 1875, is as follows : — " There was a decrease in the stamp duties on ' playing-cards,' in the year ended March 31st, 1874. In 1873 the duty was £12,866, • in 1874 £12,584." From the same Journal for November 29th, 1875, we learn that " In the year ended the 31st of March last, the stamp duty of 3d. on every pack of cards made for sale in the United Kingdom, amounted to £13,130 9s. The number of packs was 1,050,476." Sellers are now obliged to take out a licence. There are two circumstances connected with the history of modern playing-cards particularly noteworthy. One is that all attempts to improve the bizarre figures derived from the coate- cards of the old standard packs have been unwelcomed by the true card-player, whether in France, Germany, or England. The attempts to effect that object have been manifold, and occasionally the designs desired to be substituted have been good in themselves, and well drawn and coloured. Not any wide or permanent degree of success has attended them, and, as remarked by Singer, " So pertinaciously have the original figures been adhered to, that although the improvement has been applauded and the cards admired, they have rather been purchased as curiosities than for use, and for the serious purpose of card-playing the old figures have ever been preferred." A sort of compromise between the parties has been sometimes attempted, and even recently one of our first manufacturers attempted the feat, as may be seen in the following passage from the " Athenseum " of October, 1874 :— " Messrs. De la Rue will issue this season a pack of novel playing- cards, in which, whilst historical personages of the present time are introduced as the honours, the traditional quaintness of the old playing-cards is preserved, so that the card-player'a attention is not disturbed." (B. 173.) Taylor tells an amusing story, illustrative of the Conservative feelings club-players have for the old pack, and nothing but that pack. (Bibl! 9, p. 450.) 0ABD8 OF VARIOUS COUNTRIES. 53 The number of improved! Parisian packs is considerable, but tbeir very variety and, after all, much repetition of the new forms, show that not one has any endurancy. Some change no doubt is gradually creeping in, as may be seen in the increasing frequency of figure-cards having on them busts printed double and in reverse, in place of single whole-length figures. Should this change con- tinue to hold its ground, the old, conventional, whole-length figures may disappear, though the busts which displace them may remain of conventional character. Of the substitution of modernised or historic persons on the figure-cards for the old forms, however, we anticipate but little success. We were informed (1875) at one of the principal card-makers, that they supplied now only two London clubs with cards having the old full-length figures. It would not be surprising, however, to find the old cards re-assert themselves, for it is scarcely to be ex- pected that any compromise which artistic or other merit may oflfer, will be accepted as a permanent departure from the ancient types, as long as old associations can be cherished and preserved among a brotherhood so exclusively occupied with but one object — that of play — and so intently that not the slightest distraction of thought by any secondary matter could be tolerated for a moment. The second circumstance worthy of notice is, that all attempts — and they have been many — which have been made in modem times to render cards capable of communicating information and instruction while ordinary games were being played, have never been received with favour beyond that which their novelty would insure. Packs of cards having the ordinary suits and symbols more or less distinctly marked have been devised over and over again, by which, through the addition to them of illustrations and inscriptions, the most varied forms of knowledge were sought to be conveyed. Cards with such a secondary purpose may be met with intended to teach arithmetic, grammar, geography, history, heraldry, mythology, astronomy, astrology, the use of mathematical instru- ments, and the principles of military science and engineering. Be- sides such cards as these, others of a satirical, proverbial, caricature, and amusing kind have been produced, provided with the marks of the usual suits so that they might be employed in the ordinary way. In all these endeavours it appears to have been forgotten that those persons who desired to learn grammar, &c., did not want to play at cards ; and that such as would willingly play at cards might be blind to the blandishments of grammar. Even were such not the case, it is doubtful whether grammarian or card-player would be more con- fused in the double duty he undertook to perform, since the definition of the " points" and figure-cards was generally so imperfect, or so subservient to the other illustrations, as to render ordinary play more 54 GENERAL HISTORY. a penance than a pleasure, while the grammatical or other knowledge was given in so concentrated, terse, or tabular a form as not to be intellectually digestible at a moment's notice. Be this as it may, such cards have generally found a resting-place in the cabinets of the curious, but little favour being shown them by either the student or the player. So apparent to many caterers to popular instruction and amusement has been the inutility of trying to combine informa- tion with ordinary play, that they have seized on merely the most general principles involved in cards, discarding altogether true playing-card games, and made the pack a vehicle for the relaxation and laughable amusement only of children or older persons at Christ- mas, and other festivities. In such packs the ordinary suits and marks are unknown, each series forming a special game of its own, sometimes very simple — mere question and answer — at other times rather complex in character. Such cards may be fairly termed " Cartes de Pantaisie." Fortune-telling by the Norwood Gipsy, the Tender Passion, Manners and Customs of the Day, the Fashions, Charades, Riddles, Pictorial illustrationg of an amusing character, grotesque and laughable changes, and cognate themes form their subjects. Of examples of such cards every Christmas furnishes a new though now limited supply. Here, as in the pre- vious case, a sort of compromise has been occasionally tried, but not with more success as regards card-players. The following extract from Chatto will help to illustrate it : — " It was in December, 1692, that the London papers first an- nounced to the world the invention of the ' Game of Carving at Table.' This precious announcement is conceived in the following terms : ' The Genteel Housekeeper's Pastime, or the mode of Carving at Table represented in a pack of playing-cards, with a book by which any ordinary capacity may learn how to cut up or carve in mode all the most usual dishes of flesh, fish, fowl, and baked meats, with the several sawces and garnishes proper to each dish of meat. Price Is. 6d. Sold by J. Moxon, Warwick Lane." " In those cards the suit of hearts is occupied by flesh, diamonds by fowl, clubs by fish, and spades by baked meats. The kiag of hearts presides over a sirloin of beef, of diamonds over a turkey, of clubs over a pickled herring, and of spades a venison pasty. A red stamp on the ace of spades belonging to a pack which I have had an opportunity of examining, contains the word "■ sixpence.' If this was the duty on each pack, it was certainly great for the period." (p. 156.) It has been supposed by some good authorities that in former times cards were prepared in a special manner for ecclesiastics to play with. The figure cards represented saints and holy persons, and the latter were introduced even on the pip cards. Descriptions GAUDS OF VARIOUS COUNTBIES. 55 of pieces, both from ■wood and metal engravings^ considered to belong to such packs, may be found in Passavant, vol, i. p. 14; Weigel's " Anfange der Drucker Kunst/' and Sale Catalogue, Nos. 303-307. In recent years cards have been prepared in such way that blind persons might play with them. The marks or pips are slightly raised, so that touch can distinguish them. Oriental Cards. — Between the statement of the Brahmin of Southern India who, in presenting Captain Smith, in 1816, with a pack of cards, assured him that it was a thousand years old, and had been handed down in his family from time immemorial, and that of M. Merlin, 1869, that " not any historic document, monument, nor quotation from Eastern writers can be adduced in support of the theory that cards had either an Arabian or Indian origin" (p. 57) ; " an attentive study of the various theories of the Oriental origin of cards will very soon show that they have nearly all been the re- sults of imagination, and that the conjectures on which they have been based cannot bear serious examination," — there is ample op- portunity for arriving at conclusions of less assured and positive a character. An attempt to do so here, however, would be a task beyond both the purpose and limits of this essay. Further, as the question of the Eastern origin of cards has been touched upon already, a few remarks on the general characters of Oriental cards as we know them at present is all that is required. Oards of India and Persia. — The cards of India are of two kinds ; viz., those made and used by the Hindus themselves, and those made and used by the Persian and Muhamedan sects of India, who, less severe in their observance of the precepts of the Koran than others of their religion, have recourse to them for amusement. To these may be added the cards of the Persians of Teheran. The cards of India, whether having Persian relations or not, are generally circular in form, while those of Teheran are of the European shape. The circular cards are about 2| inches in dia- meter, and the figures and marks on them are executed purely by hand. The material of which they have been composed has been found to be canvas, card, and thick paper, and " in Malacca they are more cheaply supplied by leaves of the cocoa-nut or palm tree, dried, and their distinctive characters traced with an iron style." (Chatto, p. 55.) The Hindu canvas and paper cards are covered front and back with a ground of paint, afterwards highly varnished or lacquered. The Persian cards have on them designs and paintings much ex- ceeding in merit those on the Hindu pieces. Singer describes and gives representations of some beautiful Persian cards, painted with .56 GENERAL HISTORY. much delicacy on ivory, and as highly illuminated with gold as the miniatures in missals and manuscripts. The following objects have been met with as marks of suits m Hindu cards, viz. : the ten avatars or incarnations of Vishnu, birds, with two figure-cards also in each suit, certain marks, some of which are of doubtful character, while others are swords (tulwars), suns, and money. These marks are painted on dififerent-coloured grounds (red, green, yellow, &c.), which latter also indicate some kind of series or suit. Packs of eight suits, each suit containing two honours and ten common cards, and of ten suits of twelve pieces each suit, have been described. Persian cards are recorded as having for suit marks crowns, full moons, sabres, slaves, harps, suns, letters (or firmans, or diplomas) , and cushions, the pieces being ninety-six in number. Five cards from a Persian pack, very prettily painted on carton vernis, are given by Merlin (pi. 74, p. 124), on which are represented the shah (king) , the 5i&i (queen) , the couli (dancer) , a lion (ace) , and serlas (soldier) . All these figures have been painted on different-coloured grounds, trom which it is assumed that the colours form distinctive marks of five suits, and that the entire pack consisted of twenty-five pieces. Though — as far as our knowledge extends — the true Hindu cards, like the typical Spanish and some other early European sets, do not admit a female, or queen, into the series, it is plain that the Teheran Persians permit of the admission. Three kinds of games have been described by writers as of Hindu or Persian character. These games are named Tchaturanga, Ghendgifeh, and Nds, or Tas, or Taj. Close inquiry has shown, however, that the first is more like European tric-trao or back- gammon than a game with cards, and though there may be in it a mixture of chance and computation, the evolution of both is efiected openly, and the nature of the combinations of hazard and calculation is as different as the objects with which they are associated. (See Merhn, p. 21.) The second, or ghendgifeh, which is of Persian origin, is played with a pack of ninety-six cards, i.e., of eight series of twelve pieces, of the suits, crowns {tas), full moons, swords, slaves, &c. On reading an account of the details of this game, one is struck first by the circumstance that " the marks of the suits, as well as the rules of play, offer considerable analogy with those of the national game of the Spaniards, Sombre. Thus dineros [oros) is displaced by moons and suns, but the true character of the latter is recognisable not only by their forms, but likewise by their names, and which are (as already pointed out) simply abbreviations of words signifying in the language of the country, gold money, silver money [zuri soorhh and zuri soofcd.) . Swords are equally apparent in the sh'umshcer or sabres." (Merlin, p. 16.) 0ABB8 OF VARIOUS COUNTRIES. 57 Secondly, from the rules of the game, ghendgifeh " appears to bear some resemblance to that which the French call L'Ombre a trois, three-handed Ombre. In both games the suits appear to be considered as ranged into two divisions, in the Hindostanee game as the Red and the White, and in the European as the Red and the Black. In the Hindostanee game there are eight suits, and six or three players ; and when three play the cards are dealt by fours. In the European game of four suits and forty cards — the tens, nines, and eights being omitted— there are three players, and the cards are dealt by threes. A person who can play at mnbre will scarcely fail to perceive several other points of similarity between the two games." (Chatto, p. 45.) To return to M, Merlin : — " In noticing these singular analogies is it not reasonable to suppose that the Hindustani game has been borrowed from the Europeans ? This supposition has not escaped Mr. Chatto, but his conclusion is opposed to our own; for, while allowing that the resemblances of the distinctive marks and rules observable between ghendgifeh and the European games might prove the importation of cards from Europe into India, while admit- ting that cards had been in use already in the West nearly a hun- dred years before the Portuguese conquered India, Mr. Chatto nevertheless persists in maintaining their Oriental origin ! And upon what does he rely ? On an imaginary genealogy of cards from chess, and on a pretended Indian tradition, of which not a trace can be found in ancient authors, as even Mr. Chatto himself allows." (p. 16.) The third game. As Nas, is a Teheran one, and according to M. Querry, Secretary to the French Embassy in Persia, it has some analogy with the European game Trente-et-un. Chinese Cards. — Strongly inclined as the Chinese are to gambling of every kind, it would have been surprising not to have found them provided with cards. Those which they employ are much smaller than the cards of Europe, being generally from 2 to 2f inches in length to f an inch or I inch in breadth. Some are much narrower than this, while others are of a squarer form ; those represented by Breitkopf on plate 6 of his work, " Versuch den Ursprung der Spielkarten zu erforschen " (1784), being 2 inches long by 1-| wide. Chinese cards are made of thin cardboard, having the designs and marks printed in black ink on them. The marks of the suits are not easy to define, but chains, money, arms, and typographical characters are decipherable, as well as human busts and whole- length forms. At the upper portion of some cards, particularly those which are figure pieces, a margin is reserved, on which are other marks, and as if writing. The backs are sometimes coloured red, at other times they are black, and frequently quite plain. 58 GENERAL HI8T0BT. Packs of thirty-six cards in nine suits, of thirty cards in three suits, and of thirty-two cards have been described. The execution is sometimes very clear and distinct, at other times the work is rather heavy. According to M. Vailsant, the Chinese have a drawing divided into compartments or series, based on combinations of the number 7. " It so closely resembles the tarot, that the four suits of the latter occupy its first four columns ; of the twenty-one atouts four- teen occupy the fifth column, and the seven other atouts the sixth column. This sixth column of seven atouts is that of the six days of the week of creation. Now according to the Chinese, this repre- sentation belongs to the first ages of their empire, to the drying up of the waters of the deluge by Iao ; it may be concluded, therefore, that it is original, or a copy of the tarot, and under any circum- stances that the latter is of an origin anterior to Moses, that it be- longs to the beginning of our time, to the epoch of the preparation of the zodiac, and, consequently, that it must own 6,600 years of existence." (!) (" Les Romes, histoire vraie des vraies Boh^miens," Paris, 1857.) Fancy domino cards have been recorded by Breitkopf, to whose work in particular reference should be made for representations of Chinese cards and games of various descriptions. JapoMese Cards have been stated not to differ in size, but only in marks, from the Chinese varieties. " Those which I have seen," writes Blomhoff, " are marked with numerical figures, pictures of images, and arms coloured and orna- mented with gold and silver ; they have as well figured as numerical names, and are somewhat larger than the fourth part of an English card, the same shape, but a little thicker." (Singer, Appendix, p. 364.) On the subject of Oriental cards generally, reference may be made as follows, with advantage: — Singer, Bibl. 8, pp. 16, 49, 59, 63, 364; Chatto, Bibl. 4, pp. 30-59; Merlin, Bibl. 6, pp. 13, 19, 24, 122. Some beautiful representations of Hindu, Persian, and Chinese cards are therein given, together with references to the transactions of various learned societies which contain papers on the subject. PART II. DESCEIPTIVE CATALOGUE OF PLAYING AND OTHER CARDS IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM. CLASSIFICATION. The following arrangement has been adopted in describing tbe various playing and other cards in the National Collection : — Division I. — Bueopban Caeds. Division II. — Oeiental Caeds. Division I. includes — The cards of . Italy. Spain. France. Flanders. Holland. Germany England. (Varia). Division II. includes — The cards of . India. j> >} • Persia. )J 3) • China. The cards of each country are divided into genera, and described in the following order : — Genus 1 „ 2 ,. 3 Tarota (pure and combined) . Numerals (pure). Cards with a secondary purpose. Cards purely fanciful. German Numerals are subdivided into — Cards having national marks of suits. Cards having animated marks of suits. 62 CLASSIFICATION. Cards with a secondary purpose are arranged as — 1. Bducationalj Instructive Cards. 2. Biographic, Historical. 3. Politico-Historical. 4. Satirical. 5. Divinatory, Astrologic (occult sciences) . 6. Amusing, Humorous. Under the head Miscellanea, various prints, broadsides, adver- tisements, &c., are referred to, which did not well admit of arrange- ment elsewhere. EUROPEAN PLAYING-CARDS. ITALIAN PLAYING CARDS. TAROTS. I. I. TmRD QUARTER OF FIFTEENTH . CENTURY ? FLORENCE ? VENICE ? QUARTO volume containing a series of fifty early Italian engravings, known by the various names of the Oiuoco di Tarocchi di Mantegna, Carte di Baldini, Italian Tarocchi Cards, Ancient Venetian Tarots, &c. The sequence of prints to be passed immediately under review is of important and interesting character. Its members are not only among the more ancient ex- amples of the early art of engraving in Italy, but may be considered with much probability direct descendants — as far as their subjects and designs are concerned — from the original source from which the primitive Naihis, tarots, or immediate forerunners of our playing-cards, were derived. They have been long a subject for animated discussion, whether as regards their place and date of production, their author, or their original purport, and their acquisition has continued to be a cherished object of the iconophilist who can afford the means for procuring them. They are of rarity under any conditions, and as a complete series very scarce indeed, but as an uniform and intact sequence in the state in which they were originally published, probably not more than three examples are known; one of these, M. Galichon's copy, was recently (1875), sold by auction, at Paris, for 1 7,000 francs, or £680, plus commissions and duty. This same set realised at the Seratti sale in 1 8 1 6, £43 ; and at the auction of Sir M. M. Sykes in 1824, £78 5s. M. Galiohon gave for it in i860 ten thou- sand francs. It is once more in England, and a choice impression indeed it is. Detailed descriptions of each engraving of the series, accompanied by more or less critical discussion, may be found under the following heads : — Bartsch, vol. xiii. pages 120-138. Ottley's "Inquiry," vol. i. page 379, and "Notices of Engravers,'' vol. i. art. Baccio Baldini. Cumberland, " Ancient Engravers of Italian School," pages 51-74- Passavant, vol. v. page 1 ig. " Kiinstler -Lexicon," Meyer's Edition, 1875, vol. ii. page 589. I" 66 ITALIAN. Merlin, Bibl. 6, page 34. a r a An accurate copy of the entire sequence of prints is given in the '_' ^.^"^ j*^ Cartes Tarots et de Cartes Numerales," published by the Societe des Bibhophiles Frangais, in 1844. Copies of one or two pieces may be seen in the treatises of Cicog-nara and Singer, and reduced representations may be found in the work of M. Merlin. • 1 r, • The series consists of fifty pieces of fall-length emblematic figures with their symbols, divided into five sets or suits. Each set contams ten pieces, and has one of the letters A B C D E common to it marked in Roman capitals at the lower left-hand corner of each member of the suit. A continuous numeration runs through the entire sequence from 1 to 50, the numbers beiag marked at the lower right-hand corner of each piece in Arabic numerals, and also in Roman numbers after the title of the subject, which is engraved at the centre of the lower margin in the Venetian dialect in Roman capitals. Number 1 commences with the set the diagnostic of which is the letter E ; number 1 1 begins the set D ; number 21, C ; number 31, B ; and number 41 the set A. The figures represented in the first series, or E, or that commencing with number 1, illustrate various conditions of life, fi-om the beggar and servant to the Emperor and Pope. Those of D (l l), portray the Muses and the Arts ; of C (21), the Sciences ; of B (31), the Vii-tues ; while the members of set A (41) symbolise the Planets, or system of the world. Thus : — E. D. C. 1. Misero. 11. Caliope. 21. Grammatica. 2. Fameio. 12. Urania. 22. Loica. 3- Artixan. 13- Terpsicor e. 23- Rhetorica. 4- Merchadante. 14. Erato. 24. Geometria. S- Zintilomo. 15- Polimnia. 25- Aritmetrichj 6. Chavalier. 16. Talia. 26. Musicha. 7- Doxe. 17- Melpomene. 27. Poesia. 8. Re. 18. Euterpe. 28. Philosofia. 9- Imperator. 19. Clio. 29- Astrologia- 10. Papa. B. 31- Iliaco. 20. Apollo. 41. A. Luna. 30. Theologia- 32- Chronioo. 42. Mercurio. 33- Cosmico. 43- Venus. 34. Temperancia. 44. Sol. 35 Prudencia. 45- Marte. 36. Forteza. 46. Jupitei •. 37. Justicia. 47- Saturno. 38. Charita. 48. Octava Spera. 39. Speranza. 49- Prime Mobile. 40. Fede. 50. Prima Causa. The emblematic figure " Astrologia " has been numbered in the original by mistake 39 instead of 29. The pieces vary slightly in size ; each is about 7|- inches high by 4 inches in breadth, i. c. from the outermost engraved lines. All have good margins in the British Museum example; some pieces, as Euterpe, 18, and Saturno, 47, have margins |- of an inch wide. To "Zintilomo" (No. S E) some gold has been applied on the collars and borders of the draperies, as likewise to the breast of the hawk and the hair of the gentleman. TAR0T8. 67 The technic or manner in which the engraving has been executed is similar in style and equal in merit throughout, whUe the design and drawing vary in artistic power and taste. The engi-aving generally may be described as careful, formal, and dry, the outlines heavier in character than the rest, and of uniform thickness. The shadows are rendered always by means of short strokes, rarely crossing each other or interlaced more than once, the one set of lines beino- generally hoiizontal in direction, the other set being oblique, and frequently arrested rather abruptly at the edges of the light parts. The incisions of the burin within the contours are everywhere delicate, and, as observed by Dela- borde, "a ileur de peau," the metal being rather scratched, or as one might say, caressed, than incised. The whole design is enclosed within a, spirally banded or woven border like that which usually surrounds the Etruscan scarabeus, and having the marks of the holes at the four corners by which the early engravers fixed their plates to a table or board, to prevent their moving when ploughed by the graver. The borders at the upper corners are connected by a four-leaved flower or rosette. The earlier impressions have been worked off with ink of a bluish or grey tint, which gives a very characteristic appearance to these primitive efforts of the engraver's art. "mule being printed, the plates were not so carefully wiped or cleaned as was afterwards done, and thus a smear of ink was left upon their sur- faces, imparting to the paper a faint bluish fond sale which coiioscenti may at once remark. Opinions have differed as to whether the earlier proofs were taken off by means of the cylinder or by the hand press. Some persons have seen, as they believe, tSe marks left by the damp linen layer impressed by the roller, while others have looked.in vain for any such vestigia, but have easily observed the marks of the plate edges to have been impressed with such strength and distinct- ness as at once to certify to the use of a press. The taste and style of some of the designs, as the Fameio, 2 ; Merchadante, 4; ChavaHer, 6; Doxe, 7; CKo, 19; Rhetorica, 23; Astrologia, 29 (39); and Primo mobile, 49, in particular are worthy of much praise ; on the other hand, CaHope, 1 1, Talia, 16, and Euterpe, 18, are much inferior. Several of the Muse series, D, are the least to be commended of the whole sequence. According to Kolloff, the impressions in the Paris Cabinet have been delicately gilt with a brush on the hair, wings, weapons, trees, buildings, and symbolic attributes : " a practice adopted only on impressions taken from plates which had already suffered from use." As before observed, the ZintUomo, 5, of the British Museum copy has had gold applied to portions of the drapery and of the hawk ; this piece is one of the faintest impressions in the series, and thus confirms KoUoff's statement. The latter applies in its general bearing, we presume, to the series possessed by the " Bibliotheque" previous to the obtainmeut of the fine example belonging to M. Gatteaux de ITnstitut, and which " avait une valeur dix fois phis grande" than the former. (See "Notice Historique suivie d'un Catalogue des Estampes, &c.," par Le Vicomte Henri Delaborde, Paris, 1875, page 165.) The sequence now before us appears to be composed of impressions in three different states. First, of very early proofs of bluish grey tone, and fi-om the plates before they were either worn or retouched. Secondly, of impressions from the plates when '' wear and tear" betrayed themselves, but the metal was as yet untouched. Thirdly, of impressions of a brownish hue, and after the plates had been more or less retouched. Dr. Waagen states that a late Keeper of the prints, Mr. Carpenter, informed him that, judging from other impressions he had seen, the Museum copy of these early Italian engravings should be regarded as only from retouched plates. If this was intended to apply to all the pieces, an examination of the following ones wfll show, we believe, that the judgment was much too sweeping, viz. : — Misero, E 1 ; Fameio, E 2 ; ZintUomo, E 5 ; Doxe, E 7; Cho, D 19; Ehetorica, C 23; Musicha, C 26; Theologia, C 30 ; Cos- 68 ITALIAN. mico, B 33; Luna, A 41 ; Mercuric, A 42; Venus, A 43; Sol, A 44; Primo mobile, A 49; Prima causa, A 50. A careful comparison of the Museum specimens with the fine examples which had belonged to M. Galichon did not authorise the conclusion that more than the following pieces were clearly from plates which had been more or less retouched, viz.: Caliope, D 11; Urania, D 12; Erato, D 14; Talia, D 16 Loica, C'22; Geometria, C 24. On the other hand, of the pieces— Clio, D ig Grammatica, C 21 ; Rhetorica, C 23; Aritmetricha, C 25; Philosofia, C 28 Cosmico, B 33 ; Temperancia, B 34 ; Forteza, B 36 ; Justicia, B 37 ; Charita, B 38 ; Fede, B 40 ; Octava spera, A 48 ; and Primo mobile, A 49, some were fully equal to the Galichon impressions, while others very closely approached them in excellence. It may have been observed that in the preceding remarks certain points have been assumed, for the purposes of general description, which claim to be sup- ported by some show of argument or proof. It may be asked, for instance, to what school of art do these engravings belong, at what period were they executed, and by whom and what was their purport ? In reply to the question — ^to what school of art do they belong ? — it may be said, to the Italian school unquestionably. Not only do the general style and feeling of these engravings at once indicate their birthplace, but certain intentions which pervade them evince a like fact. These latter, as M. Merlin points out (p. 80), reveal the Catholic and Italian ideas of the fourteenth century. The Pope has supremacy over the Emperor, the latter is represented with the attributes of the Empire of the West. The crown of the king is an Italian crown, and the valet, the merchant, the knight, and the gentleman are in Italian costumes. Further, the arts and sciences are arranged in the order of a trivium and quadrivium; the three theological and four cardinal virtues, Apollo and the Muses, are accompanied by the attributes allotted them in the West during the Middle Ages, and not by those with which they are associated on the monuments of Greece. As to the particular school of Italy from which these designs and engraAfings have proceeded, it may be stated that Florence, Venice, and Padua have each had their supporters. From the circumstances that several of the inscriptions are in the Venetian dialect, and that the Venetians are known to have early employed certain emblematic playing-cards, held by some to have sprung from these particular engravings, their birthplace has been assigned to the once luxurious city of the Adriatic. Some authorities, considering them to be the vechissime carte padovana, alluded to in " Le carte parlante " of Pietro Aretino, have given them to Padua. The weight of authority, however, is in favour of their being of Florentine origin, as based on their general style and feeling. It is not an unfair supposition that the original designs were Florentine, while the series as we now have it was engraved by a Venetian, or by a Florentine with particular adaptations to the Venetian market. Those critics who have looked on these prints as coming from the school of Padua, have usually associated with them the names of Andrea Mantegna and Marco Zoppo, while such as have favoured Florence have considered them as the conjoint productions of Botticelli and Baldini, though the name of Finiguerra has not been without an advocate. If doubt prevails as to their author, is there more surety as respects the date of their production ? All that we are fairly warranted in maintaining is that it was previous to 1485, since in another, and to all appearance later version oi- edition of the series than the present one, this date is borne on the tablet which the figure of Arithmetic (C 25), holds in her hand (see I. 2.). Taking into consideration the style of design and manner of technic, with their evident assimilation to the period and schools of Botticelli and Baldini, the time allotted to these early Italiaji prints by Duchesne, viz., circa 1470, may be regarded as closely approximate. KoUofi" gives them a somewhat later origin, contending that: — TAB0T8. 69 " The engraver must have continued working several years, allowing pro- bably impressions from single plates, or of the various decennary series to appear before he published them collectively." ... . . "As regards their technic these pieces have close relationship to the ' Prophets and SybUs,' and the orna- mental work of the goldsmiths ; we see the same cold monotone shadows formed of delicate layers crossed by finer lines in several places, but the line has at the same time more sharpness and sureness of intention, is more docile and amenable to the drawing, if not of more aims and of greater variety. These excellences are so marked in some pieces, particularly in the angel of the Primo mobile, that they at once attain the perfected art of the Renaissance period. These admirable engravings, therefore, had an origin later than that of the Prophets and the decorative work of the goldsmiths, an origin somewhere about 1490- 1495." .... "The highly graceful and elegant, though occasionally mannered, but always attractive figures, the character of the beautifiil female faces and the noble heads of the men, the preference for profile, the great delicacy of the drawing of the hands and feet, the tasteful cast of the draperies, are undoubted characteristics of Florentine art .... nevertheless, inequalities may be discerned in the composition and drawing which show that the designs for the engraver proceeded from various hands." KoUoflf in Meyer's " Lexikon," vol. ii. P- 590.) M. Le Vicomte H. Delaborde, in his article on La Gravure Florentine au X V. Steele ("Gaz. des Beaux-Arts," 1873, vol. vii. p. 99), advocates strongly the Florentine origin of the prints under notice : — " If it be allowable to say that the figures composing the sequence called the Tarocchi were designed by various artists, it is not the less certain that these productions may be attributed to a single engraver. There is not any inequality of merit in the work, nor any diiference in the modes of procedure, whether in defining the contours or indicating the shadows, and the calm serenity with which it is carried on does not belie itself, even where an energy of technic would appear to have been natural to the expression, and where the types to be repro- duced were those of Saturn, Jupiter, or Mars. Thus-are we led to the conclusion that the engravings of the Tarocchi are not the result of a collective undertaking, and that he who produced them trusted to his own resources alone to consum- mate his purpose. But it is probable we shall not discover anything beyond this, and must be content to remain ignorant of the name of the engraver, though we may recognise him elsewhere, and be convinced of his talent and fecundity. Writers and iconophUists may choose — and most unfortunately in our own opinion — the names of Finiguerra and Mantegna alternately, or less imprudently the name of Baccio Baldini. The Florentine source being once established, we are satisfied with admiring in themselves these precious examples of primitive enn-avinor, and refuse to sacrifice to the regret of an absent signature, or to an obscure inquiry, that which is exacted from us by the picturesque beauty and unhesitating tokens of ability everywhere present." (Ojo. cit. p. 100.) A not less interesting question than any yet replied to is— What was the general motive in this sequence of emblematic figures, and to what purpose was it applied? Two chief views have been held. According to one theory, these symbolic designs were intended to serve simply as a source of instruction in various ways. Certain philosophic doctrines and precepts of morality have been supposed to have been thereiri illustrated, and likewise the occult sciences of the Middle Ages to have been therein veiled. If each series of the general sequence be closely examined it may be perceived that the highest or most important subject has the last number — 50, and the least or most subordinate the first number — 1 . Thus, e. g. the Pope, the highest dignitary of the Christian world, has the last number — 1 0, of the series E. Apollo, chief of the Muses, has the last number— 20, of the series D ; the most important 70 ITALIAN. brancli of knowledge, Theology, has the last number — 40, of B, and finally, the First Cause, the lowest number of the series — A 50, the terminal of the entire sequence. On the other hand, the order according to which the letters dis- tinguishing the series are placed appears to say — if we begin with the First Cause — " Before all things, think of God who made the world — series A ; next practise the Virtues — series B ; then cultivate knowledge — series C ; seek the Muses, D, and lay stress on the various fortunes of life, last of all — series E." M. E. Galichon preferred regarding the entire sequence as representing the " Encyclopajdio System of Dante, or as being an astrological speculation, striving to assimilate the phases of celestial revolutions to those of terrestrial life ; as constituting a book, in fact, in which the burin of the engraver displaces the pen of the writer, while recounting in five chants, the rewards which await sai upright and industrious man." Lastly, the mystic secrets of the Hebrew Kabbalah have been held by some to have been concealed in certain of the original designs, unfortunately afterwards modified and added to in number, while to others the philosophy of India and the secrets of the Egyptian mysteries lay in them, but hidden, save to the eyes of the iUuminati, and to the questionings of an unhesitating faith. {Postea, " Cards of Divination.") Under the second head may be classed those theories which involve in the character and purport of these emblematic figures some kind of amusing game. The difficulty of pointing out the exact nature of the game which could be played with such pieces (or cards) as bore on them the symbols of Logic, Rhetoric, Theology, Prime mobile, Prima causa, &c., has given rise to various conjectures. Some persons, like those who recognise in these emblems the mystic learning of the East, have supposed the sequence to have been used — as the gypsies and others use modern cards — for the purposes of divination and fortune-telhng, falling back for support on " Le Sorti di Francesco Marcolini," and Fanti's "Triompho diFortuna" (a.d. 1526), (Singer, Bibl. 8, pp. 64-66), the latter fur- nished with the Papal " Privilegium," and dedicated to Pope Clement VII., as proving that analogous emblematic figures were then employed for these purposes. Other archfeologists have regarded the sequence as fonning what is now known as a tarots game of cards, or at least some adumbration or modification of it. This school points out that a like general economy pervades the admitted tarots games, and the sequence of the Mantegna tai-occhi. The latter, v.g. is composed of five series, and five divisions go to form a tarots game. Each series of the one is made up of ten pieces, and in the other four series are composed of ten likewise, whose " points " proceed from one to ten. Further, the decades of the taroccU of Mantegna are distinguished by the letters ABODE, while the five series of more recent tarots are differentiated by objects, the initials of the names of which are the letters A B C D E — atutti, hastoni, coppe, danari, espada {spade, ItaL). It is true that in the Italian names for the tarots series the E does not occur, since the proper word begins with S, but the Spanish word may have been common at Venice formerly, and thus we find E {Espada for spade, Ital.) in the early pieces, and it is not the less noteworthy that in the second edition or later version of 1485 the E has been displaced from the last series, and S substituted, as though the engraver, aware of the previous mistake or inconsistency, sought to remedy the error. This view of the matter has been opposed by high authori- ties. They dwell upon the fact that these early Italian pieces do not bear any of the characteristic marks of suits, even were it to be admitted — which it should not be — that the interpretation of the letters of the several decades above o-iven were hi the least satisfactory. Secondly, the number of the pieces of the sequence — fifty — does not comcide with any combmations involved in the old and true Venetian tarots game of seventy- eight cards. Thirdly, that in the only two or tlu-ee truly perfect or originally uniform sets TABOTS. 71 known, the prints are bound together apparently as they were at first, and have large margins, and not any impressions have been met with as yet, printed on paper strong enough to resist the wear and tear of play. Lastly, their size is too great for cards, and they are uncoloured. To these objections it has been replied that it was not intended to maintain these emblematic engravings were used loose, and were wont to be shuffled like the cards of an after age. On the contrary, they formed originally a sort of book or album, which might be employed by youth and moral persons, but to which, afterwards on other occasions, " suit " members were added, so that they could be used in a game of pure amusement and hazard. Fui-ther, their size is not greater than that of the German painted cards of the Stuttgart collection, nor — in height at least — than that of the numerals of the JMusee Correr at Venice. Colouring is not essential to a sequence of playing-cards, for several sets of four suits each, evidently intended for play without having been coloured, were delicately engraved on copper before the end of the fifteenth centm^. It can be shown in addition that above one-half of the atouU of the compara- tively modern games of chance called tarots have been borrowed from the figures of the present sequence. Take the tarots (combined) of Besanqon, Marseilles, and Geneva, which represent pretty faithfidly the older Venetian games, and it may be seen that out of twenty-six figures, fifteen have been borrowed, even to minute details, from the early Italian engravings. Of the cards of the Florentine tarots game, mincMate, which are in number ninety-seven (forty being true tarots), having twenty more atouts than the Venetian game, it may be seen that the addi- tions have been borrowed reaUy from the same source. Lastly, the general principle of the tarots game appears to have been taken from it likewise. The atouts, e. g. which have more value in the jeux de tarots, are such as have the higher numbers, and these latter belong to such pieces as correspond exactly with the higher numbers of the ancient sequence, and which are included in the numbers 41-50. TVe may say — speaking generally — that the relationship of the so-called tarocchi of Mantegna to more recent playing-cards, through the medium of the older tarots, has been placed in a clearer light, and has been better defined since 1 869 by M. Merlin, the juror who prepared the report on the playing-cai-ds sent to the Parisian Exposition of 1 855. According to this authority, long before the production of the fifty early Italian emblematic pieces as a combined series of engravings, and even anterior to the invention at Venice of games of hazard with cards, there existed in Italy a series of pictorial representations called Naibis, which were employed for the purposes both of instruction and simple amuse- ment. The "Chronicle " of JloreUi, a.d. 1 393, and Decembrio's " Histoiy of the Life of Philip Visconti, Duke of Milan," who was bom in 1391, afford evidence of this, and also lead to the belief that the subjects of these pictorial representa- tions were the same as those of the tarocchi of Mantegna. In other words, it may be implied that the engraver — whoever he was — of the latter copied the devices of the former, just as the authors of the succeeding tarots have copied the emblematic figures of the first engraved sequence. From this latter circiimstanee, indeed, the early Italian engravings received the names of tarots and tarocclii, names which there is not any reason to believe belonged to them at first. These early prints, thus derived from the Naihis, cannot, therefore, be regarded as original conceptions of the times at which they were produced, but must be considered as based, at least, on a common type certainly existing a century before. The truth of this is shown, according to M. Merlin, in the critical analysis of a MS. of the early part of the fifteenth century, undertaken by M. Douet d'Arcy, in the " Revue Archeologique " for 1858. This MS. contains, inter alia, a treatise on blazon — the earliest known. The latter is composed of two portions, one portion consisting of twelve chapters of elementary instruction on the art, and the other being a sort of petit armorial, in com- 72 ITALIAN. bination with some rules on heraldic procedm-es. The latter section of the armorial is as follows : " Sensuyvent les ditz et armes de ix femmes dictes et appellees Muses.' " Caliope la premiere, porte de synople, une trompette d' argent en bende Son dit : jusques aux nues. " Uranyes, ii= porte de sable, ung ceme dargent ung compas de masson de mesmes Son dit : la non pareille. " Terpsicore iij^ porte dargent, ung leut de pourpre Son dit : Seule y suis. " Erato iiij^ porte dor, une meule de molin de sable [c'est un tambour de bas- que] Son dit : jatens I'heure. " Polymnya v" porte dazur, unes orgues d' argent Son dit : moy mesmes. " Talia vi' porte de gueules, une vieUe dor Sou dit ; a mon devoir. " Melpomene vii'' porte de pourpre ung cornet dor Son dit : jamais lasse. " Euterpe vij* porte dargent, une doulcene de sable Son dit : tant mest doulx. " Clio ix'^ de sable ung signe dargent Son dit : a la mort chante. " Sensuyvent les vij ars. " Grammaire, la premiere. — Une vieiUe ridee, beguinee, esmantelee, porte de pourpre, une lime d' argent, ung pot de mesmes. " Logica ii". Une femme jeune, les cheveux crespes, les bras tout nudz hault recoursez d'une chemise jusques aux piedz, es mammelles et au nombril troussee — porte de gueules, une serpent volant d'or envelopee d'ung drap d'argent. " Rethorica Hi". Une jeune dame, d'ung heaulme et une coronne par dessus sa teste, ung manteau et une riche cotte vestue, en la main dextre tenant une espee — porte de synople, deux enfants nudz d'argent aoufflant deux trompettes de mesmes. " Oeometria iiii". Une jeune dame issant d'une nue, tenant en sa main une esquarre [une equerre] pour compasser et mesurer pierres — porte d'argent, une nue d'asur. " Arismetica v^. Une femme ancienne, de crevechiefs sa teste affublee, d'une robe longue abillee jusques aux piedz, contant argent — porte de sable, six besans d'argent. " Musica vi". Une jeune dame en cheveux, bien adornee, d'une fine chemise vestue les bras tous nudz, assise sur un signe, les jambes entrellees et nudz piedz, unes orgues, iing lehut et plusieurs autres instrumens empres elle, ung flaiol — porte de synople, deux flaiolz d'argent. " Philosophia vii". Une jeune dame les cheveux pendens, d'ung corset de guerre a escaUles, armee d'ung targon, au milieu ung visaige insculpe, tenant en la main senestre, en I'aultre main ung dart ferre et empane — porte de gueles de dars d'argent de mesure. " Une jeune dame* les cheveux pendens, ung chappelet de fleurs par dessus, touchant de la main dextre ung flaiol, de I'aultre main espenchant a ung pot de terre de I'eau qui sourdait d'une fontaine, et en ses piedz le firmament — ^porte d'assur le firmament d'argent." It will be at once apparent that in the foregoing descriptions are delineated the emblematic figures of the Muses, Arts, and Poetry, exactly as they are repre- sented in the pieces of the sequence of Mantegna. If it be a correct opinion ' " The nine Muses form the subject of the second decade of Mantegna, the seven arts are included in the sciences and arts, the third decade of the same se- quence. The perfect identity may be at once recognised. The colours and mottoes only are wanting." (Note by M. Merlin, op. cit. p. 48.) ^ The name of the person is wanting, but on comparing the description with the engraving it will be found that it is — Poetry. TAEOTS. 73 that the MS. in question is as early as the first quarter of the fifteenth centurv, the Italian designs are brought on a level, quoad time, with those alluded to by Decembrio as having composed one of the fevourite amusements of the younc Duke of Milan, bom in 1391, an amusement qui ex ima^nHms depictis Jit. About the end of the fifteenth century some inventive genius, probably Venetian, selecting a certain number — ^ts-entr-two — of the original emblematic JVaUi* (now converted into atutti., atouts, or tarots), added to them a series of numeral cards by which the excitement of chance and interest of gain might be added to the instruction, or more innocent amusement, the emblematic series was intended to afibrd- This modified game, though adopted pretty generally, never- theless soon underwent a further and mostimportant change. THs was the elimi- nation of the whole of the emblematic (atutti, tarots) series, leaving the numeral cards alone to play with (antea, " General Histcirv." p. 23). Some countries, however, stiH retained an emblematic series in combination with the numeral cards for certain games, though adopting, at the same time, packs of cards made up of nmnerals only. To this day, even, packs of cards of the true old tarots character may be purchased in Italy and the south of France, and are not unknown in Germany. It is. therefore, through these tarots cards, whether ancient or modem, i. e., the em- blematic series conjoined with numerals, that the connection between the tarocchi of JMantegna and playing-cards should be sought. Traced as above indicated, the connection is quite apparent, and thus there is not either mistake or exaggeration in regarding the original Xaibis transmitted to ns through the early Italian engra- vings before us, as the source from which playing-cards may be said to have sprung, the engravings in question simpjly representing that series of earlier hand-painted devices fixim which the old tarots' games of Venice and Florence made a selection for their atutti series. [7 in. X 4 in.] [Backs plain.] I. 2. LAST QUAETEE OF FIFTEENTH CEXTUET. FLOEEXCE ? VE^^CE ? QUAETO volume of like character to the preceding one (L 1.), containing forty-five early Italian engravings, known as the Giuoco di Tarocchi di ^lantegTta, ancient Venetian tarots, &c. The pieces herein contained constitute a second edition or ver- sion with numerous variations of the sequence before described. The follow- ing pieces are wanting : Misero, 1 ; Fameio, 2 ; Lnperator, 9 ; Primo mobile, 49 ; Prima causa, 50. On the tablet held by the emblematic figure C Arit- metricha, xxv. — 25, are these figures in the foUowing arrangement : — .1.2 34-. •^*l ■7- 8.9 10 i J4 08- 5 Duchesne, Passavant, Merlin, and other writers, have considered the lowest row of ntmierals to imply the date 1485, and the period when the engraving was 74 ITALIAN. executed. Kolloff ridicules this opinion as " an highly wonderful conjecture." . . " The counting-slate is intended to represent a so-called magic quadrature, i. e., a table with numbers so placed, that in whatever direction they may be added up, the resulting amount or sum shall be the same. Albert Diirer also has repre- sented arithmetic by such a table in his famous piece of the ' Melancholy.' Here the numbers run from one to sixteen, and the sum is forty-four [sic] [34]. The Italian engraver was not aware evidently of what he had to represent." (Meyer's " Kiinstler-Lexicon," p. 594, vol. ii.) Bartsch looked on the present series as the earlier or original set of the Cartes de Tarots, (vol. xiii. p. 1 20,) and considered the one before described as the second edition or copy of the present sequence. In connection with this point two questions present themselves for considera- tion ; there is that of priority of production, and that of actual transcription. The present series may have been, and we beheve was, engraved after the preceding one [I. 1.] ; but if so it need not have been directly copied from the latter. The opinion long since broached by Ottley, " that many of the pieces of the one series are rather the repetitions of the same subjects engraved with variations in the designs of the figures than what may be properly called copies," has since been more fully stated by Merlin, who maintains that neither series is a>, direct copy from the other, but that both have been based on another and more primi- tive example. Before referring to the particular marks on which this judgment is founded, it may be well to notice those circumstances in which these two ver- sions or editions differ from each other. In the first place, tlie pieces of the present sequence are somewhat smaller in size than are the others. The initial letter S supplants the letter E of the decade containing the emblematic figures of the various stations of life ; the inscriptions and numbers are of heavier, coarser, and apparently of later form, the points or dots before and after them are here absent, and the marks of the nail holes at the corners are wanting. Secondly, the majority of the figures, which are turned or advance towards the left of the spectator in the former version (I. 1 .), are here (I. 2.) turned to- wards the right, but though thus reversed in direction, the actions are duly per- formed with the right hand. Thirdly, though the figures represent like subjects, several of them are of different designs, and are accompanied by symbolic accessories of different character. Fourthly, there is much disparity between the technical merits of the two sets, the present version being inferior in all respects to the one already described. The expression of the heads is quite changed, the drawing is inferior, and the en- graved work is of a harder, stifFer, and inferior kind. In one instance, however, the author of the second version has improved on the earlier issue, viz., in the drapery of Temperancia xxxiiii., which in the present series is superior on the whole to the heavier forms in the figm-e of the version of 1470. M. H. Delaborde observes : — " It is quite certain that one of the two series, that in which the first ten pages bear the letter E in lieu of an S inscribed in like places in the second, has far higher merit as regards drawing and style. Is not this sufficient to decide the question of priority in its favom-, or at least to render it thus highly presumptive ? If, in fact, it be supposed with Bartsch that the inferior one of the two versions is the older one, we shall be forced to admit that, by a singular exception, the first engraver of the tarocclii did not know how to profit either from the examples or progress which had occurred during several years. Further, how could the mediocrity of his work have awakened the spirit of imitation ? How, at a time and in a country which were cognisant of the nielli of a Finiguerra, and the prints of Botticelli, could the desire have arisen to plagiarise pieces which could be made to undergo comparison so easily, and could be so satisfactorily judged ? TABOTS. 75 At any rate it is at least rare that a copy is better than the original work." (" Gazette des Beaux -Arts," 1873, toI. vii. p. lOl.) Reference may be made now to the data on which Merlm confides, as proving that neither of the editions in question was copied one from the other. This writer proceeds to say, " the comparison which we have made of the first two editions does not allow of our admitting, as is generally done, that one is a copy of the other. The notable differences which may be observed between certain subjects, do not indicate the work of two different burins simply, they reveal a Hberty of drawing incompatible with the fetters of a copy. A like circumstance unquestionably happened in connection with these drawings as frequently occurred in respect to MSS., before printing arrived to fix the tests. A first or original model served as a, point de depart, and the artists who reproduced it, though seiz- ing fundamentals and numerous details, departed more or less from the primitive type, an occurrence attended with far less risk in the case of di-awing, however, than as regarded texts. " A fiu-ther proof that the two engravers copied a different model is the fact that in the edition of 1485, the first decade of the figures bears as a distinctive mark of the series the letter S, whUe in the other edition the letter E dis- tinguishes the like series. Now, this difference could not have been the result of chance nor of inadvertence on the part of the engraver, for had it been it would have appeared on two or three only of the subjects of the series, and not on the whole ten. "Another and a conclusive argument is this : while in the version of 1470 nearly all the figures are turned towards the left of the spectator, in that of 1485 they are directed to the right, yet the care which has been taken by both engravers to preserve the pre-eminence of the right over the left hand in its proper offices, shows that neither of these editions was copied one from the other. Thus, when the person represented uses a weapon or any other object which he should hold in the right hand, it is in this hand that the object is found in both versions, though the figure has a contrary direction in each engraving, and the reversal of position has bestowed occasionally a work of some difficidty on the draughtsman. It may be added, likewise, that several figures, though representing similar sub- jects, are of quite different designs in the two editions, nor are the accessories always the same. We believe, then, that we are justified in regarding these two editions as perfectly independent one of the other, and as owing their resem- blances to the primitive model only from which they originated. Nor is this model anterior to the engravings under consideration a chimera of our imagination, for we have already shown that the types followed by the engravers were eonuuon in the fifteenth century. As regards the question of priority of production rela- tive to these two versions, we leave that to competent judges to decide ; it has been sufficient for our purpose to have demonstrated that the two engravers did not copy one from the other, but reproduced anterior or original designs, designs which could not be anything else than the Ndibu cited by MorelU in 1393, as ob- jects for recreation fit to be used by children, and exempt from the chances of hazard." (MerKn, p. 78.) The writer above quoted has the following note at page 79, in reference to the question of priority of production, which is worthy of extract. " As a proof of the anteriority of the sequence which M. Duchesne supposes to be of the date 1470, that writer observes, that in this edition the figure of Arithmetic (25) reckons with counters, while in that of 1485 this same figure holds a tablet containing the signs of numeration known as Arabic numbers. He adds : ' It is quite certain that when numerals were written with Roman figures, reckoning could be performed with counters only ; the use of Arabic numbers being more recent, they could not be indicated by the engraver before the time at which their employment had become general.' Notwithstanding our high esteem for the learned iconophUist whom we have cited, it is impossible for us to adopt 76 ITALIAN. his conclusion. In the first place, the introduction of Indian figures, known under the name of Arabic numerals, was long anterior to 1470. Further, the Arith- metic, to which he alludes, does not reckon with counters, she counts money in her . hand, as may be readily seen. M. Duchesne has not borne in mind that calcula- tion with counters can be done only on a table and not in the hand, the value of the counters being subordinate to the respective places which they occupy on the table, and of which we retain the practice in marking games with counters." On a fly-leaf of the volume containing the present version are the following remarks in MS. : — " Query — if not Ant da Brescia." " Wanting Nos. 1, 2, 9, 49, 50." " Duchesne states that of two sets he had seen, Nos. 1 and 50 were wanting and supplied by facsimile drawings." In the Slade collection, forming part of thfe British Museum cabinet, there are two pieces of the earlier edition (1470), and one of the second (1485). The former pieces are the Astrologia, xxxviiii, altered to 38 in the restoration of the right-hand lower corner, and the Octava spera, xxxxviii. — 48. The Astrologia is a remarkably fine and early impression, but the Octava spera is fi-om a much-worn plate. The piece from the second edition (1485), is a fine early impression of bluish- grey tint of Sol, xxxxiiii. — 44. Besides these repliche there are other two pieces of the second edition, viz., the S Doxe, vii. — 7 and the C Loica, xxii. — 22. These pieces are fine and early states of bluish-grey tone, but having their surfaces worn and rubbed and being cut down to the innermost lines of the borders. The inscriptions and numbers are thus wanting. By measurement, these two pieces wiU be found to be slightly larger, particu- larly in length, than the engravings contained in the volume of the second edition, I. 2. This is due to the paper having been much damped to receive the im- pressions, and to the direction of the press or cylinder in motion having been that of the long axis of the plate. Careful comparison of these repliche with the other pieces in this volume will show that they are all from the same plates. In volume I. 1 ., containing the first edition, may be found a copy of the A Satubno, xxxxvij . — 47 of that series. This piece is comparatively of modern execution, and of inferior workman- ship. We assume it to be one of the " Copie du Jeu des 50 Tarots, par Hans Ladenspelder d'Essen," alluded to by Passavant, vol. v. p. 127. Passavant remarks : — " Although we have never met with an entire sequence, we have not any hesitation in believing that Ladenspelder engraved one. This copy was made from the original series [i.e. of 1470], and all the pieces have the same primitive border, a wound ribbon, the same inscriptions, the same numeration, and the distinctive letters from E to A. Some of the pieces have the mark of Ladenspelder, among others, Hope, Faith, the Sun, and Geometry, on which the monogram is inscribed on a tablet. The master of Essen has not imitated in the least the manner of the old engravers, but has used the burin in the style of the ' Little G-erman masters,' with simple, very fine hatchincs, and without much drawing power. The impression is not at all like that of the ancient cards— in pale ink— but in one of a decided black, though not heavily loaded" (p. 127). Johann or Hans Ladenspelder von Essen, a well-known eno-raver of the Lower Rhine school, was born in 1 51 1 ; the date of his death is unknown. (See Nagler, " Monogrammisten," vol. iii. n. 1 520.) TABOTS. 77 I- 3- {Prints of the early Italian School, vol. ii.) LAST QUARTER OF FIFTEENTH CENTURY. VENICE. ; OUR cards of the numeral series of a tarots sequence, of which as yet but thirty-one pieces have been described. One card is the Cavallo di Danari. It is represented by a thick-set man with a buckler on his left arm, and mounted on horseback. He gallops towards the left. Part of the horse's mouth, chest, and nearly the whole of the forelegs are cut across by the boundary line of the engraving. Below the foot of the horseman, and at the left is the mark of the suit — Danari. At the upper right-hand comer is the title, Sabafino. A second card is the Fante di Danari. A young man stands erect, inclined backwards towards the left of the piece, directing his actions towards the right. Though his back touches the left-hand marginal border of the engraving, his right foot advances so far as to be within three-eighths of an inch of the right border. He holds a bird in his left hand, and points to the ground with the index finger of the right hand. On a large perch, projecting from the right of the engraving, is a hawk, the cord affixed to which is wound loosely round the perch. Below and between the right-hand border of the piece and the valet's left leg is the mark of the suit — Danari. Not any title is present. A third card is the Cavallo di Spade. It shows a young man on horseback, advancing towards the left, the right foreleg of the horse being cut across by the left mai-giual Hue of the engraving. The man holds with both hands a long drawn sword, as if about to strike some one on the ground. From his left side hangs the long sheath of the weapon. At the upper left-hand corner is the title Amone. The fourth piece is the Dama di Bastoni. A coroneted female is seated at the left hand in a thi-one-like chair. She raises her left hand, and is directed and looks towards the right. In her right hand she holds a baton-like sceptre, which she likewise supports by her right shoulder. At the upper right-hand comer is the title Palas. Of these designs the Fante di Danari is by far the best, and has some resemblance to the style of the ChavaUer and Zintilomo in the previously described sequence, I. 1 . The technic of these pieces has a strong affinity with that of many of the prints ascribed to Baldini. There is, however, a grotesque- ness of design and want of proportion about some figm-es, and especially the horses, which do not say much for the artistic powers of their author. These four engravings are very interesting in some respects. They appear to form a portion of the set mentioned by Zani at p. 72 of his "Materiali," by Cicognara, p. 162, and by Passavant, vol. v. p. 127. The latter writer gives the following account of it imder the title, " Venetian Tarot Cards of the year 1070, after the foundation of Venice" : — " The Count Cicognara in his memoirs on ' NieUi and Playing Cards,' alludes to a set of Venetian cards which Zani had met with at Naples dispersed in two collections, but of which a complete series (coloured), was preserved in the cabinet of the Marchioness Busca (bom Duchess SerbeUoni) at Milan, and some 78 ITALIAN. separate pieces in that of the Marquis Durazzo, at Genoa. Cicognara gives in his work, plates xii. and xiii., copies of seven of these cards, offering a fair idea of tlae manner in which they are engraved. He states afterwards tliat certain pieces of the series are numbered, while others bear the marks of the suits, swords, money, and cups. He adds • further that on the piece of Bacchus, No. xiv., the following inscription may be read : ' Col permesso del Senato Veneto nelV anno ab urbe condita MLXX.' ; which would assign the execution of these prints to the year 1 49 1 , if the date of the foundation of that city be taken as A.i>. 421) and not 453, as is usually done. " The design and composition of these cards is remarkable in this, that the actions of the figui-es and the play of the muscles have a certain exaggeration which so recalls the style of Pordenone, that in adopting the date 453 as that of the foundation of Venice, one would be tempted to refer their execution to 1 523, if the details of costume — which latter is the end of the fifteenth century — did not ftilfil better the conditions of the other hypothesis. " Further, the comparatively poor design and somewhat coarse technical execution by means of oblique hatchings, correspond better with the work of the first epoch of Mantegna. " We have seen twenty pieces of this series in the Albertine collection at Vieima, these came from the cabinet of Count Pries ; three other pieces in the cabinet of the Baron de Haus, in the same city, eventually passing into the Imperial Library, and four others in the British Museum at London. Neverthe- less, we could not maintain that all these cards belonged to one and the same edition, though they are of similar dimensions and treated in a like style, since some might be copies only, as would appear to be actually the case with respect to the two numbers 14 afterwards described, and which diifer from each other. " Although Cicognara saw at Naples and MUan two complete series of these cards, he gives bvit an incomplete account of their number, contours, figures, and design. We would observe only that if the figure of Panfilio be marked with the number 1, it may show that the pieces before us formed part of a Oiuoco del Fante di Spada, in which, according to the Venetian custom, this card is the highest of all the pieces. " As far as we can judge from the thh'ty-one cards known to us, there should be twenty numbered figures, while the other cards (king, queen, knight, and knave) bore the marks of the suits of spade, coppe, danari, and hastoniy (Pass., vol. V. pp. 127-129.) [5f X 2|- in.] [Backs plam.] I. 4- SECOND HALF OP SEVENTEENTH CENTURY ? BOLOGNA. TAROTS' pack, representing the old Venetian tarots set of twenty- two atutti, combined with the fuU numerals, fifty-six in number, i. e. seventy-eight in toto. As here arranged, the true tarots series is the last series in the book. It begins with "Le Pol" unnumbered as usual, followed by " Le Bateleur," Numbe'r i., and terminating in the typical manner with " Le Monde," xxi. Each emblematic card follow'^ ■ The force and meaning of the words tarot and tarots are fully considered antea, p. 19, and under French " Cards of Divination '' postca. TABOTS. 79 exactly the common old titles and sequences, as are given by Merlin, p. 32. Each of the tarots is numbered at the top in Koman numerals, and has the title below the design. The numeral suits are of the marks always accompanying the old Italian com- bined tarots sets, "viz. coppe (here coupes), danari (deniers), bastoni (hastoii), and spade {spec). Each suit has here of course an additional coate card or honour — the cJievaliei in accordance with the rule of this typical series. Each numeral card has the number of its value marked in Roman characters at the sides. The coat-cards have their titles inscribed below the designs. On the two of coupes — here the first card in the arrangement — ^is the following inscription at the lower portion : Takochi Fini Di Francesco Bekti in Bologna. On the two of deniers is inscribed " Carte Fine " within an ornamental scroU connecting the marks of the suit, while on the four of deniers is " At Leone " on a tablet in the centre, on which is likewise a large bird pecking the ground. The back of each card in all the series has a full-length figure of a man with a turban, and in Oriental dress. He holds by the tail a live bird in his left hand, and a dead bird, apparently, in his right. This figure, printed in black, is reheved from off a ground watered or clouded in rose-madder colour. Below it in a margin retained for the purpose is the address al leone. The whole of the designs, which are from wood-blocks, are of the commonest and coarsest character. The colouring is in keeping with the rest. This series of cards is noteworthy, as illustrating the following remarks of Taylor, Bibl. 9, ix. p. 229. " With regard to the tarots, it is singular that so many of the packs, no matter where manufactured, bear French titles, some of them, as we have seen, of very barbarous orthography. A pack, however, in our own possession, inscribed on the deuce of cups, Fabbricatore Gumppenberg, and on the backs of the cards, which are tarottes in blue, ' in Milano,' has the titles in Italian, corresponding with those of the French pack of 1 500." In the set under notice, the titles of all the atuMi are in French, e.g. Le Bateleur, La Imperatrice, Le Empereur, Le Ermite, &c. The same is the case as respects the honours of the numeral series, as, e.g. Valet de Spee, Heine de Spee, Roy de Spee. These cards are stiffly mounted, and like those of many Italian packs, have the paper of their backs turned over the edges of the front so as to form a border. [37 X l|- in.] [Backs figured and coloured.] I- 5- SECOND QUARTER OP NINETEENTH CENTURY. MILANO. PACK of seventy-eight cards, representing the old Venetian tarots, i. e. twenty-two atutti and fifty-six numerals. There are four honours in each suit, which latter are coppe, danari, spade, and bastoni. The emblematic figures or true tarots are niunbered at the tops in Roman numerals, and have the titles below the designs in the Italian language, viz.: 1. H BafatteUo ; 2. La Papessa; 3. LTmperatrice ; 4. L'Imperatore ; 5. n Papa; 6. Gli Amanti; 7. I Carro ; 8. La Giustizia; 9. L'Eremita; 10. Ruot. deUaFor; 11. La Forza; 12. L'Appeso ; 13. "Without title (Death); 14. La Temperanza; 15. II Diavolo ; l5. La Torre; 17. Le Stelle ; 18. La 8o ITALIAN. Luna; 19. H Sole; 20. II Giudizio ; 21. Il Mondo. II Matto is without number. The honours bear the titles: Re di Dauari, Reg. di Danari, Caval di Diaari, Fan di Danari. Re di Spade, Reg di Spade, Caval di Spade, Fante di Spade, Re di Bastoni, Reg di Bastoni, Cav. di Bastoni, Fan di Bastoni, Re di Coppe, Reg di Coppe, Caval di Coppe, Fante di Coppe. On the Me di Bastoni is the address Giws e Felice Rossi, and the govern- ment stamp, bearing the divided crown of Austria, beneath which is: F. I. c. 70. Lombardia. On the two of coppe may be read " NoovA Fab di Milano,'' and on number iii. of the tarots series, " L'Imperatrice," " Tarocco Find." The designs and execution of these cards are common and coarse. The backs are stamped in blue with a lace-work-like ornament, below which is inscribed E di Milano. [36. X 1 5-.] [Backs decorated.] I. 6. SECOND QUARTER OF NINETEENTH CENTURY. BOLOGNA ? (Tarocchino.) MODERN pack of sixty-two cards, viz., twenty-two atiitti and forty numerals, being a perfect set representing the game known as the old Tarocchino of Bologna. This version of the tarots game is stated by Cicognara and others to have been invented in Bologna at the end of the fourteenth or beginning of the fifteenth century, by Francesco Anteminelli Castraoani Fibbia, Prince of Pisa, who was an exile in that city, and died there in 1419. The game of tarocchino differs from the typical Venetian tarots series in the number of the numeral cards. In the former, the two, three, four, and five of each suit are suppressed, thus reducing the old Venetian sequence of seventy-eight cards to sixty -two. The true tarots, or atutti, are identically the same in number and, speaking generally, similar in design and subjects. In modern sets, however, a modification has been introduced which will be noticed presently. The authorities of Bologna were so well pleased with Fibbia's alteration of the Venetian game, that they allowed the prince the privilege of placing his own shield of arms on the queen of bastoni, and that of his wife, who was of the Ben- tivoglio family, on the queen of danari, a distinction which, as D uchesne remarks, " should not prevent us from hoping that Francesco Fibbia, who had been general- issimo of the Bolognese troops, had rendered his country more important services than teaching it to play at tarocchino.^' (B. 2, p. 11.) In the pack before us the actual numeration of the atutti series begins with the emblem of love, or L'Amoreux, as it is often written. This is marked with the Arabic numeral S at the upper left-hand and lower right-hand corners in reverse. The atutti continue to receive numbers up to the sixteenth card, L'Etoile. Not any titles nor names occur on the pieces, whether atutti or numerals. The peculiar numeration here practised agrees with the account given by Merhn, p. 32. It receives an explanation in the circumstance that this modern pack of tarocchino cards has the four " Moor's heads or satraps " in lieu of the emblematic figures rEmpereur, L'Imperatrice, Le Pape, and La Papesse, which are present TAB0T8. 8i in the old Venetian tarote, and the old tarocchino cards of the Paris cabinet. In some still more recent tarocchino sets than the present series, the original emblems have been restored (MiteUi cards). " Several of these variations are due evidently to political circumstances. In 1513 the repubhc of Bologna acknowledged the sovereignty of the Pope. It was probably after this revolution that the four figures of the tarots were displaced by the four Moors. Other variations have been due to mistakes of the engravers, while changes in costume occurring in time have produced the rest." (Merlin, p. 84.) All the figures in the present series, both atiitti and numeral honours, are busts, printed double and in reverse on each piece. The numeral suits are of course coppe, danari, bastoni, and spade. On the ace of danari, above and below the symbol of the suit, is a running hai-e looking be- hind her as she runs, backed by some bulrush-like plants. On the large central mark itself is a bust, like that on coins. The six of danari bears two government stamps, the upper one is inscribed 1827, and has a baldacchino with two cross keys below it; on the lower stamp is the word case (B), (3). The designs and execution of these cards are of the commonest character. The colourmg is in keeping with the rest. The Matto or Fou of the atutti is a fancifully dressed man playing on a horn and a drum at the same time. The card intended here for the ace of spade is peculiar. It is probably a piece of a suit of bastoni crept in by mistake. The long narrow form of these cards is characteristic of a tarocchino pack. The backs are stamped in black with a large floriated or arabesque-like ornament, which is the best designed thing in the entire set. [4|- X If- in.] [Backs decorated.] I. 7- FIRST QUARTER OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. BOLOGNA. (Il Giuoco del Tabocchino di Mitelli.) SET of sixty-two cards, viz., twenty-two atutti and forty numerals, representing the tarocchino of Bologna. The two, three, four, and five of each numeral suit are suppressed in accordance with the original game. These cards, well known as MiteUi's, had some repute in their day, and were included by Bartsch in his description of the works of this artist in the nine- teenth volume, p. 305, of " Le Peintre Graveur." Giuseppe Maria MiteUi was born at Bologna in 1 634, and died there in 1718. He studied paiating in the schools of Albano, Guercino, Torri, and Cantarini, was a proficient in music, and greatly addicted to hunting. Mitelli gave up much time to enoraving, but his designs are — as observed by Bartsch — " more remarkable for their strange and sometimes ingenious character, than for the manner in which they are executed. The drawing is not always satisfactory, and the contours want in general purity and taste." — " The works of MiteUi are etched with a light point, but without much feeling, and from the openness of the technic, and the faintness of the shadows formed by simple or but rarely crossed lines, they have a cold look about them. They are, in fact, but designs sketched without force and effect, owing what merit they possess to the subjects they represent." (B. xix. p. 270.) G 82 ITALIAN. According to Bartsch, the engravings of Mitelli, after the designs of Titian, Albano, Cagllari, and others, are not superior to those of his own designing. To this judgment objection may be taken. Some of the former are surely very much better than the execution of his own bizarre and grotesque compositions. Among the better of the latter and devoid of any extravagance are these designs for a set of tarocchino cards, engraved by Mitelli for one of the family of Bentivoglio. The copper-plates were still in the possession of the latter when Cicognara wrote, and who perceived on the designs : " tanta grazia, che pub dirsi una delle migliori sue produzioni, salvo quel pb di manierato, del quale ogni opera dell' Arte comincio a risentirsi in quell' epoca" (p. 138). According to Cicognara, the Mitelli cards had become (1831) scarce, and in request by virtuosi. Of this series of tarocchino cards, the Museum possesses three distinct sets. 8et A. — Italian School of Engraving. Worhs of^ Mitelli. (Vol. iii. Nos. 274 — 277, 308 and 309.) This is a proof set of impressions from six large plates, varying from 14 in. to 1 4i in. in width, by 11 in. to 1 1 1- in. in height. The first or lower plate (275), contains ten of the atutti series of emblematic figures in the foUovring order, beginning at the right-hand corner of the lower row : L'Empereur barbu, No. 2 ; L'Empereur imberbe, 3 ; Le Pape assis barbu, 4 ; Le Pape debout barbu, $ ; L' Amour les yeux bandes, 6 ; Venus, 7 ; La Temperance, 8 ; La Justice, 9; La Eorce, lO; La Fortune, 11. The second or upper plate (274), contains ten other figures, viz. : Le Temps (vefllard aile avec des bequUles), 1 2 ; Un homme qui va tuer avec un maitlet un jeune homme endormi (Le pendu, le traitre), 13 ; La Mort, 14 ; Le Diable, 15 ; Un homme frappe de la foudre, 16 ; Un chiffonier et au ciel une etoile (L'Etoile), 1 7 ; Diane et la lune au ciel (La Lune), 18; AppoUon (Le Soleil), 19; Atlas (Le Monde), 20; Un ange sonnant de la trompette (Le Jugement Dernier), 21. Each of these plates of unseparated card pieces bears at the upper margin the inscription, " Grioco di carte di Taeocchini," and at the lower margin at the right-hand corner, " Gioseppe Maria Mitelli, Inv. diss. e. Int." The third plate (276), contains (commencing at the left-hand corner of the upper row), Le Eon qui Saute, Le Bataleur qui joue du tambour de basque 1 . Then follow the figure cards or honours of the numeral series in the following order after Le Bataleur : Roi d'Epees, Roi de Batons, Roi de Deniers, Roi de Coupes, Reine d'Epees, Reine de Batons, Reine de Deniers, and Reine de Coupes. The fourth plate (308), contains ten honours m the following order, com- mencing at the upper row, left-hand corner : Cavalier d'Epees, Cavalier de Batons, Cavalier de Deniers, Cavalier de Coupes, As d'Epees, Cavalier d'Epees, Cavalier de Batons, Valet de Deniers, Valet de Coupes, As de Batons. On a scroll on the As d'Epees is the motto, " Custodi^e Custos." On the As de Batons is " Aedua VlKT0S." Both these plates have inscriptions on the margins like to those previously described. The fifth plate (277), contains eleven numeral pieces, viz., the as, six, seven, eight, nine, and ten of coupes, and the six, seven, eight, nine, and ten of batons. The as de coupes is rather an elegant design, having on it the arms of the Bentivoglio family. The designs of the cups on the other cards are all of different character to each other. The sixth plate (309), contains eleven numeral pieces of the suits deniers and epees. The ace of deniers bears a female bust in an oval shield, below which on a pedestal is the address, " Gioseppe Maeia Mitelli Inv. Dis. e. Int." TAB0T8. 83 The symbols of tlie six of deniers bear birds, those of tlie seven, grotesque masques, the eight and nine male and female heads. On the ten of deniers are small, fuU-length figures in various actions, such as painting, fencing, shooting, fiddling, &c. Both plates bear inscriptions similar to those on the other impressions. This particular set is interesting, as showing the actual sequence in which the pieces were executed, and being uncut and uncoloured, admits of a fuU appreciation of such merits as the designs in it possess. Cicognara remarks: — " A. Bentivoglio caused it to be engraved, and in this family are preserved the worn plates. The emblems of the armorial bearings of the Bentivoglios may be seen on many of the cards, and in particular the queen of Danaei has all the ornamental portions of her dress cut like a saw, which was the original arms of this signiority." (Bibl. 5, p. 138.) To the writer above quoted, and to MerHn (Bibl. 6, p. 1 28), reference may be made for farther information. Set j3. — TaroGcMno di Mitelli. A pack (62), of the tarocchino cards of Mitelli before described. This set is bound up as a book lettered "Playing Cards, Bologna." The pieces are coloured, but in general less carefully and less appropriately than in the set presently to be noticed. The tarots emblematic figure of ia temperance is uncoloured. The atutti series is placed last in the book, and follows a some- what irregular sequence. The first card of the whole series is here the as de deniers, on which, engraved on a pedestal, is the address : " Gioseppe Mari.v MiTEi-Li Inv. Dis. e. Int." Set y. — Tarocchino di Mitelli. A pack (62) of the tarocchino cards of Mitelli. This set is contained in the original case, lettered : " Mitelli. Caete del Taeoc." The cards are well and carefully coloured. Each piece has the margin edged with a yellow border formed by the overlapping edges of the back-mounting paper of the card. The as de deniers bears the usual address : " Gioseppe Maeia Mitelli Inv. Dis. e. Int." [44 X 2 in.] [Backs plain in aU the sets.] Among the works of Mitelli (vol. iii.), are three pieces, representing scenes connected with playing-cards. No. 227. — A party of four persons is here represented, seated at a table and playing at cards. Twelve others are variously disposed, looking on. Diamonds are being played. On the floor lie some upturned cards ; on a perch, projecting fi-om the wall on the left, sits an owl ; opposite is another bird (? a raven) ; between these are three birds of nondescript character. Two dogs are snarling at each other in the foreground. The centre scene is treated in a grotesque and comic manner. At the upper portion of the print is the inscription : " Conver- sacione Considekabile." At the lower left-hand corner is the address: " Pietro de Rossi ikv." ; and at the right-hand comer Mitelli's name, though barely visible. [l6|- X 10 in.] No. 243. — Two persons are represented seated at an oval table, engaged with cards. The numeral suit danari is being played. The three of danari lies up- turned on the table, and the person on the left hand is about to play the five of this suit. Cards of the latter (some of which are torn in half) and of bastoni are 84 ITALIAN. on the table, along with four dice, counters, and a tray. On the floor he torn At the top of the plate is Ko. 5 ; at the bottom are two verses of fourteen lines each in Italian, showing that a lazy man would gamble away eyen his patrimony of the sun. The address of Mitelli is at the lower right-hand corner,_and the date lb83 on the support of the bench upon which the man on the left is sittmg. A pomt worthy of notice in connection with this print is the cu-cumstance, that although Mitelli made hunself well-known by his cards for the game of tarocchino, the game here being played is ti different one, since the small cards which are suppressed in the former are being employed. [Il|x8fin.] No. 256. — A gambler is represented holding up in his right hand a pack of cards, with the six of danari exposed. He points with his left hand to a table, on which are cards, counters, dice, and money, together with trays and dice-boxes. On the floor He cards of various suits, and balls and racket for playing tennis. On the wall hangs a racket, and thi-ee instruments with which gambling may be practised. At the upper right-hand corner of the print is the number 9. In the lower margin are two verses of four lines each, in Italian, one verse purporting to be spoken by a gambler and one by Death : the former telling how play has always been his dehght, and that without being a Jew, he could live on usury ; the latter replying that if by gambling a fortune may somethnes be gamed, it generally follows that the player loses his soul. Immediately above the verse of the " Giuocatore" is the address of Mitelli. [lOf. X 71 in.] I. 8. SEVENTEENTH CENTURY? SERIES of diminutive cards, thirty-eight in number. It is composed of an aiiiUi suit (twenty-two), and the sixteen figure cards belonging to the numeral suits, apparently of a tarocchino sequence. The latter may be infeiTcd from the circumstance that two Moors, or satraps, displace Le Pape and La Papesse in the atutti suit. The designs and execution are of common character; the pieces are un- coloured. [ 1 _'^ X i in.] [Backs plain.] NUMERALS. 85 NUMERALS. I. 9- SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. VENICE. SERIES of twenty-nine numerals from a pack of fifty-two Venetian cards. The suits are coppe, danari, spade, and hastoni. The most complete suit is that of spade, which wants the seven, nine, and cavallo. Judging from the figure cards of the suit hastoni, which are re, cavallo, and fante, there was not any queen admitted into this pack, probably from some Spanish influence or fashion prevailing at the time the cards were designed. Nevertheless, this exception may be due only to the " honours" of a tarots sequence having been taken, and the cavallo in lieu of the queen retained without any specific intention. On the two of spade is the following address : " Mottavio Cartoler in Piazza di San Marco Tien I£ in segna La Perleta." The ace of spade bears the motto : " Di Spada Ben Gioca Chi Vince" on a tablet in the centre of the card. On the ace of coppe is the motto : " Chi Coppe Havera Dinari Trovera." The kings are full-length figures, seated, bearing a sceptre in their left hands, and the symbol of the suit in the right. The fante of spade is an executioner, having the sword in his right hand, and a decapitated head in his left. Though the designs and execution of these cards are coarse and common- place, yet from the mode of colouring which has been followed — bad as it is — - a kind of richness of eflfect is produced, characteristic of the Venetian school of adornment. MerHn reproduces on the cover of his book (Bibl. 6) : " Les deux parties de I'enveloppe d'un jeu du seizieme siecle a la perletta." It is eyidently Venetian. The present pack was sold at the sign of " La perleta" [3f X If ™-] [Backs plain.] I. 10. FIRST HALF OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY? PADUA. PACK of fifty-two numeral cards, having as the marks of the suits danari, bastoni, coppe, and spade. As in the previous set, a eavallo displaces the queen, and ihe, fante of spade is an executioner. In the centre of the two of spade is the following inscription : " Al Aquila Coronata in Padova per Vicenza." 86 ITALIAN. Within a tablet on the ace of hastoni is the motto : " Non ti fidar di me se il cor ti mianca." On the backs of these cards is a full-length figure in outline printed in a carmine ink. It represents a minstrel playing a guitar. The designs and execution of this pack are in aU respects of the most inferior character. Several of the inscriptions are quite undecipherable. In connection with these, however, plate 29 of Merlin's work should be consulted, where a " Jeux a deux Tetes de Vicence, 1 6o2," is represented having mottoes like the present series. [3|. X i|- in.j [Back decorated with a figure.] CARDS WITH A SECONDARY PURPOSE. EDUCATIONAL, INSTRUCTIVE. I. II. FIRST QUAETER OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY ? BOLOGNA OR VENICE. (GEOGBArHIC AND HEEAIiDIC.) SERIES of sixty-two cax-ds, viz., twenty-two atutti and forty numerals. It represents a comparatively modem version of the tarocchino of Bologna. OrigiuaUy the two, three, four, and five of the numeral suits were suppressed (as in modern piquet), but in the present seyuence they exist, while the seven, eight, nine, and ten of each suit are absent. A marked feature of the present series is the intention of it to impart instruc- tion. Each tarots card has a geographic table engraved on it. Above this table is the particular emblematic tarots device, e. g., Love, Justice, Force, &c., with a letter of the alphabet at the left-hand corner. The number of the tarots card is on the left-hand side, at the top of the geographic table. The matto, or fool, has the letter O and the number 22 above a table of the " Tiegni dell Europa, e citta Regie." In the numeral cards, the place occupied in the atutti by the geographic table is filled with shields of armorial bearings. The latter are numbered. No. 1 being on the queen of swords, 1 75 on the ace of clubs. Above the shields, in separate compartments, are the marks of the suits, which are here money, cups, swords, and clubs. The honours are indicated by busts, the marks of the suits being sometimes at the left-hand, sometimes at the right-hand comer. On the ace of cups (No. of shield 1 74) is the inscription : In vece del 7, 8, 9, 10 di Coppe, si prende il 2, 3, 4, 5 e cosi di tutti, and on the shield, " Libertas." On the ace of clubs (No. of shield 175) is — Si stampano da Lelio dall volpe; while the ace of money offers— i'arnje sono delli SS". Anziani del 1670 smo al 1725. EDUCATIONAL— INSTEUGTIVE. 87 The ace of danari is here the first card in the series, and has on the shield (No. 175) the cross argent of Savoy. The cards of the aiutti series are impressions from engraved metal plates ; the numerals are from wood. The devices and symbols of both are coloured, but the shields on the numerals have been printed off sunply in black. Most of the pieces have either dots or ornamental figures on their faces, printed off in red ink. On the verso of each card is an impression of an allegorical figure holdincr a shield, chequered, in her left hand, and a spear in the right. She is seated, and looking towards the ground. The various portions of the figure are numbered up to twelve, and below, on the pedestal, is the inscription, " Divisione dell' EuKOPA." This figure is from an engraving on wood, and is on all the pieces, both atutti and numerals. It is imcoloured. We presume it is to .these cards, and to the book which was published with them, that Cicognara alludes in the following paragraph (Bibl. 5, p. 138) : — " A short digression relative to what occurred at Bologna in 1725 may not be out of place. A little book was there published, intitled, ' L'utile col dUetto ossia G-eografia intrecciata nel Giuoco dei Tarocchi,' dedicated to the Marquis Gio. Paolo Pepoli, and issued with the permission of the Archbishop and of the Holy Office. Nevertheless, the little work was severely anathematised a few days afterwards by Cardinal Ruffo, the Papal Legate, by order of the Court of Kome, and the unfortunate game at cards ran a sort of human political career at this epoch, when thoughts and dreams were not wont to be so severely scrutinized as is the case at present. A certain Luigi Montier wrote the dedication of the work, which is composed of twelve pages of text and twenty-two cards, along with those of the tarocchi already known. Certainly the adulations of the writer are not to be admired, who imitates the French not only in their invention of games, but likewise in their style of dedicatory address : ' Dedicated to the most glorious King Louis XIV. the Great. I dedicate it,' adds the author, ' to you, most noble Signior, as to a person of blood and royal mind, and as it appears suitable to do so to a monarch of a most flourishing kingdom, and to a conqueror of so many provinces, so does it seem proper to do likewise to a Signior of high and noble race, and to a cavalier who has travelled over so many parts of the world. In the cards dedicated to him we may see those kingdoms, empires, and states, in which from the high prerogatives of his spirit and mind more wonders have arisen than we have been accustomed to observe in other places,' &c. " But such bombast, very common at that age, and indeed too frequent at all times in which meanness and hypocrisy are the roads to reward, honours, and place, though able clearly to excite a little envy or jealousy, did not neces- sarily lead to such violent anathemas. " On reading the text, geography and heraldry were found to be applied to the game of cards, and in the divisions of the four quarters of the world, indicated below the symbols of the tarocchi, stood some elementary geographic notices in the form under which, in a table of pedigrees, the noble arms of the Bolognese nobility are printed, and those families who had been Confalionieri countersigned with an asterisk." [4-|- X 2-|- in.J [Backs decorated with a figure.] 88 ITALIAN. I. 12. EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. BOLOaNA? (Geographic and Hebaldic.) SERIES of fifty-nine cards from a tarocchino pack, intended to answer the purposes of instruction in geography and heraldry, as well as of ordinary play. Three coat-cards are wanting -in the numeral suit bastoni. These cards form a duplicate set of I. 11. They resemble the latter in aU respects but the following circumstance. In the present series the backs of the cards are marked with ten shields, representing the various blazon colours and metals by the respective lines and dots always adopted in such cases. The fol- lowing inscriptions are contained in five scrolls between the shields of the colours : — Colori. Azurt). Oro. Rosso. Verde. Argento. Porporin. Armelind. Nero. Varri. The numbers attached to the shields in this and the previous pack may be presumed to refer to the descriptive account alluded to by Cicognara. The pieces are coloured after the method adopted in I. 11. These cards are contained in the original case, whicli is lettered, " Montieri Carte del Taroc." [4t X 2|. in.] [Backs decorated with shields.] I. 13- THIRD QUARTER OF SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. NAPLES. (Hekaldic, Historic, Geographic.) SERIES of fifty-two cards of the suits piques, trefles, carreaux, and cceurs. The pieces are bound up with an explanatoi-y text, the whole being intended to afford instruction in heraldry, geography, and history. The volume is lettered : fine. Giuoco D'Armi napoli. 1677. The card pieces are firom engraved metal plates, and are unooloured. The original character of this series may be gleaned satisfactorily from the following observations of Taylor (Bibl. 9, p. 197). " A pack of heraldic cards by M. Claude Oronce Fin^, dit de Brianville, with a small 12mo. volume as a guide, was published at Lyons in 1659, probably executed for Desmarests, as in a later edition there is printed as an appendix, together with the letters patent before-mentioned, a transfer of his privilege^ EDUCATIONAL— INSTRUCTIVE. 89 dated 1 3th May of that year, to Beuoist Coral, Marchand Libraire at Lyons, in so far as relates to the Cartes de Blason. The title of this edition, which is the only one we have been able to consult, is ' Jeu d'Ai-moiries des Sovrerains et Estats d'Europe, pour appreudre le Blason et la Geographie et rHistoire curieuse. A Monseigneur le Dauphin. Par M. de Briauville, Abbe de S. Benoist le Quingay lez Poitiera. A Lyon, chez Benoist Coral, rue Merciere, a la Victoire, 1672. Atbc Pririlege du Roy.''^ " The author commences with an advertisement to the reader, in which, after professing his obligations to Menestrier and others for their assistance and advice, he gives the following remarks ancj instructions on the method of play : — " ' The method of playing this game does not differ from that adopted with the ordinary cards, there being the same numbers of cards and the same points. The only change made is that of valet and ace into prince and chevalier, which is done to prevent any misconstruction (^pour ei-iter tout equivoque)? " ' The games of Here, Malcontant, or Coucou, are the most suitable, because, being the easiest, they are not so likely to divert the attention needed for the blazonry, geography, and history. The players range themselves around a table covered with a map of Europe, and after the cards are dealt and exchanged to every one's satisfaction, the lowest pays according to the laws of Here. He who is first then describes the blazonry of the card^ he holds, forfeiting one if he makes an error, either to the player who corrects him, or to the bank, if there is one. The next highest then follows suit, and so on through all the rest. The first round being completed, they then proceed to the second, describing this time the geography of each card, and forfeiting points for mistakes as before. At the third round they take the history in the same manner.' He recommends that at first only the blazon should be attempted, as the game can be played in each division separately, as well as in all three collectively. " The cards are divided into the four suits, cceurs, trejies, piques, and carreaux, distinguished respectively by the armorial bearings of the kingdoms, provinces, and great dignitaries of France, Italy, the North (le Nort), and Spain. The honours of course contain the most exalted, the King of Great Britain appearing as the prince (knave) of the spade, or Northern suit The geographical and historical lessons are very concise and comprehensive, the former giving the latitude, boundaries, chief towns, &c., and the latter entering minutely into the descent of the house whose arms are represented. " One can easily see that the utile in games like this predominates very mate- rially over the dulce, and it was doubtless deemed a very sorry recreation by the royal urchin for whose edification it was devised." Nevertheless, this historico-heraldic game was patronised, and was imported ' We are indebted for the loan of this rare little work to the valuable heraldic library of A. W. Morant, Esq., C.E., of Great Yarmouth. Notices of other edi- tions win be found io the Bibliographical Appendix. In these, De BriauvUle is otherwise styled " Mont-Dauphin," and " ConseiDer et armoirier du Boy." The third edition (1 665) is dedicated " A son Altesse Royale de Savoye." (Note in Taylor, op. cit.) ^ An explanation of this expression, very characteristic of the times, is given by Singer. The aces and valets, it appears, bore in the first edition the arms of certain princes and nobles. This being considered offensive to their dignity, the plates were seized by the magistrates, and only restored on condition that princes and knights should be substituted. (See on this point " The Herald and Genealogist," vol. iii. p. 74. 1866.) ^ As this could not be done without considerable acquaintance with heraldry, a M. Gauthier devised, in l586, a new pack of heraldic cards, to serve the pur- pose of a kind of grammar of the science. 90 ITALIAN. into Naples in 1677, by Antonio Bulifon. Here Don Annibale Acquaviva established a society under the name of " Armeristi " to play at blazon, its device being a map of Europe, with the motto : " Pulchra sub imagine Ludi." At Naples, Bulifon published an Italian version of the cards, and the book of instruction edited by Giustiniani, of vi^hich the series now before us is an example, cards and book being bound up together. The collective work has the following title : " Giuoco D'Armi Dei Sovrani E Stati D'Europa per Appren- dere L'Armi, la Geografia, e I'Historia, loro curiosa. Di C. Oronce Fine, detto Di Brianville. Tradotto dal Francese in Italiano & accresciuto di molte aggiunte necessarie per la perfetta cognitione .della Storia. Da Bernardo Giustiniani Veneto. In Napoli 1677 Appresso Antonio Bulifon All' Insegna della Sirena con lie. e PrivU." To this volume of 360 pages there are appended the " Lettera di Alessaudro Parthenio intomo alia Society de gli Armeristi et ad un Giuoco detto Lo Speu- dore della nobiltk Napoletana ascritta ne' cuique Leggi. In Napoli 1678, Ap- presso Antonio Bulifon." In respect to the conversion of the valet and ace into prince and chevalier, alluded to by Taylor, Chatto (B. 4, p. 1 50), remarks : — " Zes as et les valets were represented by the arms of certain princes and nobles. Now, as this was evidently a breach of etiquette and a derogation of heraldic nobility, Mons. de Brianville, like IMr. Anstis, does not seem to have rightly understood his own 'foolish business.' The plates were seized by the magistrates." .... " Lord Chesterfield is reported to have said to Anstis on one occasion, when the latter was talking to him about heraldry : — ' You silly man, you do not understand your own foolish business.' " Though each card has a mark of its suit with the value on it at the left-hand upper corner, we presume not any person woiild attempt to use the set as ordinary playing-cards. The rot de trejles — the first card — bears the arms of Pope Innocent XI. la dame de trejles — the second — has the arms of Naples. Some of the pieces have not less than three shields on them, with a description of their blazon in Italian below. Following the " Licenze di Superiori Ecclesiastici " to this NeapoKtan version is an engraved sheet, exhibiting the " Primi Elementi o Principy dell' Armi," illustrated with above sixty small shields, representing the various quarterings, &c. This series, as it exists hi the form of a large duodecimo volume, is 5 in. X 3|- in. The card-plates are : [31^ X 2f in.] [Backs plain.] I. 13. 2. LAST QUARTER OP SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. NAPLES. (IIekaldic, &c.) LATER edition of the series last described. It is in the form of a bound duodecimo volume, printed at Naples m 1692, by Giacomo Raillard, who dedicates it: "AH' illustriss. Signore D. Paolo Mattia s Doria Nobile Genovese," &c. " Di Napoli a di I. di Febrajo 1692." Following the dedication is the third division only of the engraved sheet of the " Primi Elementi Principy dell Armi," &c., present in I. 1 3. Next to this EBUOATIONAL—INSTBUGTIVE. 91 comes " Istruzioui per lo Giuoco." After certain poetic laudatory addresses and epigrams, is printed the original " licenza rfe' Superiori" of the edition of 1677 (I. 13) signed by the Vicar General: "Fr. Soanegata — Joseph imperialis Soc. Jesu Theol. Emin." This is followed by the request of RaiUard to the Cardinal Caracciolo, Archbishop of ISTaples, for permission to reprint the edition previously authorised: " Excellentiss. Signore. — Giacomo Eaillar^ supplicando espone a V E come desidera far stampare im libro intitolato, Oiuoco ct Arme de Sourani ct JEuropa, supplica V E per le solite Regie licenze e V havera a grazia, ut Dens, &c. R. D." The former censorship of the Apostolic prothonotaory, Pompejus Saenellius, is referred to, and thus confirmed : Visa supra dicta relatione, Imprimatur, et in publicatione servetur Regia Pragmatica. Galeota Reg. CariUo Reg. Cala Reg. Soria Reg. Sebastianus. Reimprimatur die 28 Januarii 1 692. Moles Reg. Montecorvinus." The first piece in the series is the Re difiori, having on it the arms of Pope Innocent XII. (PignateUi), below which is the description : " Campo di Oro con tre pentole in mezzo, o vero Pignate nere, due sopra et una sotto in triangolo. Lo Scudo coronato deUa Tiara, et ornato deUe due chiavi deUa Santa Sede." The Giuoco d" Arme is followed, as in the former edition, by the Lettera di Alessandro Partenio intorno alia Societa Degli Armeristi, &c. The number of pages of the Giuoco d' Arme is here 285, in the former edition it is 262. The card-pieces are unooloured. [Size of page, 4| X 2f in.] [Backs plain.] I. 14. LAST QUARTER OF SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. NAPLES. (Heraldic.) SERIES of fifty-two card-pieces of the suits ccmrs, piques, trefles, and carreaux, intended to afibrd instruction in heraldry and history. This set is composed of the card-pieces only of the edition of the s!ss^i,^^srt Oiuoco d: Arme just described (I. 13, 2). The impressions have been worked ofi" on very thin paper, and cut down close upon the border lines. The first piece — the king of clubs — ^bears the arms with the three black pots of Pope Innocent XII., as in the edition of 1692 (I. 13, 2). Not any book or separate text accompanies this series. It is uncoloured, and the impressions are sharper and earlier than those of I. 13, 2. It is evident that there were several editions of this heraldic series ; a still later one than that of 1692 was printed at Naples in 1725 by Paolo Petrini. " The arms of the Pope in this are— Sbarra con una Serpe in campo d' Oro sopra una rosa in campo d' Argento, sotto 4 Sbarre a traverse rosse in campo d' Argente. The first mentioned Sharra is a fess, the campo d' Argento a chief; the lower half of the shield is engraved as if it were (in English blazon) Gules three bendlets argent. These were the arms of Pope Benedict XIII. (Ursini) 1724—1730. " The ai-ms of the Pope were evidently changed for every reign, but no other 92. ITALIAN. alteration appears to have been made for the several editions.'' (" Herald and Genealogist," vol. 3, p. 75.) The edition of 1 725 is supplemented by a geographical discourse from Michele Angelo Petrini. An interesting and instructive commentary on these and some other historical and heraldic cards may be found in " The Herald and Genealogist," vol. iii. p. 67. 1866. (See ;)osfea, F. 79, 2.) [3f X 2 in.] [Backs plain.] I. 14. 2. (Printed Books Department, Royal or King's Library, 269. c. 31.) LAST QUARTER OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. (Heraldic.) BOUND duodecimo volume of 440 pages of text, combined with a numeral series of fifty-two card-pieces and other plates of illustration. The whole is intended to afford information on heraldry. This series is based on the design of BrianviUe (I. 1 3. 1. 1 3. 2, F. 72. 2), and is meant to illustrate the armorials of the Venetian nobility. The author of this adaptation was Casimir Freschot, a Benedictine. The title-page of the work bears the following inscription : " Li Pregi Delia Nobilta Veneta abbozzati in un Giuooo D' Arme di tutte le Famiglie. Presentato al Serenissimo Principe, et Eccellentiss. Senate Da D. Casimiro Freschot. B. In Venezia, M.DCLXXXII. Appresso Andrea Poletti — con Licenza de' Superiori." In the " Notitia Succinta Del Blasone, 6 Arte Araldica," which prefaces the armorial, the author remarks : " Ho seguitato nel mio Giuoco 1' ordiue del Signor Oronce Fine Gentilhomo francese nel suo Giuoco de Principi e Stati Sovrani D' Europa cogliendo di piu la oongiuntura di esporre tutte le specie di Scudi, ed accompagnamenti di essi, che si trovano piu usitati, tanto Ecolesiastici quanto Laici, tanto d' huomini quanto di Donne," &c. (p. 11). Following the " Notitia " is a chapter, " Dell' Origine Delia Nobilt^ Veneta in generale," which is succeeded by the armorial proper. The signs of the suits are here viola, rosa, giglio, and tulipano, on the marks of which are placed letters (R D P) to indicate the coat-cards, and numbers to determine the values. For the four kings, the dignities of the pope, emperor, king, and doge are taken ; for the queens, the armorials of princesses and provinces ; and for the princes, the foreign nobility, aggregated to that of Venice. Cavaliers represent the aces, which illustrate the generals of the armies of the Republic. The first card-piece in the series is the king of violets, on which are the arms of Pope Eugenio IV., of Cardinal Barbarigo, and of the Duke of Parma. On the coat-cards there are generally four shields of arms ; on the pip pieces as many as seven. AU the armorials, which have been printed off on thin paper, are carefully and distinctly engraved, and are uncoloured. The full page of the volume measures 5-^X3 in. [Card-plate, 4f X 2|- in.] [Backs plain.] SPANISH PLAYING-CARDS. NUMERALS. S. 15. SECOND HALF OF SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. ^ORTY-EIGHT cards of a pack of fifty-two Spamsh numerals. They are of the usual suits in the cards of Spain, viz., bastos, oros, copas, and espadas. The valet, or sota, and eight of copas are wanting, as are likewise the four and five of oros. From the cii-cumstance of the suits of hastos and espadas each being complete— thirteen in number — and from all the four tens being present, it is assumed that the set consisted originally of fifty-two numerals, though the actual number of the cards present, and the substitution of a cahallo for a dame, might at first sight lead to the idea that the set under noticie was an ordinary or typical Spanish one, especially as the marks of the suit are quite of the Spanish character. On the ace of oros is a shield with the Spanish arms, and the motto, " Rex Carolus. Dei Gratia Rex Hisbania." Below is the address : lehan Volay. On the three of hastos are the initials, I V, g,nd on the valet of the same suit is lehan Volay between the legs of the figure. On the four of copas are I. V in the centre, connected by an ornamental band. Between the marks of the suit on the two of espadas is lehan Volay ; on the five of the same suit is inscribed " Paictes a Tiers," white on the valet of espadas the name of lehan Volay is again repeated. The designs on these cards are almost exactly such as are given by Merlin, in plates 30, 31, A B, as belonging to the "Cartes Espagnoles, Bibliotheque de Rouen," with the exception of the motto on the shield of the ace of oros. In the Rouen cards the motto runs thus : " PhUippuS Dei Gratia Hispaniaj Rex," and over the arms of Spain is a shield of pretence of the arms of France, i.e., three fleurs-de-lis. Certain cards and their envelopes bearing the name of lehan Volay have given rise to some curious discussions. Mr. Barrington, a well-known antiquary of the beginning of this century, became acquainted — through Mr. Astle, the writer on Caligraphy and MSS. — ■ with an old wood-block, upon which was engraved the cover-design for a pack of 94 SPANISH. cards. This block came afterwards into the possession of Mr. Singer, who gave an impression from it in his work (p. 221). A facsimile was likewise given by Mr. Barringtou in his paper in the " Archseologia," vol. viii. p. 144, which was written to prove, inter alia, that cards were originally made in Spain. On this cover were engraved the arms of Castile and Leon, together with the marks of the suits, bastos, copas, espadas, and oros. There was also an inscription in large letters to this purport : " Cartas finnas faictes par Jehan Volay." Below this and between the marks of copas and oros, there was added in letters of different character, either by a stencil, or by the insertion of a new piece of wood in the original block, the name of " Edward Warman " — probably that of the English vendor of the cards. Mr. Barrington read the above as " Je (or Jean) Hauvola," and the final "y" in Volay as the Spanish conjunction for "and." The whole of the in- scription being translated into English was made to run thus : " Superfine cards made by John Hauvola and (Edward Warman)" — the last name being supposed to have been substituted for that of a former partner of John Hauvola. " Now," writes Mr. Singer (p. 221): "Mr. Barrington read the name inscribed on this block erroneously, cartas Jinnas faictes par le Hauvola y Edward Warman, whereas it evidently appears Jehan Volay was meant, although the words, from the carelessness of the engraver, are somewhat disjointed." Mr. Barrington remarks : " I conceive that this advertisement was used by a card-maker, resident in France, who notified the wares he had to sell in the Spanish terms of cartas Jinnas, because those that had been made in Spain at that time were in great vogue. The two words which follow are French, faictes par, which were probably in that language that the French reader might more readily understand the advertisement." Mr. Gough, commenting in the " Archseologia," vol. viii. p. 168, on Mr. Bar- rington's statement, observes : " The insertion of Edward Warman's name in so very difierent a type is a proof that he was the vendor of such cards in a far later period. Upon inquiry I am informed by my friend, Mr. Herbert, that a person of the name of Warman kept a stationer's shop somewhere in Bishopsgate Street or Norton Folgate about fifty years ago, and it is not improbable that he sold these cards, and caused this insertion to be made in the block. Mr. Herbert could not recollect his Christian name. If I am not mistaken," continues Mr. Gough, " this extraordinary block once belonged to Mr. Ames, who has, however, taken no notice of it in his History of Printing." Singer was of opinion that this engraved wood-block might be possibly of English manufacture, and only intended to convey the idea that the cards enclosed in it were foreign in order to obtain a higher price if they were held in greater esteem. That the entire block was of Enghsh fabrication cannot be admitted, though it is clear from the following advertisement, pointed out by Mr. Haslewood to Singer, that Spanish cards were objects of curiosity at the beginning of the last century, and that at this period they were difierent from om- own, and consequently could not be in common use. " Advertisement. " Spanish cards lately brought from Vigo. Being pleasant to the eye by their curious colours, and quite different from ours, may be had at is. a pack at Mrs. Baldwins in Warwick Lane."' — Postman, Dec. 12 — 1^, 1702. Chatto was of opinion (p. 133), that any vogue Spanish cards might have had in the more northerly countries of Europe during the times of Elizabeth and James I., was probably owing to the circumstance of so many Spaniards being then resident in the Low Countries, rather than to any superiority of the cards manufactured in Spain. According to Leber, Jean Volay was the most celebrated French card-maker of the sixteenth century, practising his art at the close of the reign of Francis I. NUMEBALS. 95 (151 5 — 1 547)- Volay, no doubt, manufactured for the Spanish market, not only as the engraved envelope-title here under consideration and the inscription PAICTES A TIERS ^ on the five of espadas prove, but as the various sheets of Spanish cards, evidently produced in French workshops, show likewise. Such cards are preserved in the collections at Rouen and Paris, and in the cabinets of Michelin, Merlin, and of others. According to Merlin, however, there is not extant a fragment of the French manufactured Spanish cards, which is earlier than the seventeenth century, and the specimens at Rouen bearing the name " Jehan Volay " are far from having the age attributed to them. " The ' Recueil of the Societe des Bibhophiles Fran9ais' describes the cards of the Imperial Library bearing the name of Jehan Volay and Jean Goyrand of Paris, as having been made about 1480. AVithout doubt this is an error, and if we were disposed to discuss the question of date as respects the Rouen block signed Jehan Volay, it would be easy to show, both by certain details of costume, and by the form of the letters, that this block is not older at the furthest than the end of the reign of Louis XIV. The ace of Deniers is a large coin, having on it the arms of Spain, the motto of which, engraved in Roman capitals, runs thus : ' Philippus Dei Gratia IIispani2e Rex.' Now the name of Philip II., supposed to be intended by this motto, would no doubt carry back the coin to the sixteenth century, were it not that over all is superposed the shield of France [as a shield of pretence] which was thus placed only on the arms of the kings who were of the royal family of France. It is therefore rather to Philip V. that this coin belongs. The shoes and the entire dress of the valet of Deniers of this sheet (pi. 30, 31, A. B.) are of the reign of Louis XIV." (Merlin, Bibl. 6, p. 99, note.) " These Rouen designs represent, pretty truly we believe, the type in use in Spain at the time when J. Volay flourished. The cards particularly worthy of notice are the king, cavalier, valet, ace, two, and five of Deniers." There does not appear any reason for doubting the correctness of Merlin's interpretation of the blazon on the ace of oros in the Rouen (Spanish) cards. It relates to Philip V., Duke of Anjou, grandson of Louis XIV., about the time when arose the " War of the Succession," terminated by the treaty of Utrecht in 1713- In the pack of Volay cards in the British Museum the shield of France is not present, the arms of Spain standing by themselves. Hence it may be assumed that these cards were produced before the Rouen set, and belong probably to the time of Charles II., the son of Philip IV., the last of the Austrian line. [3f ^ ^tV "^-l [Backs plain.] S. 16. FIRST QUARTER OF NINETEENTH CENTURY. MADRID. PACK of fifty-two Spanish numerals of the suits oros, bastos, copas, and espadas. On the four of oros is a shield, surmounted by a crown, the former having on it the inscription: "Naypes Finisinos Fabu-eados En Madrid. H1801." On the cavallo of copas, at #ie lower left-hand comer, are the capitals A. IV A, ' The French town now known as Thiers in the depart. Puy-de-Dome, near Clermont. 96 SPANISH. evidently meant for the A. HIV A, whicli address occurs on a similar card in another pack, 8. 17- On the ace of oros — ^top and bottom — are inscriptions, of which only the words " Real — Madrid — Pord — Felix — So — , can be made out. The designs, execution, and colouring of these cards are of inferior character. Some of the figures on the coate-cards are absurd, the horses of the caballeros being smaller than their riders. The pieces are thin in texture, and are tarotees on the backs with star-like dots of blue colour running diagonally. [3| X 2-i?^ in.] [Backs decorated.] S. 17. FIRST QUARTER OF NINETEENTH CENTURY. PACK of Spanish numerals of the typical kind, viz., forty-eight in number, the four tens being suppressed, and the dames, or queens, displaced by cahallos. The suits are the usual ones of Spanish cards, viz., oros, copas, bastos, and espadas. Each card is numbered in reverse at two opposite corners diagonally. On the ace of oros is the lion of Leon, and the inscription above : R*". E*. DE M°. ; below, Ano D. 1817. On the four of copas are the words : " Natpes Refinos," and on the caballo of the same suit are : " A. HivA," at the lower right-hand comer. The four of oros has the initials " R H " in the centre of the card, enclosed within an orna- mental frame, while on the five of this suit are the crowned lion and castle on the central and large symbol of the suit. The designs, execution, and colouring are of inferior character. The backs are marked diagonally with small broad-arrows in black. [Sf- X 2|- in.] [Backs decorated.] S. 18. SECOND QUARTER OF NINETEENTH CENTURY, CADIZ. PACK of nmnerals of the normal Spanish type, viz., with the tens suppressed, the queens displaced by cahallos^ and the suits, oros, copas, bastos, and espadas. The large coin-lUjie symbol on the ace of oros has on it the initials, ." interlaced and surrounded by flowers. A crown surmounts the whole. Between the marks on the two of oros is printed, " 1 ^i' SuPbkfino," while the four of this suit bears the address : " Por Francisco Gonzalez Cadiz," above which is a running stag. The large central ma,rk on the five of oros bears the head of Queen Isabella (?) directed towards the right. On the two of copas is inscribed : " Ano De 1 848 " ; on the four of the same suit is the government duty stamp. In the middle of this latter card are an anchor and caduceus placed crosswise. At the lower left-hand corner of the caballo oi copas are the capitals "a nivA." NUMERALS. 97 An envelope, with an engraved title and wood-cut printed on blue paper, accompanies the pack. The design is a stag running towards the right. In the background are a well and trees. The marks of the suits copas and bastos are on one side, and those of oros and espadas on the other. Above the engra-s-ing may be read: "Napes de Una Oja," below it: " De 1*. i"^". Superfine No S Fabrica de Barajas, De F. F. Gonzalez. CaUe de la Veronica No. 149. En Cadiz." The backs of these cards are marked with a network of deep pink Hues, crossing each other diagonally. The pieces are thin, being of one thickness of paper only — una oja. [3s- X l|-in-J [Backs decorated.] S. 19. SECOND QUARTER OF NINETEENTH CENTURY. CADIZ. PACK of numerals — forty-eight in number, in accordance with the Spanish type — evidently from the same blocks as is the set previously described, S. 18. The only variations consist in the designs and addresses relating to trade matters. For example, between the marks of the two of oros is inscribed, " Naipe de Una Oja," and on the two of copas, " 1* Ede 1'." The four of oros bears the address, "J. J. Accaviva Cadiz," below a lion directed towards the right. The ace and five of oros, the four of copas, and the caballo of the last suit are similar to the like cards of S. 18. An envelope of greenish-blue paper with an engraved title, accompanies the pack. The design of the woodcut is a lion directed towards the right hand, but looking to the left ; beneath is the inscription : " Naipes de una oja de vitelade hUo Fabricados por J. Acuaviva En Cadiz. CaUe de Juan de Andas N°. 158 1*. DE 1*." These cards are marked on the backs with dotted stars, printed in blue. They are of thin texture, like the preceding. [3r X 1|- in.] [Backs decorated.] S. 20. SECOND QUARTER OF NINETEENTH CENTURY. CADIZ. DUPLICATE set of S. 18, from the same publisher, Francisco Gonzalez, Cadiz, 1848. An envelope and title, &c., like those of S. 18, accompany the pack. The backs are marked with dotted stars in blue. The pieces are of like texture to those of S. 18. [gi X 1- in.] [Backs decorated.] SPANISH. S. 21. SECOND QUARTBK OF NINETEENTH CENTURY. MADRID ? (El Hombrb.) SERIES of forty cards from a pack of forty-eight of the usual kind of Spanish numerals. From the eight and nine as well as the ten of each suit being absent, it is clear that these cards were intended for that particular modification of the old Spanish game, ^l Homhre (or Ombre) referred to in the " Compleat Gamester," where it is stated: "there are several sorts of this game, but that which is the chief is called renegado, at which three only can play, to whom are dealt nine cards apiece ; so that by dis- carding the eights, nines, and tens, there will remain thirteen cards in the stock." " Many of our readers," writes Singer (p. 265), " will recollect, we doubt not, to have seen three-cornered tables among old furniture ; these tables were made purposely for Ombre, and in the print which we have mentioned above (frontispiece to " Compleat Gamester," 1 739), the table is of that form. To play this game well, attention and quietness are said to be absolutely necessary, for if a player be ever so expert he will be apt to faU into mistakes if he thinks of any- thing else, or is disturbed by the conversation of by-standers. There are many ways of playing the game ; it is sometimes played with /brce spadille, or espadille force, sometimes by two persons only, sometimes by three, which is the most general way, but it may be played by four or five persons." The Spanish game, JEl Hombre, appears to have been well known in England in 1660. A full description of it, under the form of " The English Court Game," may be found in " Macmillau's Magazine" for January, 1874. It is generally considered to be the game described in Pope's " Rape of the Lock," as Ombre, as the poet calls it : "Belinda now, whom thirst of Fame invites, Burns to encounter two adventurous knights, At Ombre singly to decide their doom. And swells her breast with conquests yet to come." Mr. Pardon considers Pope has described Quadrille. The latter game how- ever, is only another species of Ombre — supposed to have been an invention of the French nation, and appears to have been a great favourite with the ladies, as requiring much less attention than Ombre. There was also a modification of it which might be played by three persons, but it is generally considered far inferior to the game by four, and was only played when a fourth player could not be had. (Singer, Bibl. 8, p. 266.) There is not any address nor inscription on the present cards. The ace of oros has on it a, landscape design, in which the sun is setting behind a, town backed by hills. A palm-tree is in the middle distance, and water (the sea ?) in the foreground. Above the whole is a large sign of the suit, having a radiant sun in the middle, the nucleus of which is a human face. The two of copas, four of oros, and four of copas, have flowers and other ornaments between the marks of the suits. Each card is numbered at two opposite corners diagonally. NUMERALS. 99 These cards are lithographic impressions. The figure cards are wretchedly designed, executed, and coloured. The backs are tarotees with pink diagonal dotted lines crossing each other, so as to foi-m large spaces, in which are placed four pink dots. [3f X 21 in.] [Backs decorated.] S. 22. SECOND QUARTER OF ^TI^*ETEE]S^TH CENTURY. PACK of forty-eight numerals of the suits oros, bastos, copas, and espadas. The tens of each suit are as usual suppressed, but there is the exceptional occurrence of a dama or queen, instead of the sola generally present in Spanish cards. These cards have been executed either by lithography or zincography, pro- bably the former. The designs of the coate-cards are of a common and theatric character. The ace of each suit is peculiar. On it is a winged serpent occupying the entire length of the card, and grasping, in three of the suits, the symbol of the suit in its mouth. In the suit of swords is a shield over the spot where the swords cross each other. Medallions, shields, and other ornaments occur on some of the two and three numerals. On the four oi oros is the inscription, " Real Fabrica," on a scroll. The four oi copas bears a. similar scroll, but without an inscription. In the centre of the six of copas are the initials " F. B." interlaced, and repeated in reverse ; above them is a crown. The two of clubs is made up by a figure (?) card from another set. The backs are marked with small deep blue-coloured dots running diagonally. [2|. X If in.] [Backs decorated.] S. 23. THIRD QUARTER OF NIXETEENTH CEXTURY ? BARCELOKA, REGULAH pack of Spanish numerals (48) mounted in a book of twelve folios, each page containing four cards. It may be recalled to mind that in the typical Spanish set, the tens of each suit are sup- pressed the reina or dama is displaced by a cahallo, and the suits are oros, copas, haslos, and espadas. Together with these characteristics may be noticed the circumstance that the marks of the suits hastos and espadas are always distinct and separate from each other, not conjoined nor interlaced, as the swords and clubs are in the like suits of Italian numerals. Further, the figures on the coate-cards are whole-length and erect, the kings being in large and full drapery. Generally, too, in modem packs the cards are numbered at opposite comers diagonally, and in reverse way. In these cards the suits of oros and copas are printed in diiferent gradations of red, those of espadas and hastos in black. The method of technical execution is peculiar ; the first rentre seems to have been from a roughly etched plate, the second from a wood block. 100 8 P ANISE. The ace of oros bears the arms of Leon and Castile surmounted by a crown. Around the circular shield of the former is the inscription : " Con privilegio eselusivo de S. M." On the four of copas is the address : " For Lopez y Comp" Barcel"'." These cards are numbered in the usual Spanish way, and the kings are covered with long and ample mantles. On the under coat of the king of copas is a lion rampant, while the king of espadas rests his left hand on a shield which bears a double-headed eagle. The backs of these cards are marked with a series of zigzag bands, formed of small parallel lines so arranged as to produce a series of diamond-shaped spots, within which are smaller diamonds divided transversely. The whole is printed in black. [3f X i-g- ™-] [Backs decorated.] S. 24. THIRD QUARTER OF NINETEENTH CENTURY ? BARCELONA. PACK of numerals of the typical kind, forty-eight in number. The designs of the figure cards differ from those previously described, and there are other variations. The four of copas bears an allegorical winged female figure blow- ing a trumpet, from which flutters a banderole having on it, " De una Hoja." Her left hand rests on a shield bearing the arms of Leon and Castile surmounted by a crown. Below the figure is the address : " For Lopez y Comp'. Barcel°^" On the ace of oros are two chimeric or sphynx-like figures bearing a large coin in obverse, surmounted by a crown and standards. Between the marks on the four of oros is an emblematic representation of maritime commerce. The cards are numbered in the usual way. The backs are marked aU over with a series of arborescent lines printed in blue. [3| X 2 in.] [Backs decorated.] S. 25. THIRD QUARTER OF NINETEENTH CENTURY. BARCELONA. PACK of numerals (forty-eight) of the usual kind, differing slightly in the designs from S. 23 and S. 24. The four of copas bears the allegorical figure and address of Lopez of Bai'celoua. On fte ace of oros the obverse of the corn-like symbol bears the head of Queen Isabella II., who ascended the Spanish throne in 1833, against whom Barcelona revolted in 1841, but was compeUed to re-acknowledee her by Espartero in 1842. The backs of these cards are marked in a similar way to those of S. 23. [3| X l|- m.] [Backs decorated.] NUMERALS. S. 26. THIRD QUARTER OF NINETEENTH CENTURY. BARCELONA. PACK of numerals of the ordinary Spanish character. It is a duplicate of the set described under S. 25, with the excep- tion that the backs of the cards are marked in a different manner. In the present series the backs have a network of red lines crossing each other diagonally. [3i X It ™-] [Backs decorated.] S. 27. THIRD QUARTER OP NINETEENTH CENTURY. BARCELONA. PACK of forty-eight numerals of the ordinary Spanish type. The designs generally are slightly different from those of the sets before noticed. The four of copas bears the allegorical figure and address of Lopez of Barcelona. At the centre of the four of oros is a pine-apple. The figures on the coate-cards of the suit of espadas wear armour. The large symbol on the ace of oros is borne by two lions couchant. The backs of these cards are marked by a network of dull red lines crossing each other diagonally. [3f X 2 in.] [Backs decorated.] S. 28. THIRD QUARTER OF NINETEENTH CENTURY. BARCELONA. PACK of the ordinary Spanish sequence of forty-eight cards. The designs differ slightly from those of the series previously described. On the four of copas are the allegorical figure and address of Lopez of Barcelona. The ace of oros bears a medallion head like the obverse of a large coin, surmounted by a crown supported by standards. Below are a caducous, shell, flowers, and other ornaments. The cards are numbered at opposite comers diagonally in the ordinary manner. The backs are marked like those of the card of S. 23. [3f X 2 in.] [Backs decorated.] 102 8PANISIT. S. 29. THIRD QUARTER OF NINETEENTH CENTURY. BARCELONA. SET (forty-eight) of numerals of the usual Spanish variety. The designs are nearly identical with those of S. 28, but the colouring of the figures on the coate-cards is occasionally diiferent. j,,,,^,,;,..^^;^ The ace of oros is analogous to that of S. 28 in design, but is coloured a little differently. The foiu: of copas bears the allegorical figure and address of Lopez of Barcelona. The backs of th«se cards are marked with a network of blue lines crossing each other diagonally. ["ti jjj_ X 2 in.l [Backs decorated.] S. 30. THIRD QUARTER OF NINETEENTH CENTURY. BARCELONA. SET (forty-eight) of numerals of the ordinary Spanish character, numbered in the usual manner. The designs differ slightly in some respects from those of the previously described packs. The ace of oros bears the arms of Castile and Leon on a circular shield, sur- mounted by a crown and supported by standards. Below, on the bar of a large case, are the capitals " A. L. Y. C^" The inscription on the circular shield is " Con Privilegio Esclusivo De S. M." In the centre of the four of oros is a basket of flowers. The four of copas bears the allegorical figure and address of Lopez of Barcelona. The backs of these cards are marked with an arborescent network of blue lines. [33- X 2 in.] [Backs decorated.] S. 31. THIRD QUARTER OF NINETEENTH CENTURY. PARIS. PACK of Spanish numerals of the ordinary kind, manufactured at Paris. The ace of oros bears two large interlaced capital letters ; " A. A." on the mark of the sxiit. Above, on a scroll, is the inscription : " Naipbs-Finos." On the four of 07-os is a chimeric animal-^a compromise between a unicorn and a sea monster. The four of copas bears the inscription . " Fabrica De Alfokzo Arnoult EN Paris." NUMERALS. 103 The engraved title of the envelope accompanies this set ; on it may be read : " Napes Kepinos ; " " No. 2 " being on the mark of oros. Below are the marks of the suits bastos and espadas, placed crosswise, having the foot of a cup (?) placed^ over the point of decussation ; the backs of the cards are marked with a neat diapered pattern of blue lines forming large diamond-shaped spaces, in the centre of which is a blue dot. [3f X 2 in.] [Backs decorated.] S. 32. THIRD QUARTER OP NINETEENTH CENTURY. PARIS. PACK of forty-eight numerals of the ordinary Spanish kind, manu- factured at Paris. On the ace of oros is a head in the centre of a. radiant sun, en- circled by a wreath of laurel. On the four of oros at the centre is a basket of flowers. The larger mark on the five of oros bears the inscription : " Cartes iUustrees. B. P. Grimaud et C'^ Paris " ; within are the capitals, " B P G," interlaced. Most of these card-pieces are neatly designed, engraved, and coloured. Where gold is intended to be represented the designs are illuminated. The ace, two, three, and four of espadas are particularly noteworthy. This pack was manufactured in Paris, evidently for the Spanish market, the cards being in every respect, except commonness or coarseness of execution, truly Spanish in character. [3f X 2 in.] [Backs plain.] S. 33- THIRD QUARTER OP NINETEENTH CENTURY. MADRID. SET of Spanish numerals, of different designs to those of the cards before noticed. The suits are the usual ones, oros, copas, espadas, and bastos, but the cards are not numbered as in the ordinary manner. The ace of oros bears a large blue eagle, in the middle of which are repre- sented some houses. On the two of espadas is inscribed : " Pabricando in Madrid." This set of cards offers points of much interest in some respects. It was manufactured in Madrid, most likely for the use of the provinces Limousin and Bretagne, for the purpose of playmg the game known as ralluette or la luette. This game is probably alluded to by Rabelais as among the amusements of Pan- tagruel, under the term luettes. The pack before us appears to answer so closely in the designs, &c. to the set described by Merlin (p. 102), and to his remarks on the cm^ous early cards found by M. Maurice Ardant (archiviste of Haute Vienne), in the cardboard covers of some old registers of the Hospital of Limoges, that the following extract may be made with advantage : " The cards are in every respect Spanish, unless with the exception that the heavy cahalleros in their journey through Prance have become elegant Amazons, whose grace and steadi- ness in the saddle may defy the most agile ecuyeres of the circus or hippodrome. 104 SPANISH. " What was the nature of this game before the EeTolution ? We cannot say ; all we know is— it existed. It was known to Court de Gebelin, and exercised the predilections of this savant for Egyptian symbolism. Then it had the strange titles of Monsieur, Madame, la horgne, la vaclie, grand neuf, and petit neuf, but which not anything in the designs appeared to justify. It was not then played with the cards of to-day. "Cast but a general glance over plate 37, and you will perceive that the draughtsman was not only inspired with the ideas of the epoch of the Kevolution, but endeavoured to make his designs conform to the names previously given to the cards. Thus e.g. in the old packs, Monsieur was purely and simply the three of deniers. The name is here justified by placing the bust of a national guard of 1789 in one of the marks of the three of deniers. Madame was the three of coupes ; here in one of the cups is introduced a female being crowned by a bird having a long neck and beak, and to whom likewise another bird appears to offer a bouquet of flowers.' " The fleurs-de-lis which were distributed everywhere over the batons ha-ve been here displaced by arrows, and the ' cap of liberty' adorns the four of coupes, and decorates the head of the savage who bears the ace of epees. Finally the arms of Spain, which in the earlier packs were borne by the ace of deniers, have resigned their places to a town in a circle placed on an eagle's breast. " But what means this savage, belted and crowned with feathers, who supports the enormous trunk of a tree, representing the ace of batons ? " If we consult the Limoges cards (pi. .32-36), we shall see on the ace of batons two diminutive men, supporting likewise a large branch of a tree. What is the meaning of that shield swinging between the branches of two trees ? It is a reminiscence of the two of batons of Limoges, where a little naked man is seen between two knotty clubs. This four of deniers, which in the alluette of the Kevolution is orna- mented with a double triangle, so an-anged as to represent a star with six points, is it not to be met with in our Limousin cards also ? As to the robino, or the indecorous, a piece not to be found among the numeral cards of the latter, it is clearly a souvenir of the five of deniers of the old Spanish game, in which were represented the heads of the Roman king and queen regarding each other." (p. 103.) In the present pack, within the double triangle at the centre of the four of oros are two cursive capital A's, slightly interlaced. One triangle is coloured yellow, the other green. The symbols of the two of copas are peculiar. Each cup has on it a red flat cap, from beneath which at each side projects a bird with long neck and bealc. Below the two cups is a recumbent ox, directed towards the right, and looking at a thistle-like plant at his fore feet. The ace oiespadas is likewise noteworthy, as is also the ace oi copas. Although the designs generally are of very inferior character artistically speaking, these cards are well worthy of study in connection with the text and plates of Merlin before mentioned. The backs of these cards are marked in rather a peculiar manner. They are marbled green, the largest spaces being filled with green dots, the middle-sized are white, and the smallest are of a uniform deep green colour. [3-g- X 2 in.] [Backs decorated.] ' The alluette of 1776 came from the workshop of P. Sigogne. Is it not likewise a cigogne that is meant to be represented by a bird of long neck to be found also on the breastplate of the valet de deniers of 1776 ? NUMERALS. 105 S. 34. THIRD QUARTER OF NINETEENTH CENTURY. BARCELONA. SET of forty- eight numerals of the ordinary Spanish suits and numbered in the usual way. In opposition to the common Spanish custom, however, a dama, or lady, is admitted into the present pack, in place of the sota or knave. The tens are suppressed as usual. The coate-cards or honours represent historic personages. In the suit oros the rey is "D. Taime el conquistador," the lady is a, " Dama de la Corte de Fernando III.," the caballo, " D. Juan de Austria." In copas the rey is " D. Pelayo," the lady a " Dama de la Corte de Felipe IV.," the caballo, " D. Alvaro de Luna." In espadas the rey is " Carlos V. Empera- dor," the lady a " Dama de la Corte de Carlos II.," while the caballo is " Gonzalo de Cordova." In bastos the rey is " D. Pedro el Cruel," the lady a " Dama de la Corte de Alonso XI.," the caballo is "El Cid Campeador." The ace of oros bears a large circular shield, having a six-rayed star in the centre of the boss, and being surmounted by a plumed helmet supported by various arms and armour. The four of oros has a shield and crest in its centre, while the four of copas bears the address of " Lopez y Comp*. of Barcelona." The designs of this pack are good, and are neatly engraved in different colours. The suit oros is yellowish-brown, copas rose-madder, espadas blue, and bastos brown-madder. The execution of the suit oros is in particular com- mendable, the marks having on them well-executed Gothic ornaments. Some of the figures on the coate-cards — as those of espadas, for example — are free, artistic, and fairly correct in costume. Each figure of the " honours" bears the symbol of the particular suit in the right hand. Below the whole-length and flowingly draped figure is the title of the personage it represents. The backs of the cards are diapered with diagonal lines, comprised of small parallel lines stamped in a, dullish-red colour. In the diamond-shaped spaces thus formed are four-rayed stars of like colour. [3|- X 2 in.] [Backs decorated.] S. 35- THIRD QUARTER OF NINETEENTH CENTURY. BARCELONA. SET of numerals of the ordinary suits and manner of numbering. The honours of the foiu- suits represent figures illustrative of races typical of the four quarters of the globe. The suit oros typifies Asia in a representation of the Chinese. Copas illustrates Africa in three conventional Oriental figures. Espadas repre- io6 SPANISH. sents Europe by figures in costume somewhat like that of the early part of the seventeenth century ; while the suit bastos presents America under the form of what we can only call three Red Indians. On the mark of the ace of oros may be read " Asia ; " on that of copas, " Africa;" oi espadas, "Europa;" and on the spiked club of bastos, "America." The marks throughout the suit oros bear on them what are meant to represent Chinese characters. On the four of copas is the allegorical figure and address of Lopez y Comp". of Barcelona. The backs are marked by waved interlaced lines stamped in black. [3f ^ 'f ^"-l [Backs decorated.] s. 36. THIRD QUARTER OF NINETEENTH CENTURy. BARCELONA. i N ordinary set of Spanish numerals. The peculiarity of these cards consists in the circumstance that the figures on the coate-cards are caricatured or grotesquely repre- sented, while the marks of the suits bear on them laughable ornaments or have ridiculous appendages. The ace of oros bears on its grotesque shield the inscription : " Con real Privilegio Esclusivo De S. M.", and on the four of copas is the allegorical figure and address of Lopez of Barcelona. Between the marks of the four of oros are two comical figures sitting at a table and playing at cards. The cahallo and sota of the suit bastos are par- ticularly absurd. The backs of the cards are marked by a network pf blue lines crossing each other diagonally. [3t X 't ™-J [Backs decorated.] FRENCH PLAYING-CARDS. TAROTS. F- 37- EiaHTBENTH CENTURY. SOUTH OF FEANCE ? PACK of combined tarots, i.e., twenty-two atouts and fifty-six numerals, but of wMcb two pieces of the latter are here wantino-. The absent numeral cards are the ace of deniers and the two of batons. The true tarots designs are a similar modification of the old French pattern of Besan9on, Marseflle's, and Geneva, as may ^^il%lKLe=^ be seen in the Flemish series (Fl. 103), bearing the address of " F. J. Vandenbore Cartier a BruxeUes." As in the Flemish series, No. 2 of the emblematic suit represents L' Espagnol, Capitano Eracasse, instead of the typical La Papesse. No. v. has on it Bacus in lieu of Le Tape, and Le Pendu (No. xii.) must be reversed in order that the figure may hang in the usual way, head downwards. No. xvi. is here La Foiidre, a tree struck by Kghtning, instead of a tower or house. La Maison Dieu, and Le Fol is numbered xxii. The suits of the numeral series have the old marks, batons, coupes, deniers, and epees, and the marks are like those of the Flemish pack (Fl. 103) before mentioned, with the exception that on the shield in the middle of the four of deniers are the letters " I * G " in place of the lion and castle. The two of coupes has a, tablet at its lower portion bearing the following inscription : — " Pour conoistre que la Plus basse de Deniez et De coupes enporte les Plus hautes quand a Fait du Jeu." The borders of all the cards are slightly different to those of the Belgian pack. The general execution of the pieces is inferior to that of the latter, which is suf- ficiently bad, whUe the titles of the subjects are most carelessly spelt. Thus on No. i. is " Lerateleux" instead of Le Bateleur ; on No. iv. is " Lampereur ;' on V. " Bacus," and on No. xiii. is " Atrempance" in lieu of Za Temperance. The backs of these cards are smooth, and marked diagonally with small stars of four points printed in black, having in their centres a white circular spot. [4i X 2|- in.] [Backs decorated.] io8 FBENOE. F- 38. BiaHTEENTH CENTURY. SHEET of ten unseparated card pieces from a tarots series. The pieces are in two rows of five cards in each row. The emblematic figures present are Temperance, xiiii. ; La Papesse, ii. ; L'Empereur, _^_ iui. ; nimperatrice,m..; z,i\ALe Fol,i. The other and numeral pieces are the ace of cups, the two of swords, the ace of money, and valet of clubs. The designs are almost identical with those given by Merlin (plates 20-23). They are from wood blocks, coarsely engraved, and are uncoloured. The backs are neatly diapered with large diamond-shaped figures, having in their centres stars. The whole is printed in blue. [4^ X 2i in.] [Backs decorated.] F- 39- FIRST HALF OF NINETEENTH CENTURY. MARSEILLES. PACK of French combined tarots, i. e., twenty-two atouts and fifty- six numerals. The designs, which are coarsely engraved and coloured, are exactly lilie such as are represented on plates 20-22 of Merlin's treatise, and plates 1-3 of tarocchi cards at page 284 of the work of Singer. La Papesse (No. ii.) is here present. Le Pendu (xii.) hangs head downwards, and La Maison Dieu (xvi.) and Le Monde are of the typical or old Venetian cha- racter. The marks of the numeral suits are of the Italian character, viz., cups, money, swords, and clubs. The orthography of the titles is often bad ; thus we have " Limperatrise" " Chcharior," " Tenperance" " Le Stoille," &c., in place of the proper method. The suit marks on the two of deniers are connected by a scroll bearing the address of" Bernardin Suzanne, Rue Vacon. 1. Marseille." The backs of these cards are clouded or marbled in rose-madder. [41- X 2-|- in.] [Backs coloured.] F. 40. FIRST HALF OF NINETEENTH CENTURY. PARIS. SERIES of seventy-eight cards — twenty-two atouts and fifty-six numerals. The designs on the emblematic series are entirely different from those usually met with. They consist in general of animals in various and absurd actions and attitudes, badly and often most ridiculously conceived and coloured. On No. 8 is a rearing unicorn, the head, trunk, and two legs of TABOTS. 109 wUch are blue, two legs pini, and the mane, tail, and horn yeUow. On No. 1 2 a man plays the flageolet to a dancing bear, while on No. 14 a crocodile with scales of red, blue, and yellow colours, is swallowing a man in red breeches and yellow jacket. The frog on No. l5 is as big as its neighbour, the tui-tle ; but the most extraordinary of aU the figures is that of the lion (?) on No. x., which has a yellow body ami three yellow legs, one pink leg and tail, a green mane, and green shaggy hair on the right thigh. No. i., answering to the Bataleur of the typical variety, represents a sort of mountebank, or quack doctor, holding up in his left hand a bottle of physic, and grasping with his right the handle of a harlequin's wand. The last atout is un- numbered, and shows a man in parti-coloured trousers dancing and playing the flute. He has on a cocked hat with a feather, and carries a, sword at his side. This figure answers to the Mat, or fool (No. xxii. when numbered) of the ordi- nary series. Each card of the atout series is numbered top and bottom in re- verse. The numbers are of extraordinary size, being more than half an inch in height, contained in a margin |- of an inch wide. The number on 2 1 occupies a space 1 ^ inch wide by |- in. in height. Not any titles are attached to the atout pieces. The marks of the suits of the numeral series are piques, carreaux, coeurs, and trefies. The court-cards are valet, cavalier, dame, and roi. The figures on the latter are whole-length, and the cavalier is always mounted on a most absurdly coloured horse. In general, however, the designs are better and less grotesque in conception and execution than are those of the true tarots. Over the right leg of the king of hearts is a circular clear space left, as if for a duty stamp, but which has been placed instead on the seven of the same suit. The backs of these cards are marbled in deep green. The engraved title of the envelope accompanies this set. It is ornamental and priuted in black on a buff'-coloured ground. At the top is inscribed, " Grand Etteila" in large letters. Below may be read: " Le grand jeu des 78 Tarots Egyptiens ou Livre de Thot Fabrique et verifie par Zlismon." (Concerning JItteila, see under " French Cards of Divination.") [4|. X 2|- iu.] [Backs colom-ed.] F. 41 - SECOND HALF OF NmETEENTH CENTURY. PARIS. SERIES of seventy-eight cards — twenty-two atuiti and fifty-six numerals. AU the tarots proper are printed double and in reverse, but the designs on each half of the card are different. On one half Chinese figures variously engaged are represented, on the other division are mermaids, tritons, or other sea monsters. On No. i. is a female dancing and playing a tam- bourine, and a harlequin dancing and playing a harp. The fool, here unnum- bered, is represented by the half-length figure of a harlequin in double and reverse. He holds in his right hand a disc, from the centre of which rises a point on which is poised by the left leg the whole-length figure of a diminutive harlequin. The figure on No. 1 3 reminds one of the old cut representing Mother Shipton in her favourite conveyance, though here the animal is a camel instead of a stag. The marks of the suits of the numeral series are piques, trefles, cceurs, and carreau-c. The designs on the coate-cards, or honours, are busts printed double and in no FBENOH. reverse ; nevertheless, the cavalier is mounted, the fore part of his horse alone being shown. These cards have been printed from engraved metal plates of a soft character. The colouring is indifferent. The backs are tarotees with pink spots. [4 X 24- in.] [Backs decorated.] NUMERALS— FULL SET (52). F. 42. LAST QUARTER OF FIFTEENTH CENTURY? PARIS ? \ OUR sheets of cards from a series of fifty- two numerals of the suits trefles, piques, cceurs, and carreaux. Two of the sheets contain fom- valets each ; the valets of piques and trefles being repeated on one sheet, those of cceurs and carreaux on the other. Two sheets contain " pip " cards of the suits cceurs and carreaux, the nine, four, five, and seven of carreaux being on one sheet, and the ten, fom?, five, and eight of cceurs on the other. These specimens of early French playing-cards are among the more important and interesting examples preserved in the National CoUeotion. Their general history and relations may be satisfactorily understood by perusal of the following extract from the work of Mr. Chatto (Bibl. 4), premising that they should be studied in connection likewise with the early French Piquet (?) cards found by M. Henin (in the cover of an old book), and now in the collection at Paris. These latter cards, which are known as the Coursube cards, may be found facsimiled in the " Jeu de Tarots et de Cartes nnmerales " (Bibl. 2, pi. 1 9), where they are described as " ces cartes rarissiraes," and of which it is said that they " faisaient partie d'unjeu de cartes numerales gravees sur bois sous notre roi Charles VII. vers 1425." The correctness of this date is questioned by Mr. Chatto, but whatever may have been the year of production of the Coursube cards, he doubts whether the latter be really older than the cards of the " Ser- mones M. Vincentii," now to be described. Mr. Chatto observes : " Those four knaves, which are now in the Print Room of the British Museum, were discovered by the writer in the cover of an old book which he bought of Mr. Robert Crozier, bookseller, 27, Bow Street, about the latter end of December, 1841. The book, which is a small quarto, had formerly belonged to the Cathedral Library of Peterborough,' and its subject is the ' Sermons of St. Vincent de Ferrer,' a Spanish friar of great repute in his day, who died in 1419. It wanted both the title-page and the last leaf, and consequently had no date, but looking at the chai-acter of the type — old Gothic — and the rude execution of the initial letters, I should conclude that it was printed in France within the last ten years of the fifteenth century. The other leaves forming with the cards the " boards" of the cover, were portions of the gloss or commentary of Nicholas de Lyra on the Old Testament, which leaves, apparently, are of a, date somewhat older than ' This book was sold, together with others, from the Cathedral Library of Peterborough, by Mr. Hodgson, 192, Fleet Street, December 13-18, 1841. In his catalogue. No. 1492, it is described " Sermones M. Vincentii" (wants end). NUMERALS. in the volume. Seeing that old cards have so often been found in the covers of old books, it might be conjectured that certain pious persons had made it a point of conscience to thus employ them for useful purposes. This supposition is, how- ever, rendered untenable by the fact of those cards being intermixed with the pious lucubrations of Xicholas de Lyra. Besides the two squares of paper con- taining the four knaves, there were also two other squares consisting of 'pips' of diamonds and hearts, which were so arranged that each square of paper might be cut into four cards : the low cards on one square were the nine, four, five, and seven of diamonds ; and those on the other, the ten, four, five, and eight of hearts. The ' pips ' on those low cards were evidently impressed by means of a stencil. On one square of paper were the valets of clubs and spades — Lancelot and Hogier — and on another the valets of diamonds and hearts, that of diamonds being named Eolant, and that of hearts containing the inscription : ' Valery : f.' Though each piece of paper contained four cards, it yet displayed only two different characters — the valet of each suit occurring on it being repeated in the alternate compartments. The outlines of the figures and the names have evidently been engraved on wood, and are printed in a brownish colour, some- thing like Indian ink mixed with bistre, and the colours have been laid on by means of stencils. The names of these valets — Rolaut, Valery f., Lancelot, and Hogier — compared with those occurring on other French cards of an early date, seem to prove that originally the French coat-cards received their names merely at the caprice of the card-maker. Any argument, therefore, respecting the origin of cards, or the invention of Piquet as founded on the names of the coat-cards, must be utterly without foundation. " ^7ith respect to the names of those valets, it seems to be generally agreed that Eoland, spelled Rolant on the cards, was the nephew of Charlemagne, so famed in romance, and that Hogier, or Ogier, was the renowned Hogier of Denmark. According to a modern author this hero was a grandson of Pepin of Heristal, the great-grandfather of Charlemagne, and the appellation ' of Denmark ' was conferred on hirrij not from his being of that kingdom, but fi-om his being a native of Dane-Marche — that is, of the district now called Ardennes." — "With respect to Lancelot, the reader is left to determine whether the name were intended for one of the Paladins of the court of Charlemagne, or Lancelot dn Lac, one of the knights of King Arthur's Round Table. The appearance of this name on the valet of clubs proves that Daniel was right in his conjecture, as has been previously observed, though Mens. Leber seems to argue that he either was or ought to have been wrong. " The name Valery, which occurs on the knave of hearts, has not been found on any one of the other old cards hitherto discovered, and from the circumstance of its having the letter /■ after it, which might be intended to signify /ecif, it might be supposed that it was the card-maker's name. It is, however, to be observed that the -woidi fecit is of very rare occurrence, as signifying the work of the artist whose name precedes it, on engravings, for whatever purpose executed, of the fifteenth century. It may even be asserted, with small hazard of contradiction, thaty, as an abbreviation of fecit in its artistic application, is not to be found on a single engraving, whether on wood or copper, executed previous to the year 1500. " For whatever person the name of Valery may have been intended, it seems certain that it is not to be found as that of a distinguished character in any of the old French romances. M. Paulin Paris having been consulted on this subject, thus gives his opinion in a letter addressed to his friend, Thomas Wright, Esq., so well known for his numerous publications on Middle- Age literature : ' The name of the valet of hearts seems to me extremely curious, for it ought necessarily to bring to mind the name of Erart de Valeri, the famous companion of Charles of Anjon, king of Sicily, to whom his contemporaries chiefly ascribed the gain of the battle of Tagliacozza, in which Manfred (the opponent of Charles) was kUled. 112 FRENCH. It might, therefore, be supposed that the pack (to which the four valets in question belonged), was either of Sicilian or Italian fabrication ; for the names, Lancelot, Roland, Ogier, and Valeri, were equally familiar to the Sicilians of the fourteenth century. I have said a few words about this Erard de Valery in the article on Charles of Anjou in my " Romancero Prangois."' " Though by no means agreeing with M. Paulin Paris, that these cards were either of Italian devising or manufacture, I am yet inclined to think that his conjecture about the name of Valery is correct, and that a corroboration of it is to be found in the insci-iption on the valet de piques in the Coursuhe cards, pre- viously noticed at page 211. This inscription is read ctarde by M. Duchesne, but to my eye the letters as they appear in the facsimile given in the specimens of cards published by the Society of Bibliophiles FranQois, appear much more like the name erarde, and if, on a careful exammation of the original, it should be ascertained that this was the word intended, I should then unhesitatingly conclude that the person represented by this card was Erard de Valery. The objection that one of these cards is the valet of hearts, and the other the valet of spades, is of no weight, for the old French card-makers were by no means consistent in the practice of always giving the same name to the same card. From the red rose which appears on the shield held by Valery, an Englishman might be justified in supposing that those cards, if not of English manufacture, were more especially, if not exclusively, fabricated for the English market at a period shortly after the accession of Henry VII. when the Red Rose of Lancaster had obtained the ascendancy. By assuming, indeed, a small portion of French license on this subject, it might even be asserted that those cards were of English manufacture, seeing that they were discovered in the covers of a book which had formerly belonged to an English monastery, and that the features, expression, and bodily proportion of the valets are rather characteristic of Englishmen than Frenchmen. In support of this speculation it may further be observed, that in former times monks were accustomed to act as their own bookbinders, and that there is reason to believe that playing-cards were manufactured in England as early as 1463." (O/;. cit., pp. 214-220.) MM. Leber, Duchesne, and Laoroix, judging from the costume, &c. of the Coursube cards, agree in supposing them to have been executed about 1425, in the reign of Charles VII., but, writes Mr. Chatto : " Conclusions, however, drawn from the costume displayed on cards, are not of much weight in the determina- tion of a date, seeing that persons supposed to be well acquainted with the subject of costume have not been able to determine from that alone the date of any old drawing, even within fifty years. To whatever period the costume of the Cour- sube cards may belong, that of the four knaves (now under consideration) may be fairly presumed to be of as early a period, but yet, looking at the costume of the latter, and the style of their execution, I should not take them to be of an earlier date than 1480." (p. 214.) Mr. Taylor agrees with Chatto that speculations as regards date, founded on costume, are " very often fallacious, as any type once become conventional might continue in circulation for a considerable period, and this, too, in different countries." (p. 11 50 To these considerations Mr. J. R. Planche replies that " Persons who could not determine on the date of a costume within fifty years would never have been supposed by me to be well acquainted with the subject, and that though I quite agree with Mr. Taylor as to the perpetuation of an ancient type, as in our present court-cards, — we still find king, queen, and knave represented in the costume of Henry VII. (" Builder," Nov., 1870, p. 921.) It must be submitted, however, that Mr. Chatto does not refer to the date of the costume, but to the date of the production of the card on which the costume is represented. [3f X 2-1- in.J ["Backs plain.] NUMERALS. 113 F- 43- SECOND QUARTER OF SIXTEENTH CEXTURY ? PARIS. k WO sheets of figure cards from a numeral series of the suits trefles, piques, cceurs, and carreaux. Each sheet contains six pieces more or less perfect. On one sheet, and formiug the upper row, are the roi de trefles ; dame de cceurs, Judic ; and roi de carreaux, Caesar ; below are the dame de trefles, Rachel ; roi de piques ; and dame de piques, Palas. The latter three card-pieces have been cut away at the busts. The second sheet has suffered greater mutilation than has the other one, the dame de piques, Palas being the only nearly perfect figure of the set. On one side of the dame is a roi named Charles, destitute of the mark of the suit ; on the other side is the mere slip of the weapon in the left hand of a king. Above these three pieces are but fragmentary portions of two dames and a roi. On the head of the partisan of the roi de carreaux, Caesar, is the letter E, on that of the roi de piques is an inverted "L," which may be perhaps the initials of Robert Lecomu, whose cards date from the beginning of the reign of Francis !■) 1515-1547 (seeLacroix, "LeMoyen Age et la Renaissance," tome 2.) These cards have had the outlines, figures, and names engraved on wood, and printed in a brownish colour, like the preceding " Valery " cards. The gene- ral colouring is after the same style, but the forms and the costume are very different. [3t X 2-|- in.] [Backs plain.] F. 44. SIXTEENTH CENTURY. |IX sheets of figure cards from a nrmieral series, the marks of the suits of which are not indicated. Each sheet contains three rows, of five pieces each row. Only the central row in each sheet is perfect. The figures in the upper rows of five of the sheets are cut away from above the knees, and in the lower rows from below these joints. On one sheet the upper row shows three-fourths of each figure, and the lower row the busts only. The figures on two of the sheets have suffered so much damage as to be wholly wanting in some of the divisions. On a scroll on five of the valets is the name Iehan Faveil. The central row of the best-preserved sheet has the following series of figures, commencing at the left hand, viz., valet, dame, roi, dame, roi. On the heads of some of the parti- sans in the hands of the valets are the letters " L. F." The designs and execution of these card-pieces are of a superior character. The costume is rich and weU drawn. The two dames in the central row of sheet 1 are admirable ; the dame with the flower toward her nose is most expressive and graceftd in action. Neither suit marks nor names are present, and the cards are uncoloured. [3f X 2|- in.] [Backs plahi.] I 114 PSjiiV'oji'I? F- 45- SIXTEENTH CENTURY. ROUEN. lOUR sheets relating to a numeral series of tlie ordinary French suits — piques, trefles, cceurs, and carreaux. On two sheets are four rows of card-pieces of the suits piques and trefles alternately. There are generally five perfect pieces and part of another card-piece in each row. The values of the pieces present range from five to ten. A third sheet consists of the stamped tarotee paper, intended for the backs of the cards. It is marked with lozenge-shaped spots, running in slightly curved diagonal lines across the paper, printed in black ink. A fourth sheet consists of the mutilated wrapper, intended to enclose the cards when perfected for the market. On an upper fragment are parts of a woodcut and inscription, the former exhibits a Sudarium or Veronica, and the latter the words " Sauveur du Monde ►J* ." The whole is printed in black ink. On a lower fragment is a mutilated impression from a woodcut, printed in red ink. Beneath a broad ornamental border is the inscription — " Cartes Fines Factes a Rouen Par Robert Benieres." Below are portions of a coat of arms and its supporters, of which three fleur-de- lis and the heads of two angels are all that can be seen. The strange addition of a religious emblem and inscription to the cover of a pack of playing-cards, as shown on this sheet, may be explained by the circum- stance that Rouen being a cathedral town, the seat of an archbishopric and col- lege, it bestowed its patronage and certain privileges on a particular printing and publishing-house, which thus provided the inhabitants with amusement or piety according to circumstances. [3lr X if in.] [Backs decorated.] F. 46. SECOND QUARTER OP SIXTEENTH CENTURY. ROUEN. , WO sheets of figure cards from a numeral series of the suits piques, trefles, cceurs, and carreaux. On one sheet the pieces are coloured, and have the marks of their suits at the top right-hand corner. On the other sheet the cards have not been coloured, nor have they the suit marks. The coloured sheet has been torn ; the upper two rows of figures are imperfect, the lower two rows are nearly entire. Each row exhibits six pieces, composed of the kings, queens, and valets. A queen in the upper row of the coloured sheet is named pentha- silee; a king oi trefles. Hector ; and a valet of trefles bears on a scroll " Capitaine Vallante," and NB [Nicholas Besniere] on a shield between his legs. A king in the second row is named Charles, a queen of spades Persabee (BethsabSe), a valet of spades has the address of " Nicolas Besniere " on a scroll, and a king of the same suit is entitled David. On the third row from the top a king of hearts NUMERALS. 115 13 named Jiillius Csesar ; a valet of hearts Siprien Roman ; a valet of clubs as before, a queen of clubs Pentaxilee (Pentasilee), and a king of clubs Hector. On the lowest row is a king of diamonds named Charles, a valet of diamonds who is " Capitaine Metely," a queen of diamonds called Lucrelle (Lucresse), a king of spades who is David, and a valet of spades with the address of " Nicolas Besniere." The other and uncoloured sheet has the four rows in a like sequence of six figures, each nearly perfect. A queen is here present named Heleine, torn away in the other sheet, and the address of " Robert Besniere," instead of " Nicolas Besniere," is on the valets. These two sheets of card-pieces are interesting as being examples of the cards known as those of Charles, or David, Dubois, slightly modified, as executed at Rouen by the brothers Besniere. The influence of Spanish and Italian types may be seen here in the designs, which belong probably to the second quarter of the sixteenth century, or to about the time of the Battle of Pavia, fought in the early part of 1 525, near that town, between the French and the Imperialists. The former were defeated, and their king, Francois Premier, after fighting with great valour, was obliged at last to surrender himself a prisoner. Francis wrote to his mother, Louisa of Savoy, Regent of the kingdom during his absence, " Tout est perdu, Madame, fors I'honneur." According to Lacroix, the valet o{ piques in the Dubois cards resembles Charles the Fifth. X l4 in.] [Backs plain.] [3i F. 47- LAST QUARTER OF SIXTEENTH CENTURY. SHEET of figure cards from a numeral series. It is torn at the lower portion. There are two rows of figures of five pieces in each row — ^king, queen, valet, king, and queen in the upper row, and queen, king, valet, queen, and king in the lower row. The pieces are uncoloured, and the marks of the suits are absent. On the central figm-e of each row — a vaJet — ^is a scroll bearing the address of " Jehan Genevoy." On the breast of the upper valet is a Kon, sable, rampant, and on that of the upper king a double-headed eagle. These cards are more carefully designed and engraved than usual, and appear to have served as a model for an Italianised version, to be immediately noticed. [31- X 2fin.] [Backs plain.] F. 48. END OP SIXTEENTH CENTURY. WO sheets of figure cards from a numeral series of the suits cceurs, carreaux, piques, and trefles. Each sheet contains two rows of figures, five figures being in each row. On one sheet the figures are heavily and coarsely coloured, and the signs of the suits are present. The pieces of the other sheet are uncoloured, and are devoid of the marks of the suits. These two sheets are evidently from different blocks, but which were intended 116 FBEWOH. to represent the same designs, the latter being an Italianised version of the French cards previously described — F. 47. On the scrolls of the valets of both rows of the coloured sheet is the address of " Francesco Franco" very plainly marked, while on the valet of the uncoloured sheet the letters appear to be prensce trenc. The letter F may be seen on the heads of the partisans of the valets in the uncoloured sheet. On the verso of the latter is the following memorandum in MS. : " trovate nella fodera di un libro stampato a Torino nel 1 600." Though the execution is here of a heavier and coarser character than in the previous version, the proportions of some of the figures are juster, and the actions of the valets in particular better expressed. Lacroix remarks : — " Under Henry II. and his sons as many Italian as French cards were manu- factured at Paris. The card-makers were even Italians." (" Le Moyen Age et la Kenaissance.") [31 X 2fin.] [Backs plain.] F. 49. END OF SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. PARIS ? SIGHT figure cards from a numeral series of the suits cceurs, carreaux, trefles, and piques. The cards present are the king and queen of cceurs, the king and queen of carreaux, another king and qiieen, and two valets. The kings and queen of cosurs and carreaux have the suit marks, the other cards are without them. All the pieces are coloured. The king of ccmrs is entitled Charles, the queen of cceurs, Judie, the king of carreaux, Cezar, the queen of carreaux, Rachel. Another king is David, a queen Argine, one valet is named Hogier, while the other has the address of " Jean Lebahy." On the head of the partisan borne by the latter valet are the initials, J. L. These cards are of neat execution. The pieces have not been backed nor mounted. [3f X 2-^-g in.] [Backs plain.] F. 50. EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. PARIS. jj^HIRTY-FOUR cards from a numeral series of fifty-two of the suits cceurs, carreaux, trefles, Wi<\. piques. The cards present in the suit o{ cceurs are the ace, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, valet, and dame. In carreaux the ace, 2, 5, 7, 9, 10, dame, and roi. In tre/les, the 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 9. In piques, the ace, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, and valet. On the valet o{ cceurs is the title, Lahire. [3|- X If in.] [Backs plain.] NUMERAL 8. 117 F. 51- EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. PARIS. Fifteen cards from a series of fifty-two numerals of the suits cceurs, carreaux, trefles, and piques. The cards present are in the suit cceurs, the ace, 2, 4, 5, 9, and 10. In carr-eaaa;, the 5, 7, tZflTTie, and 7-0!. In fre/?es, the 4 and 6, and in piques, the ace, 3, and 7. On the king of carreaux there is a monogram at the left-hand lower corner, and one on the head of the partisan on the right hand of the figure ; but they are not decipherable. [Si X If in.] [Backs plain.] R 52. EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. PARIS. WO coate-cards from a numeral series of fifty- two. The cards present are the dame of piques and the valet of ccmrs. On the former at the left-hand lower corner are the letters a c on a small shield. X 2-5JJ. in.] [Backs plain.] F. 53- EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. PARIS. WO pip cards from a numeral series of fifty-two. The cards present are the nine and ten of ccmrs. These cards, along with F. 50, F. 51, F, 52, were found about 17 50 behind some wainsooating in a house at Cambridge undergoing '•] [Backs plain.] F. 54- LAST QUARTER OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. PARIS. |NE card from a numeral series manufactured probably for the Spanish market. The card present is the five of swords. On the front of the card is the address, " GuiUau Mandrou," and 1792 has been added in MS. On the back of the card is the following engraved inscription, contained within an ornamental framework, surmounted by the Royal Arms of France : " Eptin Maitre cordonnier de la Reine Demeure riie Comtesse D'Artois en face de la riie Mauconseil chez M'. ComeiUe M''. Epicier. a Paris." The piece is coloured. [3i- X 2f5 in.] [Back decorated.] 118 FBENOn. F. 55- EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. • SINGLE figure card — the queen of hearts — ^from a numeral series of the usual kind. The queen holds a sceptre in her left hand ; she is turned towards the right. The piece is coloured. On the back is a study in oil of a head by some artist. [3+ X 2|- in.] [Back decorated by hand.] F. 56. FIRST HALF OF NINETEENTH CENTURY. PARIS. ^N entire set of a numeral series of fifty-two cards of the usual suits- The coate-cards represent full-length figures, the roi de piques being entitled David, the dame Pallas, and the valet Hogier. The roi de trefles is Alexandre, the dame Argine, and the -oalet Lancelot. The roi de carreaux is Cesar, the dame Rachel, and the valet Hector. The roi de coeurs is named Charles, the dame Judith, and the valet Lahire. The valet of trefles holds in his right hand a shield bearing the inscription : " 1 8 1 5 Administ : des Contrib : Indir : " Around the mark of the suit on the ace of trefles is a wreath of oak-leaves. The designs on the coate-cards are from engraved plates of a soft metal, and though stiff are neatly executed, as is likewise the colouring. [3| X 2 in.] [Backs plain.] F. 57- FIRST QUARTER OF NINETEENTH CENTURY. PARIS. ^N entire set of a numeral series of fifty-two cards of the usual suits. The pack is a, replica of the one just described (F 56), but the designs have been printed off on cream-toned paper of considerable lissage, and the figure cards coloured in a heavier style. The engraved title of a wrapper accompanies the pack. On it is inscribed : " Cartes tres-fines de la Fabrique De Jounin. Rue du Four-Saint Germain No. 71. Pres de la Croix-Rouge a Paris." On one edge of the wrapper is the word " Piquet" showing that the same title was used for various sets, the present series not beino- a piquet pack. [3|. X 2 in.] [Backs plain.] NUMERALS. ng F. 57. 2. FIRST QUARTER OF NINETEENTH CENTURY. PARIS. SHEET containing the twelve coate-cards (unseparated) of a numeral series of fifty-two of the suits trefles, piques, coeurs, and carreaux. The honours are king, queen, and valet. The kings bear the names of David, Charles, Csesar, and Alexandre ; the queens those of Abigail, Hildegarde, Calpumie, and Statira, while the valets are entitled Azael, Ogier, Curion, and Parmenion. The valet of trefles rests his right hand on a shield, in the central circle of which is the address : " Gatteaux, 1811." These card-pieces are interesting from the circumstance that they form part of the series of designs made by M. Gatteaux (^ere) at the command of the Emperor Napoleon I who " desirant substituer aux figures bizarres des rois, dames, et valets, un dessin dont I'extreme elegance et la purete rendent la contre- fagon difficile et qui puisse en meme temps, par la fidelite des costumes et I'exacti- tude des attributs, repondre au but allegorique que parait s'etre propose I'inventeur de ce jeu," desired that David, Mongez, Gatteaux, and other eminent artists of the time should be requested through the Conseil SEtat to fiimish specimens. {Antea, p. 46.) These inventions of M. Gatteaux may be said to be in a general way well conceived, carefully dra-svn, and neatly executed, but a close examination of them elicits faults which, considering the source of the designs, demand notice. The male forms are heavy and too short for the size of the heads, some of the figiires being scarcely more than six and a half heads high. The full and broad dra- peries, in which the kiugs particularly are clothed, increase the stumpy appear- ance of the figures stiU more. Certain of the female forms also are short for the size of the heads, while at the same time they are drawn on a scale which makes them all as tall as the men. The drawing of the upper extremities of some of the male forms is defective, and the head-dresses of two of the valets (hearts and spades) are mean. As a rule the actions are good, the poses statuesque and well-balanced, and the draperies satisfactory and largely designed. The attributes are appropriate and clear in their intentions. The technic, or engraving, is of a superior character, though from the closeness of the lines in gome of the shadows the former have become clogged in inking, and hence pro- duced a slightly blurred appearance in the impression. The pieces are uncoloured. Spaces are left at the upper comers of the card for the ordinary suit marks, which in the example before us have not been added. Nevertheless, the suits are iadicated, though in a manner very liable to pass un- noticed. The small ornaments in the borders of the draperies are composed chiefly of the marks of the suits, and the ends, or tails, of the chief folds of the mantles and scarves have diminutive pendants, or ornaments, of the form of the marks of the suits. The card-pieces are here in two rows of six pieces each row. In the upper row are the king, queen, valet of spades, and valet, king, queen of hearts. In the lower row are the valet, queen, and king of diamonds, and valet, queen, and king of clubs. The valet of hearts carries a scroll in his right hand on which is in- scribed the word " Ordre." The designs of M. Gatteaux and others of the First Empire are alluded to by Merlin. (Bibl. 6, p. II4, 11 5-) [3-I- X 2 in.] [Backs plain.] 120 FBENGH. F. 58. NINETEENTH CENTURY. PARIS. SET of fifty-two numerals of the usual suits. The coate-cards or honours have full-length fi^gurea in national costumes, representing the foUowing personages, In the suit trefies _ the Emperor Napoleon (III.), the Empress Eugenie, and a royal huntsman. In cceurs, the Prince Consort of England, Queen Victoria, and a jockey. In piques, the Tsar of Russia, the Tsarina, and a royal serf. In carreaux, the Emperor of Austria, the Empress, and an imperial groom. On the ace (£ trefies are the imperial arms of France, and the word " rRANCE" at the left-hand lower corner. On the ace of ccRurs are the arms of England, and the ■vyord " Angleterre" at the left-hand lower corner. On the ace of piques are the arms of Russia, and on that of carreaux those of Austria, with the respective words at the left-hand corner. On a smaller shield, placed like a shield of pre- tence over the royal arms, is the mark of the suit of each ace. A wrapper accompanies the set ; it is of glazed pink paper, having on it the following inscription, printed in blue and gold : — " Cartes Imperiales et Royales France — Angleterre Russie — Autriche B. P. Grimaud & Cie 70 Rue de Bondy Paris B P Grimaud et C"." The designs — particularly the armorial bearings — are neatly engraved and coloured. The backs are coloured bright rose-colour, and have much lissage. [3-|- X 2 in.] [Backs coloured.] F- 59- SECOND HALF OF NINETEENTH CENTURY. PARIS. PERFECT set of a numeral series of fifty-two cards of the ordinary suits. The coate-cards of this sequence are full-length figures represent- ing popular characters, in theatrical or quasi-historic costumes. The roi de piques is entitled D'Artagnan ; the dame, Madame Bonacieux ; the valet, Planchet. In trefies, the roi is Athos ; the dame, Lady Winter ; the valet, Grimaud. In carreaux, the roi is Porthos ; the dame, Duchesse de Chevreuse ; the valet, Mousqueton. In cmurs, the roi is Aramis ; the dame, Anne d' Autriche ; and the valet, Bazin. These figures are well and picturesquely designed; they are printed off in chromo-lithography from several stones in bright and positive colours, and in parts illuminated in gold. Around the mark of the suit on each ace is an ornamental wreath. The figure cards representing the kings have each a gold coronet at the left-hand upper corner, immediately above the mark of the suit. The backs of the cards have much lissage, and ai'e coloured light blue. The title of the wrapper accompanies the set. It is printed in gold letters on a blue glazed paper, and bears the following inscription : " Costumes du Temps de Louis 1 3. Les Mousquetaires B. P. Grimaud & C" 70, Rue de Bondy." [3t X 2|- iff.] [Backs coloured.] NUMERALS. 121 F. 60. NINETEENTH CENTURY. PARIS. PACK of fifty-two numerals of the usual suits, Viz., piques, carreaux, trefles, and ccmrs. The figure cards or honours have on them busts printed in double and reverse, and bear the names of David, PaUas, and Hogier in piques ; Charles, Judith, and Lahire in cceurs ; Alexandre, Ai'gine, and Lancelot in trefles ; Csesar, Rachel, and Hector in carreaux. The valet of trefles holds a shield in his right hand, on which is inscribed : " Administ. Des Contrib : Indir. 1 853." Around the mark of the suit on the ace of trefles is a wreath of oak -leaves. These cards are after the same designs as those of F. 56, with the exception of the alterations necessary for the coate-cards. The backs are coloured of a buff hue. [3|- >^ 2 in.] [Backs coloured.] F. 61. NINETEENTH CENTURY. PARIS. SET of fifty-two numerals of the ordinary suits. The coate-carda have busts printed in double and reverse. The designs in each suit are different. The costumes of the roi and valet are of earlier character than those of the dames, which are quite modem. On the valet oi piques is the address, "F. d'Alph Amoult a Paris," printed at the left-hand lower and right-hand upper comers. The title of the wrapper accompanies the set. It is an ornamental neatly engraved piece, bearing the inscription, " Cartes Fines Allemandes en taUle- douce a deux-tetes — No. 5." It is presumed that these cards are styled allemandes because they do not constitute a piquet pack, pure et simple, and that the figures are double and in reverse. The backs are marbled pink and white. [3|- X 2i in.] [Backs coloured.] F. 62. NINETEENTH CENTURY. PARIS. SET of smaU-sized cards of the usual suits. The figure cards have on them busts, printed double and in reverse. ^ The dame of trefles holds a fan. The title of the wrapper accompanies the pack. It is printed in black on a pink ground, and bears the following inscription : " Deux-Tetes, Jeu de Patience, Fabrique de Testu Rue Croix-des-Petits champs 37. Paris." The backs are coloured pink. [2 X It in.] [Backs coloured.] 122 FBENOS. F. 63. SECOND HALF OF NINETEENTH CENTURY. PARIS. PACK of fifty-two numerals of the ordinary suits. These cards are extremely diminutive, delicate, and pliable, and could be carried readily in a purse, waistcoat-pocket, or concealed in the palm of the hand beneath a glove. The figure cards have on them busts, printed double and in reverse. The marks of the suits on the aces are placed within an ornamental frame. The lissage of the backs is considerable, and the latter are tarotees in gold, having rosettes within circles, between which are pierced squares. This orna- mentation is, however, not proportionate to the size of the cards. It is too large. The pack is enclosed in a delicate lUac-coloured and glazed paper case, ['i ^ |- of an inch.] [Backs decorated.] F- 64. NINETEENTH CENTURY. PARIS. * PACK of fifty-two numerals of the ordinary suits. The coate-oards have on them busts, printed double and in reverse. The figures are devoid of titles. The dame of each suit holds in her right hand a different flower ; inpiques the latter is a tulip ; in carreaux, a pink or clove (here coloured yellow) ; in trefles a poppy (coloured yellow), and in ccmrs a rose. The backs are tarotees with pink stars and dotted serpentine lines, but vary in pattern. Judging from the differences of the latter it may be assumed that this pack has been made up from thi-ee dififerent sets, as shown, e.g. by the ace of piques, king o{ piques, and the eight of piques. [3t ^ ^-jJg- in.] [Backs decorated.] F. 65. SECOND HALF OF NINETEENTH CENTURY. SET of fifty-two numerals of the ordinary suits. The coate-cards have on them busts, printed double and in reverse. The fio-ures are strongly coloured and illuminated in gold, and are rather neatly en- graved. The marks of the suits on the aces are encircled by an orna- mental wreath. On the valet of trejles is the address, " B. P. Grimaud et C" Paris, Prance." ' The backs of these cards are coloured pink, and are highly glazed. [3i X H in.] [Backs coloured.] NUMERALS. 123 F. 66. SECOND HALF OF NINETEENTH CENTURY. PARIS. PACK of fifty-two numerals of the usual suits, piques, comrs, carreaux, and trefles. The coate-cards have busts printed double and in reverse. On the aces are landscapes, also double and in reverse, representing coloured views-ni Portugal; the mark of the suit is placed in a white circular space in the centre of the card. On the ace of piques is represented, " Rua diretta da Junqueira enLisboa," and "Estatua equestre del Eei d' lose l°en Lisboa." On the ace of comrs is a " Vista de Porto," and a " Vista de Coimbra." On the ace of trefles is " O Passeio Publico em Lisboa," and " Peira da Cordoaria no Porto." On the ace of carreaux is the " Palacio de Mafra," and a " Vista de Lisboa." The pack is accompanied by the engraved title of the wrapper, printed in gold on a pink ground, highly glazed. It bears the inscription, " Cartes Royales Extra Fines." The backs of the cards are marked with delicate transverse lines, and are neatly watered in pink. The corners of each piece are rounded off and gilt. [3|- X 2 in.] [Backs decorated.] PIQUET. F- 66. 2. NINETEENTH CENTURY. SET of piquet cards, i. e. thirty-two numerals, the two, three, four, five, and six of each suit of the ordinary set of fifty-two being sup- pressed {antea, p. 45). The coate-cards have on them full-length figures, bearing the names of David, Pallas, Hogier in piques; Alexandre, Argine, Lancelot in trefles ; and Csesar, Rachel, and Hector in carreaux. The designs are the same as those of the fuU set F. 56 ; the valet of trefles bears a like shield, having on it, " 18 16. Aministr. des Contrib : Indir." The mark of the suit on the ace of trefles is surrounded by a wreath of oak- leaves, and that on the king of each suit is surmounted by a crown. These cards are neatly engraved and coloured, and the backs are marked by vermiform dotted lines of a pink colour. [31 X 2 in.] [Backs decorated.] F. 67. NINETEENTH CENTURY. PARIS. SET oi piquet cards of the ordinary suits. The coate-cards present full-lenoth fioTires in character costumes, and are named as follows : In the suit piques the roi is Comte de Brissac, the dame, Diane de Poitiers, the valet is without title. The latter holds a greyhound by a string, and at the left-hand lower comer is engraved the word France. In 124 FRENCH. trefles the roi is Bussy d'Amboise, the dame. Dame de Monsoreau ; the valet, a groom holding a horse, is without title. In carreaux the roi is Cinq-Mars, the dame, Marion Delorme ; the valet, hearing glasses on a salver, is untitled. In cceiirs the roi is the Chevalier d'Eon, the dame, the Comtesse de Rochefort ; the valet, who is footman, is without title, but on the base of a pilaster in the back- ground is the address, " Gibert a Paris." The marks of the suits on the aces are enclosed within an ornamental frame. The engraved ornamental title of the wrapper accompanies the cards. It bears the following inscription, printed in black and gold, on a highly glazed and pink-coloured paper : " Entieres Dlustrees." " Brevet d'invention," " cartes dites opaques, B. P. Grimaud et C'". Portrait Frangais lUustre, 70, Rue de Bondy Paris. B. P. Grimaud et C'^." " La transparence des cartes ordinaires est un inconvenient fort grave. Les cartes opaques out une incontestable superiorite. Elles ne peuvent etre reconuues au travers sous quelque jour qu'eUes soient placees. Koche inc." These cards are from neatly etched plates, and are carefuUy coloured. The backs are coloured pink, and the lissage is considerable. [3j X 2 in.] [Backs coloured.] F- 68. NINETEENTH CENTURY. PARIS. SET of piquet cards ; being a replica of the previously described set, P. 67. Not any title accompanies the pack. [Sy X 2 in.] [Backs decorated.] F. 69. SECOND HALF OP NINETEENTH CENTURY. PARIS. SET oi piquet cards of the usual suits. The coate-cards have whole- length figures on them in the costume of the time. Gentlemen in paletots, frock, dress, and hunting coats represent the kings ; ladies in walking, indoor, and dress costumes portray the queens, and persons in the habits of coachmen, footmen, and gamekeepers, signify the valets. The marks of the suits on the kings have a crown above them, and those on the aces are suiTounded by an ornamental framework. On the valet of trefles is the address of " O Gibert Fab'. Paris," at the left- hand lower corner. On the valet oi piques, a footman, is the word Depose at the same place. The engraved ornamental title of the wrapper accompanies the set. Alle- gorical female figures are represented emptying from a corhucopoeia all kinds of fashions in the way of bonnets, muffs, shoes, &c. Above is printed " Modes, Cartes Parisiennes," below, "Paris Rue des Singes No. 3." The whole is printed in black on a glazed blue paper. The backs are coloured blue, and are smooth. [3tV X 2 in.] [Backs coloured.] NUMERALS— PIQUET. 125 F. 70. SECOND HALF OP NINETEENTH CENTURY. PARIS. SET o£ piquet cards of the ordinary character. The coate-cards hare busts on them printed double and in reverse. They bear the names of David, Pallas, and Hogier in the suit of piques; Alexandre, Argine, and Lancelot in trefles ; Cassar, Rachel, and Hector in carreaux ; and Charles, Judith, and Lahire in eoeurs. The mai-k of the suit on the ace of trefles is surrounded by a wreath of oak- leaves. The backs are pink in colour and are glazed. [3-^ X 2 in.] [Backs coloured.] F. 71. SECOND HALP OP NINETEENTH CENTURY. PARIS. SET o? piquet cards of the usual suits. The coate-cards present busts printed double and in reverse, and are strongly coloured. [3-|- X 2 in.] [Backs plain.] F. 72. SECOND HALP OP NINETEENTH CENTURY. PARIS. PIQ UET set of the usual kind. The coate-cards have busts printed double and in reverse, of different designs to those in the last set. The costumes are less conventional, and more historic in character, strongly coloured, and illuminated in gold. The suit marks on the aces are contained within an arabesque ornament. The valet of trefles bears a shield, on the border of which is the address, " O Gibert Paris." The title of the wrapper accompanies the cards. It is printed in black on a pink ground, highly glazed, and bears the following design and inscription, viz. — two allegorical female figures, one emptying a cornucopceia filled with bonnets, muffs, and other articles of fashionable female attire. Above them is : " Costumes Historiques Prangais," " Cartes Parisiennes," " Paris Rue des Singes No. 3." The backs of the cards are glazed and coloured pink. [3-ji. X 2 in.] [Backs coloured.] 126 FBENGM. F. 73- SECOND HALF OF NINETEENTH CENTURY. PARIS. SET of piquet cards of the usual suits. On the coate-cards are full- length figures of English historic personages. The king of spades represents Buckingham, the queen the Comtesse de Marlborough, the valet, who bears glasses on a salver, is unnamed. The king of clubs is Sir Rhys Thomas, the queen the Comtesse de Salisbury, the valet, who carries a helmet in his hand, is unnamed, but the word trance is engraved at the left-hand lower corner. The king of diamonds is Leicester, the queen the Comtesse d'Oxford, the valet is unnamed. The king of hearts is Mac-Farlan, the queen the Comtesse d'Argyle, while the valet, who bears a falcon on his left hand, is unnamed, but the card has the address, " Gibert Fab a Paris," at the background. The costumes are intended to be historic. The marks of the suits on the kings have a, crown above them, and those on the aces are contained within arabesque ornaments. These cards have been carefully designed and etched, and fairly coloured. The backs are coloured blue. The engraved and ornamental title to the wrapper accompanies the set. It represents the allegorical female figures with the cornucopia of articles before described, and bears the inscription : " Cartes Parisiennes, Paris Rue des Siages. No. 3." It is printed in black on a blue and glazed paper. [3-5- X 2 in.] [Backs coloured.] CARDS WITH A SECONDARY PURPOSE. EDUCATIONAL —INSTRUCTIVE. F. 74. A. Engravings of the Italian School. Worlcs of Stefano Delia Bella, 2,rd Volume. F. 74. B. (/ew des Beynes Renommees.) F. 74. c. [Les Jeux de Cartes des Roys de France, 1664.) NUMEBALS— PIQUET. 127 FIRST HALF OF SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. PARIS. The Cards of Desmakests and of Stefano Della Bella. ?URING the time of Louis XIV. a French academician, Jean Des- marests^ (born Paris, 1596), undertook, at the suggestion of Cardinal Mazarin, to prepare some series of games with cards, which might serve the purpose of instructing the young king. With this view Desmarests (who died in 1676 at the mansion of the Cardinal, of which he had been made in- tendant), associated with himself Stefano Delia Bella, the well-known Florentine artist and engraver. They produced four series of instructive cards, Desmarests undertaking the general designs and arrangements, and Della Bella the particular illustrations and the engraving of them. The various series were afterwards sold by Henri Le Gras, of the Royal Library, letters patent of the date 1644 having been issued to Desmarests, granting him certain privileges and monopo- lies connected with the cards, and forbidding their sale by any one than his authorized publisher, under a penalty of 3,000 Hvres and confiscation of the articles. The first of these instructive or educational cards published, was a set entitled " Le Jeu des Fables ou de la Metamorphose," in which were represented " the gods, demi-gods, goddesses, and heroes of antiquity," accompanied by a precis historique " at the lower part of each card, illustrative of the mythology of the ancients. Then followed " Le Jeu des Sots de France" or " Le Jeu de VHistoire de France" exhibiting the various kings from Pharamond to Louis XIV., and indicating in abridged histories their particular characters, &c. Thirdly appeared " Le Jeu des Eeynes renommees," in which " is passed under review the queens, heroines, and other illustrious women, from the remotest antiquity until the present time. Some in chariots, some on horseback, others on foot, along vrith expositions of their characters ; and an abridged account of the more striking incidents in their history." (Jombert, p. 28.) Finally appeared " Le Jeu de la Geographic" " the whole forming a series of nearly 200 plates, extremely interesting, and of the best period of the work of S. Delia Bella." (Jombert.) A little explanatory book of sixty pages (F 74, C), was afterwards produced by Desmarests, having the following title : " Les Jeux de Cartes Des Roys de France, des Reines renommees, de la Geographie et des Fables. Cy-devant dediez a la Reine Regente pour rinstruotion du Roy et depuis mis ensemble en un volume portatif pour apprendre tres facilement I'Histoire, la Geographie et les Fables. Par IDM. A Paris, chez Florentin Lambert rue Saiat Jacques, vis-k-vis Saint Yves a I'lmage Saint Paul — m.dc.lxiv. avec Privilege du Roi." This brochure contains in the first place an address, " A la Reyne Regente," who is informed that " Ce sont des Jeux en apparence que je presente ^ votre Majeste mais en effet c'est un livre, et une estude pour les Jeunes Princes, aussi serieuse poirr le moins que divertissante. Voicy un nouvel Art qua produit une extreme passion de servir men Roy apres avoir considere ses belles et genereuses inclinations, les beaux fruits que produira cette Royalle plante estant bien cultivee et les biens et la gloire dont vos Majestez et toute la France seront comblees, si I'on adjouste une soigneuse education k la grandeur et k la merveille de sa naissance," &c. &c. Next follows a " Lettre d'une Dame de Rennes a M. Desmarests sur le Jeu des Reines renommees," in which M. Desmarests' selection and rejection of par- ^ Spelt also Des-Marets. 128 :fbenge. tioular " Dames renommees,'' and his historical account of the selected ones, are somewhat severely criticised. This letter is signed M. D. B., and is dated "DeRennes ce 27 Decembre 1644." After this comes M. Desmarests' reply, dated " De Paris, ce 10 Janvier 1645." In_ it the writer makes a strong, but covirteous reclamation against the strictures of one whom he believes to be " une Dame de qnalite et de trfes bon esprit." The following is an analysis of the educational and instructive series of cards by Desmarests and Delia Bella (F. 74. a.., F. 74. b., F. 74 c), as pre- served in the British Museum. F. 74. A. I. "/m des Fables" A SEftUBNOB of fifty-two Separated card-pieces, and a title engraved au travers, bearing the inscription, "Jeu des Fables." The series is intended to afford instruction in ancient mythology and fable. Each piece has a figure subject of mythologic character, occupying half the cax-d. Immediately below the design is its title, followed by a short, descriptive summary. Under this, towards the right-hand corner, is the mark of the particular suit to which the piece belongs, and towards the left is the number indicating its value. The intended coate-cards or honours have R, D, and '^A. on them in place of the numbers. The marks of the suits are caeurs, trefles, piques, and carreaux. The coate-cards of the suit cceurs represent Jupiter, Juno, and Mars ; those of carreaux, Saturn, Venus, and ApoUon ; ot piques, Pluton, Diane, and Bacchus ; of trefles, Neptune, Pallas, and Mercury. The ace of piques exhibits Amphion seated on a rock overlooking a stream ; in the background are castellated walls. Below is inscribed " Amphion. Roy de Thebes, bastit les murs de Thebes au son de sa Lyre, les pierres suivaut les cadences et se rangeant d'elles memos." A copy of the ace of trefles is given by Boiteau d'Ambly, p. 133, and by Taylor, p. 328, pi. 35. It represents " Arion" seated on a dolphin playing the violin. Below is the following: — •" Excellent musicien fut jette dans la mer par des marchands pour avoir son bien, et ayant joue de sa lyre avant que d'estre jette, un dauphin le recoit et le mit au bord." The subjects of " Cephale et Procris," " Jupiter et Danae," " Theses et Ariadne," "Hippomene et Atalante," &c., vary the illustrations with "Nep- tune," " Ceres," " Niobe," " Pigmalion," and others. Of this particular set, impressions of three different states exist in the collec- tion of the works of S. Delia Bella in the British Museum. (Vol. 3.) 1. First iSteie.— Brilliant impressions before any inscriptions, marks, and numbers of suits. The card-pieces are unseparated, being contained in four large sheets of twelve cards in three rows of four cards each row, and in two smaller sheets, one sheet having three, the other two pieces engraved on it. A vacant place is on the latter sheet, which contains the title, engraved au travers. 2. Second State. — Card-pieces separated. Inscriptions and numbers added, together with the marks of the suits. The latter in cmirs and carreaux are in outline only. The coate-cards are devoid as yet of the letters R, D, A. The title-piece is wanting. 3. Third State. — The marks of the suit carreaux, before in outline, are now filled up by perpendicular lines, as are likewise the marks of the suit cceurs. The letters R, D, A, are added to the coate-cards. The title-piece is present, and bears the inscription, "Jeu des Fables." The pieces are separate. Some of the designs of these card-pieces are very graceful and poetic, and the execution of them admirable, but they should be seen as impressions of the first state to be justly appreciated. [31- X 2f in.] [Backs plain.] EDUCATIONAL— INS TBUGTIVE. 129 F. 74. A. 2. F. 74. c/ " Cartes des Roys de France." A series of forty card-pieces, inchiding a title, the secondary purpose of which is to afford historical instruction. Each piece has on it a figure or figures, equestrian or otherwise, representing kings or regents of France, from Phara- mond to Louis XIV., the latter being portrayed as a youth in a stately chariot guided by his mother. Below each design is engraved an historic account of the person represented. Above it is a number (generally at the left-hand upper comer), indicating the person's position in the sequence of the French kings. At the right-hand upper corner is recorded the number of years of the particular reign. In illustration, the card-piece on which is represented "FranQois 1°" maybe taken. Occupying somewhat less than half the card is the figure of a king on horseback, directed towards the left hand. He is in armour, wears a plumed helmet, and extends his right hand, in which is the baton of authority. At the left-hand upper corner is the number 58 in rather large figures, implying that Francis was the fifty-eighth king; at the left-hand upper corner is engraved " regna 32." Below the design is the following account, engraved on a piece of hanging drapery : — " FKAN901S I. Vaillant, liberal, humain, aymant les lettres, il gagna centre les Suisses une grande bataille disputee 2 jours. II resista ^ toute I'Europe liguee contre la France, il combatit de toutes pai'tes la puissance de Charles quint, mais sa prise devant Pavie luy fit perdre tons ses avantages." Though there are but thirty-nine cards (one of the forty being a title), the number of designs proceeds to sixty-five, some of the pieces having four or five figures on them. On one card are the numbers 6, 7, 8, 9, 14, belonging to " cruel kings," who are ChUdebert, cruel et avare, 6 ; Clotaire, tue de sa main ses neveux, 7 ! Cherebert, 8 ; Chilperic, U estrangla sa femme, 9 ; Childeric 2", 11 Jit foueter un gentilhomme qui le tua, 14. A copy of one of the pieces, viz. that representing five " fayneants," may be seen in Boiteau d'Ambly's work, p. 134, and in Taylor's version, p. 344, pi. xxxvi. The kings selected appear to be arranged in the following manner : — " Good kings," " simple-minded kings," " cruel kings," " faithless kings," " un- fortunate kings," "kings neither good or bad." The latter include Charles the Bald, Francis IL, and Louis the Stammerer. Of the last king, Louis XIV., it is stated : — " Prince longtemps attendu, et qui estant donne de Dieux aux voeux d'une bonne et sage reyne et de tout le peuple faict esperer qu'il possedera toutes les vertus royales et que son regne sera tres heureux, puis qu'il a commence par la bataille de Rocroy et la prise de Thionville." The ornamental title engraved au travers, bears the following inscription : " Cartes des Rois de France. A Paris Chez Henri Le Gras Libraire au troisieme pilier de la grande Salle du Palais." — Avec Privil." The set of card-pieces under notice has not any indications of suits nor of values. Each piece is separate, and aU are neatly designed and engraved. [Sf X 2-!j in.] [Backs plain.] F. 74. A. 3. "Jew des Reynes Renommees." A set of fifty-two card-pieces with a title, the secondary purpose of which is to aflford instruction in history. ■' F. 74. c. The dedicatory and descriptive volume before mentioned at p. 127, refers to all the series in the 3rd vol. of the works of S. Delia Bella. K 130 FBENGE. These pieces have on them neatly engraved whole-length figures of renowned women, from Dido to Queen Elizabeth; they are variously engaged, some of them being on horseback and some in chariots. They are classed as follows : — Saints and holy women Good women "Wise women Clever women Celebrated women Brave women Happy women Cruel women Licentious women Capricious women Unfortunate women as St. Helena, e.g. „ Penelope. ,, Isabel of Castile. „ Catherine de Medici. „ Dido. „ Penthesilea. „ Koxana. „ Clytemnestra. „ Messalina. „ Sabina. „ Octavia. The personages chosen under these heads are so arranged in separate classes, as to indicate the ordinary suits and values of playing-cards. In another set pre- sently to be referred to, the four suits are likewise differentiated by the way in which the drapery is coloured. Any attempt, however, to employ these and their congeners as ordinary playing-cards would lead to confusion only. Each piece of the present series, with the exception of twelve intended to represent the honours, has a number indicating its value at the upper left-hand corner. At the right-hand upper corner is engraved the generic character of the personage represented. Below the design are the title and a description of the " reyne renommee." Thus, e.g. on a card intended to form the ten of a suit is the number lO, and the word " pieuse" at the upper corners respectively. Half the card is then occupied by a female figure in a religious habit, and carrying a crucifix. At the lower half is engraved " Elizabeth d'Arragon. Femme de Denys Roy de Portugal, elle vescut sainctement et un jour portant dans un coin de sa robe de 1' argent pour les pauvres le Roy luy demanda ce qvielle portait, elle lui dit, ce sont des roses, le Roy le voulut voir, et 1' argent se trouva change en roses." A copy of a "reyne galante" is given by Boiteau d'Ambly, p. 136. Some of these female figures are of very elegant design and of careftil execution. The ornamental title is engravpd au travers, and has on it " Jeu dea Reynes Renommees." At the lower portion is the address of Henri Le G-ras, " avec Privilege." The address has been cut through, but sufficient remains to permit of the identification. [3f X 2-i- in.] [Backs plain.] F. 74. B. " Jeu des Reynes Renommhs.'^ Another copy of the set just described, in which the pieces have been coloured so as to indicate the four suits. Boiteau d'Ambly, commenting on this set, observes : — " Lescartes sont, par couleurs, dorees, ou argentees, ou vertes, ou de teinte dite columbine, c'est-k-dire d'un rose tendre tirant \m peu sur le chamois." — {Op. dtp. 136.) These pieces have been separated, and stifily mounted like playing-cards. The colouring detracts from the goodness of the designs and engraving, and is but of slight help in the way intended. The title is absent. [3|- X 2|- in.] [Backs plain.] EDUCATIONAL— IN8TBU0TIVI1. 131 F. 74. A. 4. " Jeu de Cartes de la Geographie." A series of fifty-two card-pieces, without the title, intended to give instruction m geography. Each card-piece has on its upper half a design or figure in a national cos- tume, emblematic of a geographic division of the globe. Below are the title, and an account of the place represented. Thus, on a card intended to represent an ace is the number 1 at the left-hand upper corner. The upper half of the piece is occupied by a full-length figure with a trailing habit of Mauresque character ; he bears a lance with pennon in his right hand, and wears a plumed turban or cap. Below is the following inscription : " Babbakie. Belle et temperee, s'estend le long de la mer mediterranee jusques au destroit de Gilbratar [sic] les villes Tunis, Biserte, Alger et Tripoly, sont tenues par des pyrates sous la protection du Turc." The four quarters of the globe represent the four suits, each having twelve divisions, i.e. 13 X 4 ^ 52. In one suit the king is represented by Europe, the queen by France, and the valet by Spain, or their emblematic figures. The numerals of the suit include Sicily, Dalmatia, Greece, Servia, Hungary, Poland, Scandinavia, Great Britain, Germany, and Italy. The supposition that these cards could be used for the purposes of ordinary play is quite illusory. The designs and executions of this series are very com- mendable. Some of the former, such, e.g. as those illustrating the four quarters of the globe, are rich and pictorial. [3t X ^T ™'] [Backs plain.] Of this series, two copies exist in the Museum collection. Both are among the works of Stefano Delia Bella, vol. iii. ut antece. 1 . An imperfect set of early impressions of twenty-five of the card-pieces, before the addition of the numbers at the left-hand upper corner. Each piece having been cut away immediately below the design, the places of the inscriptions are wanting. [2 X 2 in. average.] [Backs plain.] 2. A full and fine set — minus the title, however — ^having both numbers and inscriptions, as before described. Charles Antoine Jombert, in his " Essai d'un Catalogue de I'ceuvre D'Etienne De la Belle," &c., Paris, 1772, 8vo., has the following note in reference to these various series of cards : — " In order to be sure of the first states, it is requisite to possess all these small prints, " avant la lettre" as they may be seen among the works of Delia Bella which are in the cabinet of the king, and which it is almost impossible to gather together. Under any circumstances, these four series should be obtained with the address of Hem-i Legras at the Palace, and not with that of Florent Lecomte, " Rue St. Jacques au Chifire Royale," as this author advises in the second volume of his catalogue (second part, p. 1 1 7), of the works of Delia Bella, since Le Comte did not come into possession of the plates until long after the time of Henri Legras. These four series are very amusing, and are of the best period of the artist. They were designed by Desmarets (author of the poem 'Clovis'), according to the order of Cardinal Mazarin, to facilitate the studies of Louis XIV. when a child." {Op. cit. p. 113.) 132 FBENOH. F- 75- EIGHTEENTH CENTUKY. PARIS. (Geographic.) PIQUET set of card-pieces (thirty-two), the secondary purpose of which is to teach geography. The suits are distinguished by small squares of colour at the upper corners of each piece. Each square is likewise marked with either the number of the suit or the initial letter of the " honour." The greater portion of each piece is occupied by a neatly engraved geographic map, or a chart having references to a description below. The aces of the different suits represent respectively a plan of the celestial universe, an armUlary sphere, and the two terrestrial hemispheres. These cards are neatly engraved and coloured, and care has evidently been taken to render them geographically correct. The degrees of latitude and longi- tude are marked on the maps. The backs of these cards are marbled with a variety of brilliant colours. [4|. X 2-i- in.] [Backs coloured.] F. 76. LAST QUARTER OP SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. PARIS. (Military Science.) LARGE engraved sheet, containing fifty-two unseparated card-pieces, intended to serve the purpose of instruction in military engineering science, as well as that of ordinary play. The marks of the suits are piques, tre/les, carreaux, and cceurs; the figure-cards are roi, dame, and valet. There are five rows of cards. Of the upper two rows, each contain eleven pieces ; the middle row has -seven, a dedicatory address, and a general bird's-eye view of a " Place Complete des Eortifications." The fourth row has eleven pieces, and the fifth, or lowest, contains twelve. In a broad margin above the divisions are several inscriptions. The central and titular one is as follows : — " Le Jeu des Fortifications dans lequel les differents ouvrages qui servent 6, la defense des places et des camps sont exacte- ment dessines selon la plus nouvelle maniere avec toutes leur definitions et une explication courte et facile des termes qui sont en usage dans cet art." On each side of the above are the " Regies du Jeu," in which it is stated that " ce Jeu souffre toutes les differentes especes de jeu qui se jouent avec les cartes ordinaires. On le pent jouer aussi avec deux Des observant les regies marquees cy dessous." At the left-hand corner of the upper margin is a paragraph pointing out the connection of geometry with military engineering science; while at the right-hand corner of the same, the nature of fortification is pointed out. The dedication in the thii-d row runs thus:— " A L'lUustre Jeunesse elevee dans le college de Louis Le Grand." Twenty lines of address then follow, with the signature of " Votre tres humble et tres obeissant serviteur, I. Mabibtte." EDU0ATI0NAL—IN8TBU0TIVE. 133 The lower portions of these unseparated card-pieces are occupied by engraved and coloured representations of particular details in fortification or engineering work, and of defence. At the upper part is the title, and a more or less extended description of the design below. At the upper right-hand comer is a diminutive representation of an ordinary numeral playing-card, having a number at the top, proceeding from No. 1 on the ace of diamonds (the first card on the lowest row) to 52 on the king of hearts, the fifth card-piece of the middle row. The figure or coate- cards have on them diminutive fiill-length figures, standing, and wearing red mantles. Some of the card-pieces of the lowest series have on them diagrams and descriptions in geometry. All the designs and descriptions are from neatly engraved copper-plates, and some, like the "Fausse Braye," or the four of piques, in the top row, the "Pont Levis," or the nine of coeurs, in the second row ; the " Ports de Mer," or the two of trefles, in the centre row ; and the " Chateau," or ten of cosurs, in the same series, form agreeable views or landscapes. A margin is preserved at the left-hand side of the sheet for a " Table Alpha- betique des Termes contenus en cette carte." At the bottom, between the broad border-line and the plate edge-mark, is the following address, at the left-hand corner : — " Invente et dessine par GUles de la Boissiere, ingenieur ordinaire du Roy." At the right-hand comer is " A Paris, chez I. Mariette, rue St. Jacques aux Colonnes d'Hercules, avec Privilege du Roy." The general sheet of card-pieces measures 19J X 27f in. [3t X 2-|- in.] [Backs plam.J F. 77. LAST QUARTER OF SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. PARIS. (MiLiTABT Science.) ' LARGE engraved sheet, 19|- in. high by 27 in. wide, of fifty-two un- separated card-pieces, intended to serve for instruction in the prin- ciples of military science as well as for ordinary play. The suits and honours are of the usual kind. There are five rows of cards. The upper two rows contain eleven pieces each row ; the centre series has seven, and a dedicatory address, together with a repre- sentation of a monarch investing a hero with some dignity. The fourth row con- tains eleven pieces, and the lowest series twelve. In a broad margin above the upper row of cards are several inscriptions, the central one being titular, and as follows : — " Le Jeu de la Guerre " — " ou tout ce qui s'observe dans les Marches et Campements dans les BataiUes, Combats, Sieges et autres actions Militaires est exactement represente avec les Definitions et les explications de chaque chose en particulier." At each side of the above are the " Regies du Jeu," which commence with the information that " ce Jeu souflfre toutes les difierentes especes de Jeux qui se jouent avec les cartes ordinaires, dont le nombre est represente par 52 Figures marquees de Pique, de TrefBe, de Cceur et de Carreau. Le Chiffre Remain qui se voit dans chaque Carte en marque la Valem-, 1' R signifie le Roy, le D la Dame, r V le Valet. " Ce jeu se joue aussy avec deux Dez ordinaires," &c. &c. The dedication in the third row of card-pieces is to " Monseigneur le Due de 134 FBENCS. Bourgogne." It contains fourteen lines, and is signed by "Votre tres H et obeis: Serv : I. Makiettb." To the left is the representation of the French monarch seated on a throne, the steps of which an officer is ascending to receive a marshal's baton. Below is the couplet — " L'heroique valeur que ce grand Eoy couronne N'estime dans ces prix que la main qui les donne." The upper half of each card-piece exhibits a neatly designed and engraved representation of some military operation ; the lower half has the title and de- scriptive details. Some of the designs are very picturesque, forming little bits, much after the styles of Callot and Stefano Delia Bella. Each piece has the mark, in outKne, of its suit at the upper left-hand corner, containing within it the value of the particular card. At the opposite and upper comer is the general number, rising from 1 on the ace of hearts (the first card on the lowest row) to 52 on the king of clubs, in the middle of the centre series. At the lower margin of the sheet, at the left-hand comer, is the address : " Invente et dessine par Gilles de Boissiere Ingenieur ordinaire du Roy et Grave par Pierre le Pautre." At the right-hand corner is " A Paris chez 1. Mariette rue St. Jacques aux Colonnes d'Hercules avec Privilege du Roy." [3f X 2^ in.] [Backs plain.] F. 78. NINETEENTH CENTURY. PARIS. (Mtthologic.) PIQUET set of cards (thirty -two), of the usual suits. Its secondary purpose is that of giving instruction in mythology. On the coate-cards are ftJl-length figures, representing, in piques, Pluton, Proserpine, and Minos ; in tre/les, Neptune, Amphitrite, and a Triton ; in carreaux, Mars, Bellone, and Aohille ; in cceurs, Jupiter, Junon, and Mercure. Each roi has a crown at the upper right-hand corner. The aces have a double set of designs, between the upper and lower of which is placed the mark of the suit. On the ace of piques are represented the Rape of Proserpine, and the Bark of Charon ; on. that of tre/ies, the Nereids and Nymphs; on the ace of carreaux are the Trojan War, and the ship Argo, which had an oak for a mast, predicting future events ; while in cceurs are Leda and the Swan, and the workshop of Vulcan. Bach pip-card has. on it either two circular medallions, or one larger oval medallion, containing a mythologic figure, such as Eurydice, Cerberus, Latona, and Hercules. The names of the subjects and persons represented are placed below them. Between and around the pips runs a delicate ornamental line in bine, having attached to it ornaments illuminated in gold. The medallions have liliewise illuminated borders, and the crowns, arms, attributes, &c. of the figures and scenes are also illuminated in gold. All the cards are neatly engraved and coloured, and are printed off on paper having a shght blue tone of colour. The proportions of some of the figures are very bad indeed. The backs are coloured buff and are glazed. On one or two of the pieces is " Lith Y"' Arouy Rue St. Honore 67," accompanied on the seven of trefies by " V. Lange del et Lith." EDUCATI0ITAL—IN8TBUGTIVE. 135 The engraved ornamental title of the wrapper accompanies the set. It is printed in blue ink, and bears the following inscription : " Cai-tes mythologiques V"'' Lange Paris V. Lange." [3i X 2-|- in.] [Backs coloured.] F. 79. LAST QUAETER OF SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. LYONS ? (Heraldic.) SERIES of fifty-two cards of the suits piques, trefles, cceurs, and carreaux, bound together as a small volume. This set is intended to afford instruction in heraldry, and is one of the original French versions of the sequence which originated with Oronce Fine dit de Brianville, an Abbe of Poitiers, and was first published by Benoist Coral, a bookseller at Lyons. A fall description of this original edition, and of the Italian versions which succeeded it, has been already given under I. 13, I. 13. 2, 1. 14. In the present series the king of hearts and eight of clubs are wanting ; but their places have been fiUed with hand-drawings of the arms absent. On the king of clubs are the arms of Pope Innocent XI. (Odeschalci), 1676-1689, with the following description: — "Porte d' argent a six coupes counertes de gueules posees trois deux et un, entre trois filetes de meme mis eu face, surmontes d'nn lion leoparde aussi de gueles au chef cousu d'or charge d'un aigle esployee de sable. Lescu tymbre de la Thiare et orne des deux clefs du S' Siege." The present series commences, however, with the king of spades bearing the arms of Leopoldo of the holy Roman empire and of Germany, with a, shield ol pretence of the arms of the house of Austria. All the armorials are neatly coloured in their proper blazon, but the technical execution of the copper-plate engraving is but mediocre. The engraved descrip- tions and titles are in French. Accompanying these heraldic cards is a curious 'book-shaped case which for- merly contained them. It is of ebony, inlaid with ivory and different coloured woods, and fitted with clasps and hinges of chased steel. The following arms are represented on the external face of each cover by means of the ornamental inlaid ivory and wood, viz. — two lion's jambs oouped and crossed in saltire, between an estoile of eight rays in chief and a fleur-de-lis in base. These are borne on a shield placed between the four letters B in mother-of-pearl. The author of the article in the "Herald and Genealogist" (vol. iii. p. 77, 1866), alluding to these arms, remarks: "We have not ascertained the name to which the arms on the case belonged. The family of Rasponi of Rome bore Azure two lion's jambs crossed in saltire or, and Raspi of Venice had also lion's jambs in saltire, with a lion's head in chief and an eagle's leg in base. The letters, however, do not point to a name commencing with that initial." [3i X 2f in.] [Backs plain.] 136 FRENOH. HISTORIC— BIOGRAPHIC. F. 79. 2. NINETEENTH CENTURY. PARIS. PIQUET set of cards (thirty-two) of the ordinary suits. Biographical and historical information is intended to he conveyed by it, while it is meant also for the purposes of ordinary play. The coate-cards exhibit full-length coloured figures of eminent male and female personages. In the suit piques, the king is Caasar, the dame Judith, and the valet Guttemberg; in tref.es the king is Alexander, the dame Saint Genevieve, the valet Christopher Columbus; in earreaux the king is Charlemagne, the dame Lucretia, and the valet Moses ; while in ccmirs the king is Homer, the dame Joan of Arc, the valet Napoleon I. In these " honours " the mark of the suit is placed at the itpper left-hand corner ; at the right, is either the mai-k repeated or the word " Heros " on a wreath, to indicate the character of the person represented. The king oi piques, Caesar, has " Heros," while the valet, Guttemberg, has a wreath. Below the figure is the name and other information. Thus, below the figure on the valet of trefles is " Christophe Colomb. 1492- 1506. Amerique." Under that of the dame de coeurs is "Jeanne d'Arc. 1428-1431. Sauva La France;" and below the dame de earreaux is " Lucrece. 509. AV. J.C. Pudeur. Vertu." Moses holds in his hands the decalogue ; Charlemagne a tablet, inscribed " Capitulaires, Ecoles ;" and Guttemberg displays a, scroll, having on it, " Et la lumiere fut." The ordinary pip-cards have the signs of their suits at each upper corner, the value of the cards being indicated by small medallion heads of illustrious people, in number equivalent to the value of the particular card. Below each medallion is a name and date. Each set of medallion heads is repeated on the correspond- ing cards of the four suits. Thus, on the seven of piques are the heads of Cuvier, Newton, Arago, A. Pare, Archimedes, Plato, and Franklin, which are repeated on the seven of earreaux, and on the sevens of the other suits. The aces have each two designs, the mark of the suit being placed between them. On these pieces the histories of Cain and Abel, of the Creation, the Deluo'e, the Crucifixion, are portrayed. All the cards have ornamental borders around the designs. On the ace of cieurs is the address " Mel. G. Deschamps Inv'. Eug. Moreau Fecit. Minne Sculp." The ornamental engraved title of the wrapper accompanies the set. It is printed in black and gold on glazed pink paper, and is identical with that described on F. 67. [3i X 2|-m.J [Backs plam.J SATIRICAL. 137 SATIRICAL. F. 80. FIRST QUARTER OP NINETEENTH CENTURY. PARIS. ■■ ORTY-FIVE cards from a pack of fifty-two numerals of the usual suits. The four, seven, and ten o{ccsurs, the ace o{ piques, the ace, two, and queen of carreaux are wanting. The secondary purpose of these cards is chiefly of a satirical character, though there prevails much caricature and comic spirit among them. On the other hand, some of the pieces, particularly of the suit trefles, are of pm-ely artistic design. The coate-cards have fiiU-length coloured figures on them, and smaller whole-length figures are introduced on many of the lower numerals. The latter figures are uncoloured, the colour being confined to the marks of the suits variously disposed, which are often made to constitute or fit into portions of the bodies. There is much spirit in some of the designs, and the engraving and colouring has been neatly and carefully executed. The satire which prevails is directed against the dominant political party of the time. On the king oi trefles is represented the editor of the " Journal des Debats," endeavouring to carry two large bags, the one inscribed " Empire," the other " Debats." He has a pen behind his ear, and his countenance and action express the difficulty of his labour. Between his legs are two donkeys in the middle distance, caressing each other. On one donkey hang the ribbon and medal of some order. The dame de trefles represents the " Gazette '' as an elderly lady, seated at a table writing. She has stopped for a moment to look up at a magpie in a cage hung up above the table. The valet of the same suit exhibits the person of Talleyrand, under the title of " Clopineau." He carries his cocked hat under his left arm, and supports him- self by his left hand on a stick. His left leg is shorter than the right one, and he wears on the left foot a high-heeled shoe. Near the top of the card are the signs of the political zodiac, which the minister has already passed through. In coiurs the king symbolises the popular journal, the " Constitutionnel." He is a figure in Roman costume, with sword and shield, defending a column on which is inscribed " Charte constitutionnel, Liberte de la Presse, Liberte indi- viduelle, Loi des Elections, Tolerance." The dame is Miuerve, standing on the steps of a temple, and putting to flight certain evil spirits of the parti pretre. The valet is Figaro, in character costume. The king of piques is " Conservateur," a Jesuit, at the head of his troop of brethren, carrying a flaming torch and sword. The dame is the " Quotidienne," an ugly old woman, with an open book in her left hand, and an extinguisher in the other, which she is about to place on the head of Truth, a nude, good-looking young female, rising, glass in hand, from a well. The valet represents Chateau- briand, under the title of BazUe. He is a fine figure, in a clerical habit, hiding under his cloak a Jesuit's cap, which he holds in his left hand. Kneeling at his left side is a donkey, which is looking up at him and braying. In the suit carreaux the king is represented by the " Moniteur," a brazen head on a truncated cone, in which are stuck various flags, indicative of the numerous parties which have been supported by the journal. A figure of Time 138 FBENOn. is at the upper right-liand corner, flying away. The dame is here absent. The valet is " Don-Quichotte" attacking a windmill. Some of the designs of the pip-cards in ccBurs and piques are laughable enough, while in trefles are represented " L'Ange des Tendbres vaincu par St. Michel," " Le roi Dagobert," " Insectes," " Vases Btrusques," " Tombeau Turc," &c. These cards have been described by Chatto (p. 264), and alluded to by Peignot (p. 297) in 1 826. The latter writer speaks of them as " a very malicious series, pubUshed at Paris seven or eight years ago, and, as far as I can remember, during the ministry of M. D. . . . . , under the title of ' Cartes d rire.' The pack is attributable to M. A C. A.D. C.D.D.O. All the cards, whether figure or numeral, are of excellent design, with ingeniously grouped' figures in agreeable attitudes. But the spirit of satire is carried to excess, and it is not by such caricatures as these that unanimity can be re-established among the French people." [3t X 2|- in.] [Backs plain.] CAEDS OF DIVINATION. } HE series of cards now to follow illustrate the application of the latter to the purposes of diyination, sortilege^ and fortune-telling. The more important and quasi-scientific — if we may -of such cards have been based generally in modern packs on tarots sequences, and of these latter, such as F. 39 may be taken as a fair example. Of the tarots, here playing so prominent a part, much has been before stated (pp. 18, 36, 65); but they have yet to be considered under their mystical aspect, which forms so important and curious a branch of their history, as insisted on by some investigators. Their relations in this respect underlie, in fact, according to certain writers, not onlya particular branch of thaumaturgic knowledge,but thewhole history of playing-cards. These emblematic figures, the tarots, are asserted to have had a very remote origin ; an origin stretching as far back, indeed, as the ancient Egyptians, from whom they have descended to us as a book or series of subjects of deep symbolic mean- ing. Some of these subjects have in the course of time, however, become somewhat changed or metamorphosed, yet leaving traces in sufiaoiency of the original symbols by which those learned in arche- ology and illuminism may establish their true nature. The discovery and ezplication of this supposed source and hidden meaning of the tarots employed in modern times was claimed by M. Court de Gebelin in 1781, who in his " Monde Primitif analyst et compart avec le Monde Modeme,'' tome i. p. 363, gave a disserta- tion, " Du Jeu des Tarots ; ou I'on traite de son Origine, ou on explique ses allegories et ou Ton fait voir qu'il est la source de nos cartes modernes a jouer," &c. In this dissertation M. de Gebelin affirms that the series of seventy- DIVINATION— OABTOMANOY. 139 eight Venetian tarots, i. e. twenty-two atutti and fifty-six numerals, has an unquestionable claim to be regarded as an Bgjrptian book, which escaped the flames destroying the ancient libraries, and as coming down to us with an epitome of the purest Egyptian doctrine on some of the most important and interesting topics. If, states M. de Gebelin, the tarots game be closely investigated, it must be evident that it is based on the sacred Egyptian number seven. Each suit or colour is composed of twice seven cards. The atouts are in number three times seven; the total number of cards being seventy- seven j the fool, or "Matto," being O. If we search the allegories they contain, their ancient and Egyptian source becomes stiU more evident. The atouts in general represent the spiritual and temporal heads of society, the physical chiefs of agriculture, the cardinal virtues, marriage, death and resurrection, or the Creation, the various aspects of fortune, the sage and the fool, and Time, the consumer of aU things. Let us examine these emblematic figures in detaU,-' commencing with Wo. 1, Le Bateleur, or cup-player (thimble-rigger) , and proceed up to No. 21, Le Monde, as it is the custom of the present time to begin with the lowest number, though the Egyptians, it would appear, began at the higher and descended to the lower numbers. The first of the atouts in the ascending, and the last in the descending scale, is a conjurer with cups, seen at his table, on which are dice, cups, knives, and balls. He is known also by his Jacob^'s staff or magician's wand, and by the ball which he holds between two fingers, and which he is going to make vanish. Placed at the head of all estates of men, he impHes that our whole life is but a dream, an illusion, a perpetual game of chance, the impulse of a thousand circumstances over which we have no control, but upon which much influence is necessarily produced by an over-ruling ad- ministration. !Nos. 2, 3, 4, and 5 are the spiritual and temporal heads of society. No. 2, La Papesse, is the chief priestess, the wife of the chief priest ; JSTo. 5, Le Pape. We know that among the Egyptians the heads of the sacerdotal rank were married. Had these cards been the invention of modem times there would not have occurred any high priestess, far less one under the title La Papesse, as the German card-makers have ridicu- lously entitled the present. The high priestess is' seated in an arm-chair, has on a long dress, with a kind of veil behind her head, and which crosses over the chest. She wears a double crown with two horns, as did Isis, holds an open book on her knees, and ' The study of the following pages, 139-155, should be accompanied by that of a Tarots sequence like F. 39 or of the plates iu Singer (Bibl. 8) p. 284. 140 FBENOH. has two bands adorned witli crosses passing like an X over the stomach. No. 5, the high priest^ Le Pape, in long dress and large mantle, secured at the neck by an agraffe; he wears the triple tiara; in one hand is a sceptre with a triple cross, with the other hand, of which two fingers are extended, he bestows benediction on two persons at his knees. The Italian and German card-makers have converted these two emblematic figures (2 and 5) , upon whom the ancients bestowed the names of father and mother (Oriental terms, signifying abbe and abbesse) , into a pope and popess, in accordance with their own cir- cumscribed knowledge. As to the sceptre with the triple cross, it is purely an Egyptian relic ; it may be seen on the table of Isis, under the form of T T ; it is a precious relic, bearing relation to the triple Phallus, carried in the famous festival of Pamylies, representing the recovery of Osiris, and symbolising the regeneration of plants and of the whole of nature. No. 3, L'Imperatrice, represents the queen, and No. 4, I'Empe- reur, the king. Both have for attributes an eagle on a shield, and a sceptre surmounted by a globe thautified, or crowned with a cross, termed " thau," the chief of all symbols. No. 6, L' Amour eux, is marriage. A young man and woman pledge mutually their faith, a priest blesses them. The card- makers name this design VAmoreux, and it would appear they added the Cupid with his bow and arrows in order to make it of a speak- ing character. No. 7, Le Gharior, is Osiris triumphant. He advances, sceptre in hand and crown on head. He is in his chariot of war, drawn by two white horses. Osiris was the grand and supreme deity, in- visible, except as manifesting himself in nature. He disappeared during winter, but re-appeared in spring with new glory, having in the interim conquered all that opposed him. Nos. 8, 11, 12, and 14 are the four cardinal virtues. No. 8 is Justice as a queen, or "Astrea," seated on a throne, holding a sword in one hand and a pair of scales in the other. No. 11 is Force, a woman who has overcome a lion, whose jaws she opens with a like facility as she would those of her lap-dog ; on her head is the hat of a shepherdess. No. 12, Le Pendu, is in the place of Prudence. Could the Egyptians — it may be asked — have forgotten the latter for this representation of humanity ? Yet we do not find Prudence in the sequence. Instead of it we find, placed between Force and Temperance, a man suspended by his leg ! What does this mean ? It is the work— writes M. de Gebelin— of some wretched, presumptuous card-maker, who, not understanding the beauty of the allegory contained in the original design, took upon himself to cor- rect it, as he thought, but in lieu disfiguring it in toto. DIVINATION— OABTOMANOT. 141 Prudence could be represented to sight satisfactorily only by means of a person erect, whoj having one foot firmly fixed on the ground, advances the other, keeping it raised while searching for a spot on which he can place it securely. The original title of this card was equivalent to a man " pede suspensu." The card -maker, not understanding the sense of the latter, designed a figure sus- pended by the foot ! As might be expected, the question has been asked why there is such a strange figure as this " Le Pendu " in the larots sequence ? It has been repHed that it represents the just punishment of the inventor of it for having represented therein a female Pope ! No. 14 is Temperance, a winged female pouring water from one vessel into another to cool the fluid they contain. No. 9, L'Ermite, is the sage, or seeker after truth and justice. He is a venerable philosopher in long mantle, with a cowl on his shoulders, leaning on a stick as he walks. He holds a lanthorn in his left hand, as he searches for virtue and justice. The card- makers have transformed him into a hermit. There is not any harm in having done so. In the East to become addicted to the occult sciences and s'hermetiser is almost one and the same thing. The Bo-yptian hermits were equal in this respect to those of India and to the Talapoins of Siam, and the same may be said of the Druids. No. 10 is the Wheel of Fortune. Here human beings under the form of monkeys, dogs, rabbits, &c., rise in their turns upon the wheel to which they are attached. It is a satire on Fortune, and on those whom she elevates rapidly into notice, and lets fall with a Uke rapidity. No. 13, La Mart, is Death mowing down all humanity. Whether kings or queens, rich or poor, none can resist his terrible scythe. Nor is it to be wondered at that Death should be placed under this number, which has always been regarded as of unfortunate character. According to an ancient legend it was on the thirteenth day of the infancy of the world that some great misfortune happened, the remembrance of which had an influence on all the people of antiquity ; on the Jews to the extent that the thirteen tribes have never yet been able to complete more than twelve of their number. No. 15, Le Diable, is Typhon, a celebrated Egyptian personage. He was the brother of Osiris and Isis, the evil principle, the chief demon of HeU. He has bat's wings, the hands and feet of a harpy, and on his head the horns of a stag. At his feet stand two little devils with long ears and tails, and their hands tied behind them. They are secured to each other by a cord round their necks, which is attached at its centre to the pedestal of Typhon. This implies, that the latter does not readily allow those to escape who belong to him ; Typhon Hkes too well his own flock to suffer that negligence. 142 FBENOH. No. 16, La Maison Bieu, is the Castle of Plutus. It is a tower filled with gold but falling in ruinSj and crushing its worshippers as it falls. It symbolizes the history of the Egyptian Prince Rhamp- sinitj spoken of by Herodotus. It is a lesson against avarice. The moderns added the thunder and lightning of God in bringing to a close the worship of Mammon. Wo. 17, L'Estoille, ia Sirius or the Dog-star. We perceive a large star having around it seven smaller stars. Below is a woman rest- ing on one knee while she pours out two streams of water (two rivers) from vases in her hand. Near her is a butterfly on a flower (or bird on a tree) . It is purely Egyptian all through. The large star is Sirius, rising as the sun passes from the sign of Cancer (in the next tarots emblem) . The seven smaller stars are the planets, and the woman below so attentive at this moment in discharging the water from her vessels is the Queen of Heaven, Isis, to whose beneficence are to be attributed the inundations of the Nile, which begin at the rising of Sirius. For this reason the latter star was sacred to Isis; it became her symbol par excellence. The flower and the butterfly on it are emblems of the regeneration and resurrec- tion of nature due to the rising of Sirius and the favours of Isis, causing the naked plains to become laden with fresh harvests. No. 18, La Lune, is the moon following the course of the sun, accompanied by tears of gold and of pearls, showing that she con- tributes on her part benefits to the earth. According to the Egyptians it was the tears of Isis which each year increased the waters of the Nile, fertilizing the plains of Egypt. At the lower part of the design may be seen a crab, which is the sign Cancer, indicating alike the retrograde course of the moon, and that it is at the time when the sun and the moon leave the sign of Cancer that the inundations caused by their tears occur on the rising of the Dog-star represented in number 17. On each side is a tower, symbolizing the two renowned columns of Hercules, on this side and beyond which these two great luminaries never pass. Between the towers are two large dogs baying at, and as if guarding, the moon ; an idea perfectly Egyptian, correlative to that which likened the tropics to two palaces, each building guarded by a dog, as if to prevent the sun and moon departing from the centre of the heavens and gliding to the poles. No. 19, Le Soleil, is the sun, here represented as the physical father of man and of all nature ; as enlightening society and as presiding over its communities. Tears of gold and of pearls drop from his rays, symbolizing the benign influences proceeding from the chief of stars. No. 20, Le Jugement, has been sadly mistaken and metamor- phosed by the card-makers, who have thus converted the original DIVINATION— GABTOMANGT. 143 emblem into the solemnity of the last day. An angel is seen sound- ing a trumpet, and at the same time an old man, a woman, and a naked child appear to rise from the earth. The card-makers per- sisting in their mistake have added tombs to the design. But take away these tombs and the emblem answers to the Creation, taking place in and at the beginning of time typified in the next emblem No. 21. No. 21, Le Monde, properly represents time. In the centre is the Goddess of Time, with her scarf flowing and serving as a kind of peplum. She is in the action of movement Hke Time, within a circle which represents the revolutions of the latter, and also an egg from which everything in the course of time has proceeded. At the four corners are the emblems of the four seasons composing the revolutions of the year. These emblems are like the four heads of the cherubim — the eagle, the lion, the ox, and the young man. The eagle symbolizes spring, when the birds re-appear ; the lion, summer, or the fervour of the sun ; the ox, autumn, when there are labour and sowing ; and the young man, winter, when we re-unite in society. Leaving the emblematic tarots and passing to the numeral series, four distinct suits may be observed. They are equivalent to the four states into which were divided the ancient Egyptians. The sword (or epees, piques, spades) designates the sovereign and all the military nobility ; the cup (or caeurs, hearts) the sacerdotal rank or clergy ; the club (batons, trefles, clubs) agriculture ; and money [deniers, carreaux, diamonds) implies commerce. The name of the sequence — taro or tarots — is pure Egyptian. It is composed of the word tab, signifying way, or road, and eg, eos, egg, implying king or royal. The word taro meaning, therefore, the "Royal Eoad of Life." Other Oriental words are still preserved in con- nection with the cards. The word '' mat," e. g. the ordinary term for the fool, and which exists in Italian as matto, is derived from the Oriental mat, meaning assomme, meurtri, fele. Eools have always been considered as having le cerveau fele. The conjurer with the cups is called pagad in the course of the game. This word, which does not resemble anything in our Western tongues, is of purely Eastern origin. It has been well chosen, for pag means chief, master. Lord, and gad is fortune. Thus le hateleur is repre- sented as disposing of fate with his magician's wand. Further, when the numeral cards are employed for the purposes of divination in Spain at the present time, the three of oros (money) is termed the lord (or Osiris) ; the three of copas (cups), the queen (or Isis) ; the two of copas, the cow (or Apis) ; the nine of oros. Mercury ; the ace of hastos (clubs), the serpent (symbol of agriculture among the Egyptians) ; and the ace of oros, the eye (or Apollo, the sun) . 144 FBENCH. Such is an outline of the views of M. de Gebelinj which received a further development in a memoir with which he accompanied his own dissertation. This memoir may be found printed entire in the appendix to the work of Singer^ and is entitled " Eecherches sur les Tarots et sur la Divination par lea Cartes des tarots Par M. le C. dbM. . . ." While Court de Gebelin was revealing to the world the origin of tarots, and the treasures of wisdom they contain, there was living at Paris a pero'uquier of the name of Alliette. " Now perruquiers," writes M. Boiteau d'Ambly, " have been, and still are, persons of imagination and of inquisitive spirit. Without dwelling on Tasmin, how many of these hair-curlers have sought to shine by other qualities than the certainty and perfection of the cut of their scissors, and the stroke of their combs ! Many have written, even in verse. One lumberingly facetious, wrote over the entrance to his shop this highly distinguished sentence : ' To-day we shave for money, to-morrow we shave gratis.^ Ano- ther, highly erudite, had verses in Greek inscribed above his door. Alliette was one of the greater men of the caste oi perruquiers, nay, still more, he was the Fontifex maximus of ' cartomancy.' By chance he read the dissertation of Court de Gebelin ; a light flashed across his brain; he became enlightened. He at once reversed the order of the letters, composing his name, and from Alliette became Btteilla, and prophesied — illustrious Etteilla ! One yet finds at thousands of little shops on the quays thousands of atrocious bilboquets, having inscribed on their covers : ' The art of Divination by cards according to the rules of the celebrated Etteilla.'' " Alliette was earnest in his inspiration. He gave himself up with his whole soul to the most out-of-the-way studies. He became absorbed in the theory of numbers, according to the system of Pythagoras ; he heard the harmonious murmur of the celestial spheres, and described their courses in space after the formulee of the sublime arithmetic. He invented mythical calculations, de- veloped them in designs, grouped their numbers, and finally became a professed Icahbalist. The Jeu des Tarots was his chief war-horse. For thirty years he was its apologist, detailing its wonders, and interpreting the secrets it could unveil. " The more remarkable of his writings is the ' Maniere de se recreer avec le Jeu de Cartes nommdes Tarots,' 1783 : — " ' We may well be astonished/ writes Alliette, ' that time which destroys, and ignorance that changes everything, should have allowed a work composed in the 1828th year of Creation, 171 years after the Deluge, and written 3953 years ago, to have descended to our own times. This work was produced by seventeen Magi, including the second of the descendants of Mercury — DIVINATION— CABTOMANGY. 145 Athotia ; who wa3 gi-andson of Cham, and great-grandson of Noe ; this Ti-i-Mercury (or third of the name) , decreed the Book of Thot in accordance with the science and the wisdom of his ancestors.' " It is impossible to be more precise ; and how well AUiette knew how to profit by this science ! ' I find therein/ he says, ' Time and Place through the discipline of the great Hipparch, the Rhodian, and the just Ajistarch, the Samian/ " Notice Hipparchus and Aristarchus ! AlHette adopts an or- thography which has an Asiatic, and consequently very religious aspect. He willingly quotes those whom he calls his predecessors, Raymond Lully, Jean Bellot, Duchesne (ordinary physician to the king), Croilus, Agrippa, D'Aubly, and others. Cartomancy thus resting on so fanciful a basis, could not fail to strike the minds of ignorant fashionable women. The pcrruquier Alliette became an important person, the High Priest of a religion. Perceiving this, he assisted Fortune in turning her wheel through his own domain, and straightway installed himself in the ' Hotel de Crillon,' Rue de -la Verrerie. Etteilla made disciples, who soon became his rivals. Female ones, especially, were prominent. Under the pretence that Greece had the Delphic priestess, that Judea had the Pythoness of Bndor, that Rome had the Cum^an Sibyl, and that their own Gaul had listened to the Druidesses, the women reclaimed their heritage, and began to prophesy'' (p. 323.) The author of the introduction to the " Nouvel Etteilla," (F 82) observes that AUiette, " in rendering justice to the science of Court de GebelLn, overthrew what that grave antiquary had transcribed in his eighth volume of the ' Monde Primitif,' it being nothing more than information obtained from an amateur who himself had gained his knowledge concerning the present subject from his cook only." If Etteilla and his more recent disciples can be thus severe on De GebeUn, the great man himself, when weighed in the balance by EHphas Levi, is found not to be perfect. " The tarot, this miraculous book," writes E. Levi, " the source of inspiration of all the sacred books of the ancient peoples, is the most perfect instrument of divination that can be employed with entire confidence, on account of the analogical precision of its figures and its numbers. In fact, the oracles of this book are always rigorously true, and even when it does not predict anything, it always reveals some- thing that was hidden, and gives the wisest cotmsel to those who con- sult it. AEiette, who from aperruquier, became a Tcabhalist in the last century, after passing thirty years meditating on the tarot ; Alliette, who writing his name backwards, or as we read Hebrew, called himself kabbalisticaUy Etteilla, was very near finding out all that had been concealed in this strange work, but finally succeeded only in displacing the keys of the tarot in lieu of understanding them. He 146 FBENCH. inverted the order and character of the figures^ without, however, entirely destroying their analogies, so sympathetic and corre- spondent are they with each other. The writings of Etteilla — now become rather scarce^ — are obscure, tiring, and of truly barbarous style. All have not been printed, some MSS. yet existing in the hands of a publisher in Paris, to whom we have been indebted for the means of inspecting them. The more remarkable of their characteristics are the obstinate opinions and the incontestable good faith of the author, who all his life had a presentiment of the grandeur of the occult sciences, yet was forced to die at the gate of the sanctuary without ever having passed behind its veil." ("Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie," vol. i. p. 357.) In another work, " Histoire de la Magie,^' the same writer observes : — " The cartomancy resuscitated in France by Etteilla was nothing more than the consultation of Fate by means of signs agreed on before hand ; these signs combined with numbers inspired the medium, who became magnetized from looking on them, with oracles. These signs were drawn at hazard after the pack had been slowly shuffled, were then arranged according to kabbalistic numbers, and they always responded to the thoughts of the person who interrogated them seriously and in good faith.''^ " This kabba- listic and wise book — (the " Tarot ") — is in its various combinations a revelation of the harmonies pre-existing among its signs, letters, and numbers, and is therefore capable of truly marvellous applica- tion. But we cannot with impunity thus wrest solely for ourselves the secrets of our intimate communication with the universal light. The consultation of cards and of tarots is a veritable conjuration which cannot be prosecuted without danger and crime. In all evoca- tions we compel our astral body to appear before us, and to hold converse with us in the divination which results. We thus give embodiment to our chimeras, and convert into a proximate reality that future which will become veritably our own when we have evoked it by the word and adopted it by faith." {Op. cit. p. 465.) Early in this century Dr. Alexander Buchan read a paper before the Antiquarian Society in reference to the origin and import of cards. The opinions therein broached were communicated by him afterwards to Mr. Singer, who printed them in extenso in the appendix to his well-known work. The more important of Dr. Buchan's views were as follows : — The twelve honours in a pack of cards are emblematic of the twelve signs of the Zodiac — mansions of the sun — and equivalent to the twelve months of the solar year. Bach of these signs is divided ' Two vohimes of the early Amsterdam editions are in the British Museum Library — PM. 8630, c. 1, 5. ], 3. DIVINATION— CARTOMANCY. 147 into three decans or thirty degrees ; each honour is equivalent in value to ten and 30 X 12 ^ 360, the number of the days of the ancient Egyptian year, and equal to the number of degrees into ■which the equator is still divided. Cards are generally distinguished by the colours, red and black answering to the great division of the year into two equal parts from solstice to solstice, equinox to -equinox. The four suits indicate the four seasons, spades represent acorns matured in autumn, while cups — ^now hearts — mean that wine was ready and fit to be drunk in the winter season. The whole number of cards in a pack, fifty-two, is equal to the number of weeks into which the year is divided, and the number of cards in each suit, viz. thirteen, is equivalent to the number of weeks contained in each quarter of the civil year. The number of pips on one suit is S& Which multiplied by 4 220 Pips on honours 1 2 Twelye honours taken at ten each 1 20 Xnmber of cards in each suit 1 3 365 = to the precise number of days in the solar year. Cards are usually played and dealt circularly from left to right ac- cording to the apparent course of the sun, and when arranged as tricks they amount to thirteen of four suits each ; if each card be considered as representing a week, then the tricks may be regarded as symboli- cal of the thirteen lunar months composing the year. Thus cards were originally devised for the purpose of reminding those who understood the allusions, of the system of the universe, a system with which the Magi and priests of ancient Egypt were well acquainted, though they carefully concealed such knowledge from the profane vulgar. Should these and other conjectures be admitted some light may be reflected on the very general employment of cards for the purpose of divination or fortune-telling, particularly by the gipsies. Judicial astrology, or an opinion that the fates and fortunes of the sons of men are influenced by the positions and aspects of the celestial bodies, is one of the most ancient forms of superstition that have prevailed among mankind. But why should cards in particular be employed as the instruments of discovering this mysterious influence unless they were originally supposed to bear some relation to astrology, a science which by the vulgar has always been confounded with astronomy ? Still more recently views analogous to those of Court de Gebelin, Btteillaj and the divinatory and astrological purposes alluded to by 148 FBENan. Buchan, have been advanced by certain writers. In 1857 e. g. M. Vailsant, in a work entitled " Les Eomes^ liistoire vraie des vrais Bohemiens," sought to show that in the'tarots designs were to be found the highest conceptions of Hindustani wisdom^ while M. Bliphas Levi (Alphonse Constant) in his " Dogme et Eituel de la Haute Magie," 1861, and his "Histoire de la Magie," I860, argues learnedly for the tarots being a revelation of the mysteries of the Hebrew kabbalah. Further, M. Boiteau d'Ambly in his "Les Cartes a Jouer et la Cartomancy," Paris, 1854, seeks to prove that cards were introduced into Europe from India by means of the gipsies for the purposes of divination. " It is evident that the tarots, altered as they are, nay perverted from their original design, still retain the impress of a civilization which is by no means European" . . , "how comes it about that the tarots series seems based on the combinations of the number seven, the sacred number of the East ? " ... " these scraps of Eastern speech, these assumed combinations which centre round a sacred number, these names of certain figures, assuredly all this taken as a whole must be something more than mere speculation " ... "we can perfectly avail ourselves of these arguments [those of Court de Gebelin] , which go to prove that cards are the offspring of the learning of Egypt, and at the same time keep to our own hypothesis of their Asiatic origin — from India, in fact — along with the Gipsy immigration. There is no contradiction involved here. Egypt is the East all the same, and every one knows there is a family connexion between these venerable civilizations of the past — those of Egypt and India. In the ancient legends of Egypt the science of cards is connected even with their divinities." (Taylor's version of "Boiteau d'Ambly," pp. 13-21.) M. EHphas Levi (Alphonse Constant) in his extraordinary works "Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie" (Paris, 1861, 2 vols.), and "Histoire de la Magie" (Paris, 1860), finds in the tarots a revela- tion of the mysteries of the Hebrew kabbalah. The key to this revelation " is contained in a word, and in a word of four letters : it is the ' Tetragramma ' of the Hebrews, the Azot of the Al- chemists, the Thot of the Bohemians or Gipsies, and the Taeo of the kabbalists. This word so variously expressed implies God to the profane, signifies Man to the philosopher, and ofiers to adepts the last word of human sciences, and the key of Divine power. But he alone knows how to employ it who understands the necessity of never revealing it.^ ("Dogme," &c. vol. i. p. 90.) " The incommunicable axiom is kabbalistically included in the four letters of the 'Tetragramma,' disposed in the following way. — DIVINATION— CAUTOM AN CY. 149 ,^. Likewise in the words Azoth and Inei written kabbalistically^ and in the monogram of Christ as it was embroidered on the labarum, and which the kabbalist Postel interpreted by the word Eota, and from which adepts have formed the Taeo or Taeot by repeating twice the first letter to indicate the circle and make it understood, that the word reverts, as it were, upon itself." (0/). cit. p. 154.) Thus we have "the key of hidden things^' — "a word which may be read eota, signifying the Wheel of Bzechiel or taeot, which is then synonymous with the AZOTE of the hermetic philosophers. It is a word which expresses kabbalisticaUy the dogmatic and natural Absolute; it is formed of the characters in the monogram of Christ after the man- ner of the Greeks and Hebrews. The latin R or the Greek P is placed between the Alpha and the Omega of the Apocalypse : then the TATJ, the sacred image of the Cross, contains the word in its entirety." {Op. cit. p. 341.) " When the Sovereign Priesthood ceased in Israel, when all the oracles of the world became silent in presence of the Word become Man and speaking by the mouth of the most popular and gentle of sages, when the Ark was lost, the sanctuary profaned, and the Temple destroyed, the mysteries of the Bphod and Theraphim no longer recorded on gold and precious stones, were written or rather ISO FEENGH. figured by certain wise kabbalists first on ivory, parchment, on gilt and silvered leather, and afterwards on simple cards, which were always objects of suspicion to the Ofiicial Church as containing a dangerous key to its mysteries. From these have originated those tarots whose antiquity was revealed to the learned Court de Gebelin through the sciences of hieroglyphics and of numbers, and which afterwards severely exercised the doubtful perspicacity and tenacious investigation of Etteilla." {Op. cit. vol. i. p. 337.) " "Without the tarot, the magic of the Ancients is a closed book to us, and it is impossible to penetrate any of the great secrets of the kabbalah. The tarot alone aSbrds an interpretation of the magic squares of Agrippa and Paracelsus" (p. 342). "We have stated that the twenty-two keys of the tarots are the twenty- two letters of the primitive kabbalistic alphabet. The following is a table of the variations of this alphabet, according to different Hebrew kabba- lists." " J^, Being, Spirit, Man or God, comprehensible object, unity the mother of numbers, the primordial substance. " All these ideas are hieroglyphically expressed by the figure of the Bataleur (No. 1). His body and his arms form the letter J^, around his head is a nimbus of the form go, the symbol of life and of the universal spirit, Before him lie swords, cups, and pantacles, and he raises his miraculous wand towards the sky. His figure is youthful, and his hair in curly locks like unto Apollo or Mercury. He has the smile of assurance on his lips, and the look of intelli- gence in his eyes. "^. The House of God and of Man, the sanctuary, the law, gnosis, the kabbalah, the hidden church, the binary principle, woman, mother. " The hieroglyphic tarot is La Papesse ; a woman crowned with a tiara, having the horns of the moon or of Isis, the head surrounded by a veil. The solar cross is on her chest, and on her knees a book which she hides with her mantle. " J. The Word, the ternary principle, fullness, fecundity, nature, the generative faculty in the three worlds. " The symbol is L'Imperatrice, a winged female, crowned, seated, and having at the end of her sceptre the globe of the world. She has for her sign an eagle, image of the soul and of life. " "T. ' La Porte,^ or government among the Orientals, initiation, power, the tetragramma, the quaternary principle, the cubical stone or its base. " The hieroglyph is L'Empereur, a sovereign whose body repre- sents a right-angled triangle and his legs a cross, the image of Athanor of the philosophers. " n. Indication, demonstration, instruction, law, symbolism, philosophy, religion. DIVINATION— GABTOMANOY. 151 " Hieroglyph — Le Pope or the Grand Hierophant. In the more modern tarots this sign is displaced by the figure of Jupiter. The Grand Hierophant is seated between the pillars of Hermes and of Solomon^ makes the sign of esoterism, and rests on a cross having three transverse bars forming a triangle. At his knees are two inferior ministers, so placed that having above him the capitals of the two columns, and below the heads of the two ministers, he becomes the centre of the quinary principle and represents the divine penta- gramma, and of which he thus affords the complete sense. In fact the columns are Necessity or Law, and the heads Liberty or Action. A line may be drawn from head to head, and two lines from each column to each head, thus obtaining a square divided into four triangles by a cross, in the centre of which will be the Grand Hierophant. " 1. Attachment, entanglement, lingam, union, embrace, contest, antagonism, combination, equilibrium. " Hieroglyph — {I/Amoreux) , a man between Vice and Virtue. Above him beams the Sun of Truth, from which Love bends his bow threatening Vice with his arrow. In the sequence of the ten Sephiroth this symbol corresponds to Tiphereth, that is, to idealism and to beauty. The number six [of the tarots] represents the antagonism of the two ternaries, i.e. of absolute negation and of the absolute affirmative. " t. Arms, sword, flaming sword of the cherub, the sacred septenary principle, triumph, royalty, priesthood. " Hieroglyph — a cubical chariot having four columns, and azure and starred drapery. In the chariot and between the four columns is a conqueror crowned with a circle, from which rise and radiate three pentagrams of gold. The conqueror has on his cuirass three chevrons one above the other ; on his shoulders are the Urim and Thumin of the High Sacrificator, represented by the two crescents of the moon in Gedulah and in Geburah; his attitude is proud and tranquil. A double sphinx, or two sphinxes united by their after portions, are harnessed to the car, he guides a sphinx towards each side, but one of the sphinxes turns its head so that they both look to one point. The sphinx which turns its head is black, the other is white. On the square which forms the fore part of the chariot is the Indian Lingam, surmounted by the flying sphere of the Egyptians. This hieroglyphic is perhaps the most beautiful and complete of all the emblematic designs of the tarots. " n- Balance, attraction and repulsion, life, fright, promise and menace. " Hieroglyph — Justice with her sword and scales. " £2. Goodness, horror of evil, morality, wisdom. " Hieroglyph — a Sage, resting on his staff, and carrying a lamp before him. He covers himself closely in his mantle. The inscrip- 152 FBENGE. tion is VErmite or le Gapucin, but his proper name is Prudence, and lie thus completes the four cardinal virtues which appeared incom- plete to Court de Gebelin and to Etteilla. " 1. Principle, manifestationj praise, manly honour or virility, phallus, paternal sceptre. " Hieroglyph — La Boue de Fortune, that is to say, the cosmogonic wheel of Ezechiel, with an Hermanubis ascending on the right hand and a Typhon descending on the left hand. Above is a sphinx in equilibrium, holding a sword with its lion-like claws. An admirable symbol disfigured by Etteilla. " 3. The hand in the act of taking and holding. " Hieroglyph — La Force, a woman crowned with the vital oo, and quietly and without effort closing the mouth of a furious lion. " *-. Example, instruction, public teaching. " Symbol, a man hanging by a foot, whose hands are tied behind him in such way that his body forms a triangle, with the point downwards, and his limbs form a cross above the triangle. The gibbet has the form of a Hebrew tau, the two trees which support it have each six amputated branches. It is a symbol of sacrifice and of work accomplished. " D. The heaven of Jupiter and of Mars, domination and force, rejuvenescence, creation, and destruction. " Hieroglyph — La Mort, who mows down crowned heads in a field in which men are seen sprouting. " J. The heaven of the sun, climates, seasons, movement, changes of life always new and always the same. " Hieroglyph — La Temperance, an angel having the sign of the sun on his forehead, and on his chest the square and triangle of the septenary principle. He pours the two essences which compose the elixir of life from one vase into another. " D • The heaven of Mercury ; occult science, magic, commerce, eloquence, mystery, moral force. " Hieroglyph — Le Liable, the he-goat of Mendes, or the Baphomet of the temple, with all his pantheistic attributes. This hieroglyph is the only one that Etteilla perfectly understood and interpreted satisfactorily. " jr. The heaven of the moon ; changes, subversions, weaknesses. "Hieroglyph— a tower, probably that of Bab el, struck bylightning. Two persons, Nimrod without doubt, and his false prophet or minister, are precipitated from the ruins. One in falling represents perfectly the letter p, gna'in. " S. The heaven of the soul ; effusions of thought, moral in- fluence of idea on forms, immortality. " Hieroglyph — a brilliant star and eternal youth. f y . The elements, the visible world, reflected light, material forms, symbolisni. DIVINATION— CARTOMANCY. 153 "Hieroglyph — the moon, dew, a crab in the water ascending towards the earth, a dog and a wolf at the base of two towers howl- ing at the moon. A path lost in the horizon is sprinkled with drops of blood. "p. Things united — the head, the snmmit, the prince of heaven. " Hieroglyph — a radiant sun and two naked children, giving each other their hands within a fortified enclosiire. In some tarots the symbol is a woman spinning human destinies ; in others it is a naked child mounted on a white horse, and unfolding a scarlet banner. " "1. The vegetative principle, the generative power of the earth, eternal life. "Hieroglyph — Le Jugement. An angel sounds a trumpet, and the dead rise from their graves. Of these revivified dead we see a man, woman, and child, the ternary of human life. " ty. The sensitive principle, the flesh, eternal life. " Hieroglyph — Le Fou : a man dressed absurdly, walking at ran- dom, carrying a waUet behind him, i.e., loaded with absurdities and vice. "n. The microcosm — the recapitulation of the all-in-all. " Hieroglyph — the Tcether or the kabbalistic crown between the four mysterious animals. In the centre of the crown is Truth, hold- ing in each hand a magic wand. " Such are the twenty-two keys of the tarot, by which are explain- able aU the numbers of the latter. The Bataleur, or key of the unities, explains the four aces, with their quadruple signification, progressive in the three worlds and ia the first principle. Thus the ace of denier or of the circle ia the soul of the world; the ace of swords is the combative intelligence ; the ace of cups is the animating intellect ; the ace of batons, the creative intelligence. They are likewise the principles of movement, of progress, of fecundity, and of power. Each number, multiplied by a key, affords another number, which, ia its turn explained by the keys, completes the philosophic and religious revelations contained in each sign. So each of the fifty-six cards (that is of the numeral series) may be multiplied by the twenty-two keys in turn ; thus results a series of combinations all yielding the most surprising results of revelation and of light. It is a true philo- sophic machine, preventing the spirit from being led astray, at the same time leaving it its powers of initiation and of liberty. It is mathematics applied to the Absolute, the union of the Positive with the Ideal ; it is a lottery of thoughts as rigorously correct as are numbers ; in fine, it is perhaps, at the same time, the simplest and the grandest conception of human genius. " The method of reading the hieroglyphs of the tarot is to arrange them either m squares or triangles, by placing the even numbers in opposition, and in conciliating them by the uneven ones. Pour signs always express the Absolute in any order, and are explainable 154 FBENOH. by a fifth sign. Thus the solution of all questions in magic is that of the Pentagrammaj and all the antinomies are explained by an harmonious unity. ''Thus disposed the tarot becomes a true oracle^ answering all possible questions with more preciseness and infallibility than does the Androidis of Albert the Great. A prisoner deprived of books might, in some years' time, if he had only a tarot which he knew how to employ, acquire the knowledge of an universal science, and discuss everything with a wisdom which has not any equal, and with an in- exhaustible eloquence. This wheel, in fact, is the true key to the art of oratory, and to the great science of Raymond Lully. It is the veritable secret of the transmutation of darkness into light, it is the first and most important of all the arcana of the great work." " By means of this universal key of symbolism all the allegories of India, of Egypt, and of Judea become plain ; the Apocalypse of St. John is a kabbalistic book, the sense of which is rigorously indicated by the designs and numbers of the Urim and Thumin, of the Thera- phim, and of the Bphod all combined and completed by the tarot. The ancient sanctuaries have not any longer mysteries, and we com- prehend for the first time the meaning of the objects in Hebrew worship. Who does not perceive, in fact, in the table of gold, crowned, and supported by the cherubim, and which covered the ark of the covenant and served as propitiatory, the like symbols as in the twenty-first key of the tarot ? The ark was a hieroglyphic resume of all kabbalistic dogmas. It contained the Joel, or flowering rod of Aaron ; the He, or cup, the gomor of manna ; the two tables of the law, a symbol like that of the sword of justice ; and the manna contained in the gomor — four things which translate marvel- lously the letters of the divine " Tetragramma." (" Dogme," &c., vol. ii. pp. 344-357.) " The book of the tarot having so high a scientific importance, it is much to be desired that it should remain unchanged." "An im- portant work remains to be performed : it is that of engraving and publishing a tarot, rigorously complete and carefully executed." " Vestiges of the tarot may be found among every people. The Italian tarot is, as we have stated, the best preserved and most faith- ful ; but it may be improved by some valuable hints to be borrowed from certain Spanish numeral series. The two of cups, e.g. in the Naibi, is purely Egyptian ; we there observe two antique vases, the handles of which are formed by Ibises, placed above a cow. In the same cards we may see an unicorn in the middle of the four of deniers ; the three of cups represents the figure of Isis emerging from a vase, with Ibises rising from other two vases ; one Ibis bearing a crown for the goddess, the other a lotus flower, which it appears to ofl'er her. The four aces bear the image of the hieratic and sacred serpent ; and in certain packs, in the centre of the four of deniers, may be DIVINATION— OABTOMAnOY. 155 found the double triangle of Salomon, in place of the symbolic unicorn. , "The German tarots have undergone more change; little else being found than the number of the keys surcharged with bizarre or pantagruelesque figures. We have before us a Chinese tarot, and some specimens from a like pack may be seen in the Imperial Library. M. Paul Boiteau, in his remarkable work on playing- cards, has given some examples very well executed. The Chinese tarot still preserves several of the primitive emblems ; the deniers and the swords are readily to be distinguished, but it would be more difiicult to make out the cups and the clubs." "It was during the time of the Gnostic and the Manichean heresies that the tarot became lost to the Church, and it was at the same period that the meaning of the Divine Apocalypse ceased to be understood. It was no longer comprehended that the seven seals of this Kabbalistic book are seven pantacles explainable by the analogies of the numbers, characters, and figures of the tarot." {Op. cit. vol. ii. p. 361.) As opposed to the preceding recondite and thaumaturgic views, and all such as place the origin of cards in the Bast, the opinions of M. Merlin (Bibl. 6, p. 37), may be opportunely considered. According to this writer, if we take the tarots of Geneva, of Mar- seilles, and of Besancon as more faithfully representing the ancient Venetian tarots, and compare them with the " tarots-images " known as those of Mantegna,^ we may perceive that of the twenty-sis figures \i. e. the twenty- two atouts and the four additional " honours''''] of the modern tarots, fifteen are due to the sequence in question. For example, the Fou (mat, matto) . corresponds to the Misero . . I, Series E of Mantegna. L'Empereur, iv. . . „ ,, Imperator . 9, 5) E Le Pape, v. . . . „ „ Papa . .10, 5» E Le Chariot, vii. . . „ „ Mars . . 45, „ A La Justice, viii. . „ „ Justicia . . 37, )T B L'Hermite, ix. . . „ „ Saturno . .47, )? A La Force, xi. . . ,, „ Forteza . .36, J) B La' Temperance, xiv. ,, „ Temperancia 34, 5) B L'Btoile, xvii. . . „ „ Venus . . 43, 55 A La Lune, x^dii. . . „ ,, Luna . .41, )) A Le Soleil, xix. . . „ „ Sol . . . 44, )? A Le Monde, xxi. . . „ „ ( Jupiter . . 46, t Prima Causa 50, )) U Among the " honours " of the numerical series Le Eoi . . . corresponds to the KE ... 8, Series E of Mantegna. Le Cavalier ... „ „ Chavaller . 6, )» E )) Le Valet .... „ „ Fameio . . 2, 5» E )J ' I. 1. Page 65. 156 FRENCH. Should scepticism exist in reference to this re- embodiment of the figures of the so-called Mantegna series in the more modern tarotSj it should be dissipated on a closer examination of the de- signs of the former. For examplOj the Misero, No. 1, of the series Ej is being seized at the leg by a dog ; so is the mat or fool of the tarots. Venus, 43, of the series A, is represented in the water with a shell or cup in her hand, while L'Etoile, xvii. of the tarots, is likewise a naked woman at the edge of a stream, from which she draws water with one hand to pour over her limbs with the other. Mars, 45, series A, is represented with the attributes awarded him in mythology. He appears as a seated warrior, on a car, sword in hand ; both warrior and car are seen direct or in full face. The Chariot, vii. of the tarots, likewise shows a warrior on a car, with crown on head, cuirass on chest, and sceptre in hand. Warrior, chariot, and horses, all are seen direct or in full face. In both de- signs the car is surmounted by a dais supported by columns. Sa- turn, 47, series A, is portrayed as the old Saturn of the fable. With his left hand he conveys to his mouth a little child to be de- voured, while he supports himself with his right on a staff, holding at the same time a winged serpent with its tail in its mouth — symbol of eternity. The tarot, more human, has made a hermit of him ; nevertheless, the profile attitude, the lanthorn held on a level with the head, and the staff which gives support, recall the attitude of the Saturn of Mantegna. Further, the idea of Time has con- tinued to be linked with this figure, for in the so-called " Cards of Charles VI.^' the hermit holds an hour-glass instead of a lanthorn. At first sight, but little or no connection may be traced between La Prima Causa, 50, of series A, and Le Monde, xxi. of the tarots, except in the symbols of the four Evangelists, which exist in both, though it must be admitted not in the earlier version of 1470 of the sequence of Mantegna. But if we reflect on the meaning of the series of concentric circles of the design of the Prima Cauaa, we shall be able to trace the required affinity at once. This design represents the world according to the Ptolemaic system, the only system known in the four- teenth and fifteenth centuries. A like figure may be found in the " G^omance de Cattan" (translated by Gabr. du Preau) , having above it the inscription " General figure of the two parts of the elementary and celestial World." In the "Margarita Philosophica" of Eeisch, a curious encyclopaedia often reprinted during the earlier portion of the sixteenth century, the same design may be observed illustrating a chapter " De Machinse Mundi partitione." It is likewise the case that Le Monde is the last number (21) of the tarots, as is the Prima Causa the last of the series A. There cannot be any doubt that the author of the former took the title of " The World " from the design of the latter. As to the design of Le Monde of the tarots, which is sometimes a naked woman much like a savage, at other times a DIVINATION— OABTOMANCY. 157 naked woman dancing ; its explanation is difficult. It may be that its author intended to symbolize " La Volupte " which reigns over the universe J but if sOj it must be confessed that the engravers have translated his ideas in a very peculiar way. Perhaps the oval framOj within which this female stands erect, may have been sug- gested by what may be seen in the J-upiter, 46, of series A. Finally, look at the " Temperance" of the two series. The attitude and action are alike in each, so are they in the valet of cups in the modern combined tarots and in the Fameio of the ancient sequence. M. Merlin proceeds to show that for the additional cards going to form the Minchiate of Florence (which consists of forty emble- matic cards and fifty-seven numerals) , not less than twenty more designs have been taken from the older series, thus forming a theft, if we may so speak, in the total of thirty-five designs towards the composition of modern tarots. Attention may be called next to the fact that the general economy of the " Jeu des Tarots " appears to have been taken from that of the more ancient game. We find e.g. that the atouts of higher value in the former are those, the numbers of which are the more elevated. ISTow these are precisely such as correspond to the higher numbers of the latter or ancient series, and which are in- cluded between numbers forty-one and fifty. The lowest number of the older series is No. 1, the " Misero ; " the figure of the modern tarots corresponding to it is the " Fou," which is the " Zero " of the letter, or their weakest card. It cannot take any other card, and acquires value in a secondary way only, and by favour, as it were, of other cards. Five series compose the "Tarots-Images" of Mantegna, alike num- ber go to form the '' Tarots- Jeux." These five series are each made up often pieces in the former, while in the latter four of the series are often each, with pips running from one to ten. There is another coinci- dence, the decades of the old sequence are distinguished by the letters ABODE; the five series of the "Tarots- Jeux" are distinguished by objects, the initial letters of the names of which are A B C D E, i. e. atouts, hdtons, coupes, denier s, epees, and their equivalents in Italian and Spanish. It is true that in Italian the initial letter E does not occur, seeing that in this tongue the word for sword is spada, and not espada,aa in Spanish. But as if this objection had been foreseen, the letter E of the earlier version [1470] has been displaced by the letter S in the version of 1485.^ Yet once more; if the fourth decade of the ancient sequence be examined — the series of Virtues — it may be noticed that the signs of the four numeral suits of the " Tarots-Jeux,^' i. e. cups, money, swords, and clubs, are to be found among the attributes of the four virtues. Faith, 40, holds a chalice ; ' Antea, page 70. 158 FBENOH. Charity^ 38, an inverted purse from which issues money; Justice, 37, is armed with a sword ; and Force, 36, with a mace or club. Surely such coincidences, insists M. Merlin, clearly enough indicate the parentage of the " Tarots-Jeux." In vain may it be objected that differences are to be observed between the modern representations and the designs drawn and painted by hand during the earlier periods, and of which fragments are preserved in some privileged collections. These differences do not offer any satisfactory basis for reasonable doubt, since the cards illustrated by such fragments have been quite exceptional in charac- ter, and generally produced for purposes of presentation, or in con- nection with important circumstances when, as it may be readily conceived, the artists would feel justified in giving full reins to their imaginations. Finally, to what nation, asks M. Merlin, must we not attribute the parentage of the Naibis cited by Morelli, the precursors of all ? To the Italian, without doubt. Everything in them reveals the Catholic thought and Italian ideas of the epoch [1393]. The pope has in them supremacy over the emperor, who is represented with the attributes of the empire of the West. In the version of 1485 the crown of the king is an Italian crown ; the valet, merchant, cavalier, and gentleman all have Italian costumes. Further, the sciences are arranged in the order of the trivium and quadrivium ; we find the three theologic and the four cardinal virtues, and if we meet with Apollo and the Muses it is with the attributes bestowed on them by occidentals of the middle ages, and not with such as accompany them on the ancient monuments of Greece and Rome. (Merlin, Bibl. 6, pp. 38-80.) Thus, then — if the views of M. Merlin be correct — the " Tarots- Jeux " cards proper have sprung from the old Florentine or Venetian sequence — the cards of Baldini, the taroochi of Mantegna ; and this latter had its origin in a series of designs already existing in Italy in the fourteenth century, done by hand and termed " Na'ibis.^^ To Italy is likewise due the invention of the latter, and the fable of their Eastern origin must be altogether resigned. " Sic transit gloria mundi," quoad the reveries of Court de GebeHn, Etteilla, Levi, Buchan, Vailsant, Boiteau d'Ambly, and others. But it may be asked — is the matter really to be so disposed of ? There still remains to be noticed a view of the origin and meaning of numeral cards, which may be as appositely referred to here as any- where else. Itisthat of Saint Bernard and of Saint Anthony. Accord- ing to the former, who preached at Bologna in 1474, against the use of cards, the latter are the work of the devil. Satan became jealous of the act of Christ in causing the offices of his church to be recorded in books richly adorned with miniatures. He decided therefore, "nee deficere volo officiis meis Breviaria ac Diurna, quae esse jubeo char- DIVINATION— OABTOMANCY. 159 ticellas seu Naibosin quibus varias figure pinganturj sicut fieri solet in Breviariis Christi; quas figuram in eis mystica prasfigurent ut pnto : (t. e. St. Bernard) . Denarii, avaritiam. Baeuli, stultitiam sen caninam sEevitiam. Calices, ebrietatem et gulam. Enses, odium et guerram. Reges atque Regince praevalentes in nequitiis supra dictis. Milites etiam inferiores et superiores luxuriam et sodomiam aperta fronte proclamant." — See note in Merlin^ p. 51. It has been the opinion of some authorities that cards were intro- duced into Europe for the purposes of divination and fortune-telling by the gipsies some time between 1275 and 1325^ an opinion strongly opposed by others.^ The truth is, we are not sure of the exact time when the gipsies entered Europe, of the birth-place of cards, nor of the period when they were first employed for thanma- turgic purposes. But since, as Taylor observes (p. 453), there is so great a faculty of wonder in the uneducated — so infinite a longing for some knowledge of events to come, there can be little doubt that very early, both high and low alike sought oracular responses from any adepts who could be found, and would be satis- fied if the replies were only vague enough to give countenance to the hopes they entertained. According to Chatto (p. 116), there is in the ''Magasin Pit- toresque," for 1842, p. 324, a cut entitled "Philipe le Bon con- sultant une Tireuse de Cartes," copied from a painting attributed to Jan Van Eyck. Though it has been denied that this picture is really by V. Eyck, who died in 1467, it is allowed that the costume represented in it belongs to the reign of Charles VIII., between 1483 and 1498. If this be correct, we have thus evidence of cards having been used for the purpose of fortune-telling before the close of the fifteenth century. We have positive evidence that they were applied to this purpose early in the sixteenth century in the publication of the rare and beautiful book known as " Le Sorti di Francesco Marcolini da Forli, intitolate Giardino di Pensieri, alio illustrissimo Signore Hercole Estense, Duca di Ferrara,'' the colo- phon of which runs as foUows : — " In Venetia per Francesco Marco- lini da Forli negli Anni del Signore MJDXXXX. del mese di Ottohre." It has been supposed that this work was not the first of its kind, and that Marcolini may have been prompted to his undertaking by the treatise of Sigismondo Fanti, of Ferrara, entitled " Triompho di Fortuna di Sigismondo Fanti," and printed at Venice in 1526. But this latter treatise, though professing to teach the art of solving questions by divinations of various kinds, does ^ Antea, pp. 8, 1 1. i6o FBENGH. not profess to use cards. The interpreters of fate are the signs of . the zodiaCj the constellations^ sibyls, and various astrological per- sonages, dice sometimes being used for the direction of the con- sultant. The cards employed by Marcolini are the king, knight, knave, 10, 9, 8, 7, 2, and ace of danari. Though the ten was em- ployed in Marcolini's system, it appears to have been generally omitted from the packs used by the Italian jugglers of the sixteenth century. The work of Marcolini is known to iconophilists for the beauty of its woodcuts after the designs of Giuseppe Porta, or Salviati. Reference may be made to Singer, p. 64, Chatto, p. 117, and to Jackson and Chattels "Treatise on Wood Engravings," p. 390, for details connected with the treatise of Marcolini. In Jackson and Chatto's work copies of several of the cuts are given, accom- panied by some valuable criticism. In vol. i. I. W. 4, folio 136, of Italian Chiaro-scuros, in the British Museum, may be seen the engraved frontispiece to Marcolini^s book, to which Jackson and Chatto make particular allusion. Leber assures us that he had examined "'un grand nombre de tours de cartes," described in the pamphlets of the Italian jugglers of the sixteenth century, yet he refers to two works only on the sub- ject printed before 1600. One of them is entitled " Opera Nuova non piu vista, nella quale potrai facilmente imparare molti giochi di mano. Composta da Francesco di Milano nominate in tutto il mondo il Bagatello," 8vo. circa 1550. The other bears the title " Giochi di Carte bellissimi e di Memoria, per Horatio Galasso." Venetia, 1593. These works, however, together T/nth the brochure " Li Rari et Mirabili Giuochi di Carte da Alberto Francese detto Perlimpimpim" (Bologna 1622), have more to do really with ordi- nary legerdemain than with divination. It appears to have been the case that the recourse to cards for divinatory purposes gradually declined among the upper classes until the middle of the eighteenth century, though it was prevalent no doubt among the lower grades of society frequenting fairs and the caravans of mountebanks. About 1750 divination through cards again became popular — in Paris at least — for in 1751, 1752, and 1763, three persons were publicly known as offering their services for this intention. To these adepts were soon added others, since the venture was profitable, but the cry of sacrilege was raised, and in order to save — as it was pretended — the card-augui's from the vengeance of the devots, the former were seized and sent by the police to the Bicetre, or to the Salpetriere, unheard in their defence and regardless of remonstrance. It was at the latter period, i. e. 1753, that Etteilla (Alliette) made his debut by superseding the ordinary practice of employing the cards of a pack singly, and in substituting the art of reading the m;y stories they might unfold when the whole sequence was DIVINATION— CARTOMANCY. i6i arranged upon the table. The former practice was, according to Etteillaj but an absurd imitation of ancient sortilege, or of consult- iag the oracles through the Odyssey and the verses of Virgil. Etteilla, enlightened — as we have seen — in 1757 by the Pied- montese as to the tarots, and afterwards by the theories of Court de GebeHn on that series of emblematic figures, published iu 1783 his work on the " Tharoth or tarots," following it up by additional memoirs on occult and divinatory subjects as connected with " cartomancy." These treatises, when afterwards collected to- gether, bore the title : " Collection sur les hautes Sciences ou Traite theorique et pratique de la sage Magie des anciens peuples absolu- ment complet en douze livres lesquels contiennent tout ce que BtteiUa a ecrit sur la philosophie hermetique. Fart de tirer les cartes — et notamment le sublime livre de Thot." Paris, 17.83-90, 4 tomes, 12° figs. The part the writings of Btteilla have played in furnishing the stock, and often the whole ingredients of the many popular works and chapbooks on cartomancy and its associated subjects published since his time, may be weU judged of — as far as France, at least, is concerned — on reference to the first volume, p. 227 et seq. of M. Charles Nisard's interesting work : " Histoire des Livres Populaires oa de la Litterature du Colportage depuis le XV. siecle jusqu'a 1852. Paris, 1854.'' The annals of cartomancy, like those of supernatural appearances and second-sight, contaia among them a few anecdotes associated with evidence which prevents us either rejecting the relations as false, or of explaining the circumstances in a satisfactory way. For example, Rowland in his " Judicial Astrology Condemned," relates the following in respect to Cuffe, a celebrated Greek scholar, '' a man of exquisite wit and leamiug, but of a turbulent disposi- tion," and secretary to the unfortunate Earl of Essex : — " Cuffe was told twenty years before his death that he should come to an untimely end, at which Cuffe laughed, and in a scornful manner intreated the astrologer to show him in what manner he should come to his end ; who condescended to him, and calBng for cards, intreated Cuffe to draw out of the pack three which pleased him. He did so, and drew three knaves, and laid them on the table with their faces downwards by the wizard's direction, who then told him if he desired to see the sum of his bad fortunes, to take up those cards. Cuffe, as he was prescribed, took up the first card, and looking on it he saw the portraiture of himself eap-a-pie, having men compassing him about with bills and halberds ; then he took up the second, and there he saw the judge that sat upon him ; and taking up the last card, he saw Tyburn, the place of his execution, and the hangman, at which he laughed heartily; but u i62 FBENGE. many years after, being condemned for treason, he remembered and declared this prediction." Cuffe was hung at Tyburn on the 13th of March, 1602, for having counselled and abetted the Earl of Essex in his treason. In alluding to this story, Taylor remarks : — " It is evident that the cards used by the cartomancist on this occasion were tarots. The first drawn was in all probability an atout, called the traitor, which in some Italian packs held the place of the devil, the second could be no other than Justice, and the third would be sufficiently shadowed forth by the hanged man (Le Pendu) ." (Bibl. 9, p. 456.) During the exciting periods of the first consulship of Napoleon I., and of the empire which followed, the higher as well as the lower grades of the people eagerly sought to question the augurs of the future. At that time lived a well-known divinitress, named Mademoiselle Lenormand, the believed truth of whose predictions gained her such repute, that crowned heads were not beneath craving her assistance. Herself naturally vain and arrogant, thus flattered, she could scarcely keep at last within decent bounds, and actually attended the Congress at Aix-la-Chapelle, deeming her presence there of the highest importance. She published ten volumes in 8vo. of " Souvenirs Prophetiques," and " M^moires His- toriques," and in 1825 appeared the prospectus of an " Album de Madlle. Lenormand mis en ordre et enrichi de manuscrits auto- graphes, de commentaires, de notes biographiques sur la Eevolution Pran^aise et sur les Auteurs et les Acteurs de ce Drame politique." This album was intended to form five volumes in 4to. or twenty- eight vols, in 8vo., and to cost 976 francs. Sufficient subscribers were not forthcoming, however, to justify its being given to the world. (Boiteau d'Ambly, p. 330.) On one occasion, Joachim Murat, when King of Naples, sought the aid of Mademoiselle Lenormand. He was received by the prophetess with her customary haughtiness, who, however, produced the cards. Murat cut the pack. The king of diamonds appeared. Now this card, according to some systems of cartomancy, is re- garded as a portent of the extremest ill-fortune, and receives the name of the "grand pendu." Mademoiselle Lenormand told the king that, prosperous as he might then be, an execution awaited him. Murat, disconcerted, laid two Napoleons on the table, and begged for another trial. It was granted. He again cut the king of diamonds. Still more dissatisfied, Murat again produced a similar sum. The Sibyl permitted another trial. The sortilege was made, and for a third time the king of diamonds was cut. Bewildered and annoyed, Murat now produced fifty Napoleons, and besought the hesitating Pythoness to grant him one more experiment. It DIVINATION— CABTOMANOY. 163 was at length permitted, when with fatal iteration the same ma- lignant portent — the king of diamonds — again appeared. In desperation, the king now offered Lenormand one hundred Napo- leons for another and final chance. Angrily she threw the cards at him, telling him to begone, and turned him out of her sanctum, with the assurance that his fate would be the gaUows or the musket-ball. It is well known that Murat met his fate by military execution in Calabria in the year 1816. Again, Gerard, one of Bernadotte's aid-de-camps, was one day relating to the latter stories illustrating the strange power of Mademoiselle Lenormand. Gerard at last asked his superior to accompany him to the house of the prophetess. Bernadotte agreed, and they proceeded to the Rue de Tournon. This, it should be remembered, was in January, 1804. Colonel Gerard presented his general as a rich merchant, desirous to learn what would be the issue of some commercial speculations which he was on the point of commencing in various parts of Germany. Examining her cards, the sibyl remarked : " Sir, you are not a merchant, but a military officer, and an officer of very high rank." She was assured that she was wrong. Lenormand shook her head, replying : " Well, sir, if you go into commercial speculations, you will be unsuccessful, and forced to re-enter the career intended by destiny." After examining the cards again, she continued : " Not only are you of high military rank, but you are, or will be, related to the emperor." "^What emperor?" exclaimed Bernadotte and Gerard. "I mean the first consul," said Lenormand. Then with her finger slowly tracking the mysterious signs as they opened before her, she answered in a solemn and as if inspired tone : " Yes, he will be emperor, but here are some clouds intervening between you.^' On Bernadotte looking significantly at Gerard, the sibyl continued : " But there is not any separation ; you are still attached to him — -ah ! how his star is rising ! " She ceased, as if in surprise, for a moment, and then resumed : " Sir, be careful not to break with him ; he will be very powerful, the world will be at his feet, and you — you, far away from him, will be a king — yes, yes, you will be a king." She stopped. " Good," said Gerard j " what then ? " "I cannot perceive any- thing more, nor can I add anything," replied the prophetess. Napoleon was crowned emperor by the Pope in December, 1804, and Bernadotte afterwards became King of Sweden and Norway. Thus, in spite of the poet's assertion, " Heaven from all creatures hides the Book of Fate," humanity has always persisted in trying to read it, and carto- mancy, not unlike other expedients, has had its fortunate episodes, and occasionally, without intending it, has spoken the truth. 164 FBENGH. F. 81. FIRST HALF OF NINETEENTH CENTURY. PARIS. (Grand Etteilla.) SET of emblematic cards based on the designs of tlie typical tarots, accompanied by a numeral series, the whole being equal in number to the earlier Venetian sequence of serenty-eight pieces. The marks of the suits of the numerals are batons, coupes, epees, and deniers. The coate-cards have on them whole-length figures holding in their hands the signs of their suits. This set of cards is designed and arranged for the purposes of divination. It is accompanied by a book of explanations and directions, bearing the title : " Maniere de tirer. Le Grand Etteilla ou tarots Egyptiens. Paris, chez tous les marchands des nouveautes." In the " Notions Preliminaires " with which the book commences, it is stated that Ii'art de tirer les tarots, or the Egyptian cards, is an agreeable science and of exciting interest, bat that its results become serious or recreative, miraculous or fi-ivolous, in a ratio with the greater or less degree of faith possessed by those who resort to it. It is a pursuit that merits especially the confidence of amateurs, particularly female ones, who are so partial to secrets. Directions then having been given pour tirer les tarots, the meanings of the latter are explained under seventy-eight heads, and then follow the details neces- sary to elicit these meanings, and certain other values appertaining to the numeral series. All the card-pieces in the set are numbered consecutively from one, Etteilla questionnant, to seventy-eight, Folie, which seems to correspond to the Fou or Misero of the older tarots. The designs of the emblematic series of this set are much modified in several instances by EtteiUa's interpretation of the older type, as is likewise the order of the sequence. Nos. 1 and 2, the questionnant and/ea, may be said to be equivalent to No. 19, Le Soleil, of the ordinary series. No. 3- Eau . . . to No. xviii La Lune. 4- Air ... „ xvii. L'Etoile. 5- Terre . . . „ xxi. Le Monde. 6. Jovir . . . » 1 7- Protection " \^ ? 8. Questionnante „ J 9- La Justice . „ viii. La Justice. 10. La Temperance „ xiv. La Temperance. 11. La Force . „ xi. La Force. 12. La Prudence . „ ? xii. Le Pendu. »3- Mariage . 11 vi. L'Amoreux. 14. Force Majeure „ XV. Le Diable. 15- Maladie . . „ i. Le Bataleur. J 6. Jugement „ XX. Le Jugement. 17- Mortalite . . „ xiii. La Mort. 18. Traitre . . „ ix. L'Ermite. 19. Misere . . „ xvi. La Maison Dieu. 20. Fortune . . „ X. La Roue de Fortune 21. Dissension „ vii. Le Chariot. The designs on these emblematic pieces are mostly full-length figures, and subjects simulating more or less the typical tarots, and are often accompanied by DIVINATION— a ABTOMANCY. 165 astronomic or astrologic signs. Above and below each design is a title, e. g. on No. 5 is Voyage at the top and Terre at the bottom of the card ; on No. 1 1 is La Force above and Le Souverain below. Each card is numbered twice, viz. at opposite corners diagonally and in reverse like Spanish cards. The numeral series begins with the suit batons. The king and queen are seated and wear crowns, the cavalier is mounted, the valet is on foot. Each personage carries a long wand or staff. Each honour has two titles. Above the king of batons is Homme de campngne, below, Homme bon et severe. Above the queen is Femme de campagne, below. Bonne Femme. On the cavalier is depart and desuniott. On the valet is etranger and nouvelle. The honours of the other suits have like titles of various import. The marks of the suits are placed in proper number on either blue or green coloured grounds, below the compartments containing which are bright yellow squares, some of them having within astrologic and other symbols or small emblematic figures; other yellow compartments ai-e void of all marks. Each of the pip cards has an upper and lower title printed in reverse like the honours. On the eight of deniers, e. g., is Fille Brune above, and plm below. On each of the marks of the suit, here coloured pink on a green ground, is 11 (Omega). On the lower and yellow division of the piece is a crescent moon with Venus by her side. On the aces are always a human hand and part of the arm, the former holding up a large symbol of the particular suit. In the ace of deniers the hand bears a figure of Apollo with a radiant sun above his head, while below in the yellow compartment is a circle for the mark of the suit. These cards are all neatly engraved and coloured, some of the numeral series being particularly clear and distinct. The backs are ornamented with pink dots. [44- X 2|- in.] [Backs decorated.] F. 82. FIRST HALF OF NINETEENTH CENTURY PARIS. (Petit Ettbilla.) PIQUET set of cards (thirty-two) made subservient to the purpose of divination through dreams. The series is accompanied by a book of directions and solutions, which bears the following title : " Le nouvel Etteilla ou moyen infaiUible de tirer les cartes et de lire dans I'avenir par I'interpretation des songes. Auquel on a joint un tableau alphabetique de tons les objets qui se presentent dans les songes et les visions nocturnes, avec leur signification, traduit d'un manuscrit de Pythagore, commente par le celebre Urbain Grandier, ITmau de la grande mosquee d'Alexandrie, et divers auteurs persans et arabes. Paris, Impr. de Ducessois ^S q^^'i des Gr. Augustins (Pres le Pont Neuf)." On the opposite fly-leaf we are informed that " Dans le meme magazin Ton trouve : Le grand et le petit Etteilla ; L' oracle des dames ; Les grands tarots italiens et aUemands ; et generalement tout ce qui a rapport a la cartomancie." After an exordium au beau sexe et a tons les amateurs de la cartomancie, comes a sketch of what we owe to the " celebrated," the "profound Etteilla," who made his debut in 1753 by his " L'art de tirer les Cartes." The information also is afforded us that this " learned professor of cartomancy, instructed by a native Piedmont that the book of the first Egyptians, the book named thot or tout, written in hiero- glyphics and known by the name and game of tarots, or better tharoth, contained all the ancient sciences, he made a serious study of it, and in spite of the hinder- ances of the royal censors, of the library administrations, and of the police during 166 FBENCH. 1782, published in 1783 his work on the tharoth or tarota, a work which had cost him more than ten consecutive years of study and reflection." (p. 16.) Page 20 enters on the "Methode pour tirer les cartes," which extends to page 50, when follows a " Maniere simple, naturelle et faciUe d'expliquer les songes avec les cartes." A " Treatise on Dreams and Visions after the Egyptians and Persians " concludes the book. Each card-piece, 3|- in. in height by 2~ in. in width, has the representation of a particular card in its centre, l-f- X 1 in. in size. Around this are certain titles, phrases, and numbers, hairing reference to the mode of employment of the cards, and the details of the divinatory doctrines propounded. Around the quadrangle of the ace of trefles, e. g., are engraved at the upper margin the words, Bourse d' Argent, No. 26, Orphelin, K S Mauvais, E Prison ; at the lower margin in reverse way, Noblesse, No. 26, Rancune, R 5 Mauvais, E Prison. At the right hand side, 4 As Lotierie, 3 As Petite reussite, 2 As Duperie ; and at the left, 4 As Deshontieur, 3 As Lihertinage, 2 As Ennemi. The coate-cards have on them full-length coloured figures in erect attitudes, with titles and numbers similar to the lower cards. Thus on the Dame de piques may be read Femme Veuve, No. 16 Vie, R 13 Ivrognerie, E . . . Cocuage, Femme du Monde, No. 18, Avarice, R 1 3 Ivrognerie, E . . . Cocuage, 4 Dames, grand pour parler, 3 2) . . . tromperie de femme, 2D... amie, 4 Dames mauvaise societe, 3 jD . . . gourmandise, 2 D . . . ouvrier, ouvrage. The first , card in the series is marked N 1 Etteilla ou le QuestionanJ:, and has the direction, Voyez ce que signifie cette carte etant a cote des autres cartes. All the cards are from neatly engraved copper plates, and are carefully coloured. The backs are marked with small hexagons formed by dotted lines of a blue colour. [3f X 2|- in.] [Backs decorated.] F. 83. FIRST HALF OP NINETEENTH CENTURY. PARIS. SERIES of forty -two separate card-pieces, including twenty-two pure tarots and twenty distinct numerals, the remaining numerals being added to the tarots series, as smaller cards placed at the lower corners of the tarots. In the twenty separate numerals, the pip and honour cards likewise appear only as smaller cards at the lower corners of emblematic designs. The series is intended to serve the purposes of divination and fortune-teUing. It is accompanied by a book of directions, entitled " Le petit Oracle des Dames ou recreation du curieux contenant soixante-douze figures coloriees, formant le jeu complet de cinquante-deux cartes avec la mani&e de tirer les cartes, taut avec ce jeu qu'aveo les cartes ordinaires." Paris Impr. de Duoessois 55 quai des Gr. Augustins (pr^s le Pont Neuf). An " Epitre aux Dames " commences the book, in which we are assured that " lorsqu'une beUe prend les cartes magiques, et taohe de lever un coin du voile qui couvre I'aveuir, elle n'est portee \ ce mouvement de curiosite que par une ten- dresse bien juste, un sentiment bien honorable," &c. A description of the mysteries symbolized in the tarots cards is next given. These latter are divided into three series, each of the magic number seven. The first series of seven represents the Golden Age of the world, the second series the Silver Age, the third series the Age of Brass. DIVINATION— CABTOMANCY. 167 The first emblematic card of the first series is terre, voyage, 4' element, corresponding to Le Monde, xxi., of the typical sequence, and is thus described, "under the Sign of the Lion:" — "The goddess Isis in the centre of a circle fonned by a serpent biting its tail, representing the Universe. The circle is the emblem of the yearly revolutions, and the symbol of eternity, which has neither beginning or end. Isis, whom the Egyptians regarded as the origin of all things, appears ready to run. At the four corners of the design are the emblems of the seasons. The Eagle, under the sign of the Virgin, indicates the Spring, which brings back the birds. The Lion, under its ordinary sign, implies Summer, or the ardour of the sun. The Ox is the allegory of Autumn, when one labours and sows ; while the Youth, under the sign of the Twins, represents Winter, the season when we re-unite together. To this design is added the eight of diamonds, which is placed beneath the Ox. It implies the same subjects as before-mentioned — the country, earth, labour. When this design is preceded by the sign of Jupiter, it becomes of very favourable augury." Details of the various ways in which the cards may be worked are given, along with an account of the pieces, " auxquelles les diseurs de bonne aventure attachent des pronostics." Some of the tarots proper have each two designs on them, printed in reverse. Thus the piece Xo. 1 is divided into two equal portions. On the upper portion is a seated female, pouring a fliud from a vase in her right hand into a vase held in her left. At the lower left-hand comer of this division is represented a small numeral card, viz. the four of hearts. The title, Za Temperance, is engraved above the figure. On the lower division is represented Night, in the form of the moon beaming down firom the darkened heavens on the earth. Some of the tarots designs are almost identical with the typical ones, though bearing other numbers, but several are sui generis. No. 2 1 of the tarots repre- sents Le Bataleur, while No. 22 is both consultant and consultante, with appro- priate designs. A11 the separate numeral cards have each two emblematic designs on them, printed in reverse. Some of the designs have at the comers the representation of a diminutive pip or honour card ; others have not. Above each design is a title. On No. 29, a ship in a tempestuous sea is represented in the upper division of the piece, and a diminutive ten of spades is at the left-hand lower corner. Above is the title Naufrage, Orand Malheur. In the lower division are the arched vaults and staircase of a prison, with the title "pKisoN." The number 29 is at the upper left-hand and lower right-hand comer in reverse. The designs, execution, and colouring of these cards are of inferior character The backs are marbled in madder and white. [Sl- X 2i in.] [Backs decorated.] F. 84. NINETEENTH CENTURY. PAEIS. SET of seventy-eight cards, viz., twenty-two atouts and fifty-six numerals, designed and adapted to the purposes of divination. As far as the twenty-two tarots proper are concerned they may be said ^_^ to be coarse copies on wood of the designs of the tarots of F. 81. Some slight difierences of detail exist, as in No. 1, Le Chaos, No. 10, La Tem- perance, No. 1 2, La Prudence, No. 15, Maladie, and No. 2 1 , Droit. As in F. 81, the/oM is No. 78, the last card of the series, and entitled Folie. 168 FRENCH. The marks of the suits of the numeral series are batons, coupes, epees, and deniers. The designs on these pieces differ from F. 81 in certain respects. Each piece is divided into two compartments, the lower and smaller compartment is always coloured yellow, but the upper division is in all instances parti-coloured, pink and blue. The symbols represented in the lower or yellow compartment differ fi-om those of F. 81. In batons, keys, tablets, cards, lightning, arrows, &c., are to be seen ; in coupes medallions, within which are various things, as harp, dolphin, buU's head, bee-hive, &c. ; in epees, busts of men ; and in deniers whole-length female figures seated, and at various occupations. The honours exhibit like designs to those of F. 81, but are differently coloured. The titles and descriptions on all the cards differ in certain details from those on the series F. 81. On No. 2, for example, at the summit of the card, is printed Droit eclaircissement (l" jour de la creation); below the design are Renverse, fen {1' element) ; on the right-hand side is La Lumiere, and the same on the left. At each corner of the piece is the number 2. Each of the numeral series has its suit and value printed on each side of the design, thus on the third figure card in batons, le chevalier de baton is printed on each side of the man on horse- back, and on the like card of the suit coupes, is le chevalier de coupe. But in general, though the marks of the suits are the old Italian ones, as before stated, a twofold description of the suit and value of each card is given, viz., one answer- ing to their actual signs, and the other to the more recent French symbols. Thus on the left-hand of the ten of deniers is printed le dix de denier, and on the right-hand le dix de trefles, on the three of coupes is le trois de coupe on one side, and le trois de cceur on the other. The book of directions which accompanied this series is wanting. The backs ai-e coloured blue. [4} X 2|-]. [Backs coloured.] F. 85. NINETEENTH CENTURY. PARIS. SERIES of seventy-eight cards, viz., twenty-two tarots proper, and fifty-six numerals. The suits of the latter are batons, coupes, epees, and deniers. These cards are designed according to the principles of Le Grand Etteilla, and adapted to the purposes of divination. Most of the desit^ns are in- tended to be Egyptian or Assyrian in character. The first card of the tarots series is L'homme qui consulte, sagesse, genie. The last piece, lefou, is No. 78 of the whole sequence, and entitled Folic. No. 2 is Osiris ou le soleil. No. 3, Isis ou la lune. No. S, Apis ou les saisons, (Horus), No. 13, le premier prophete, gardien des divines paroles. No. iS.L'ermite de la grande Thehaide dBgypte, No. 19, Le Rhamesseium ou Temple funeraire de Rhamses LI. (Mejamoun), No. 11, le Tyran Busiris.- The king of batons is le Roi Ptolemee Lagus, the queen Didon, reine de Car- thage, the cavalier, le Prince- Gouvemeur d^Ethiope, and the valet is the Surinten- dant des Greniers ; the king of cups is le Grand Pretre, the queen Esther, reine de Perse, the cavalier le Prince- Gouvemeur de Memphis, and the valet le grand Echanson ; the king of swords is represented by Ninus, roi d'Assyrie, the queen by Semiramis, veuve du roi Ninus, the cavalier by le surintendant de la cavaleric, and the valet by le chef des grammates du palais ; the king of money is Sesostris (Rhamses Meiamoun le Grand), the queen Maheda, reine de Saba et d'Ethiope, the BiriKATION— CARTOMANCY. 169 cavalier Joseph, nuriiitendant du double tresor, wUle the valet is le eommandeur des constructions du palais. The pip cards of the suit batons are divided iuto two portions ; the upper and larger portion contains the marks of the suit, here termed baguettes ou batons, the ace representing la baguette ou verge de Moise. The lower divisions liave a variable number of objects like long naUs arranged together in various ways. The conditions and fortunes symbolized by the various pieces are indicated by such terms as melancholie, catastrophe, bonnes nouvelles, union, ordre. On No. 65 (Makeda, or reine de deniers) is femme genereuse below the figure, and/emme brune, femme suspecte above it in reverse. On the ace of deniers are Le Denier de la Fortune, aud Bonkeur parfait below, and argent above. The designs on these cards are of good character, and have been very neatly engraved on wood. All are uncoloured, but have been printed off on a buff- toned paper. [4 X 2|- in.] [Backs plain.] F. 86. SECOND HALF OF NINETEENTH CENTURY. PARIS. SERIES of fifty-five cards, including fifty-two numerals of the suits trejles, piques, caeurs, and carreaux, and three supernumerary pieces, viz. a " Consultant," a " Consultante," and a " Diable," or zero, the symbol of negation. This set is intended for the purposes of prognostication and fortune-telling, in aid of which there is a book of directions and solutions, entitled, " Livre du Grand Oracle avec le Jeu explicatif, compose de 55 cartes. Paris, chez Gustave Amoult 24 Rue des Fosses Saint- Victor, I 858." Each card-piece is of considerable size — at least 4|^ X 3^ in. — and may be said to consist of three portions. The upper division has at its left-hand comer the representation of a diminutive numeral card of the usual character, pip or honour, as the sequence may require. At the right-hand comer in a similar space is a kabbalistic sign. Between the card and the sign are a varying number of stars in special astrological positions as respects each other, and connected by continuous and dotted lines. In the central division is an emblematic design of whole-length figures indi- cating some virtue or state, as concord, power, perfection, marriage, fecundity, &c., as illustrated in the history of some true or fabulous person or event. Sometimes two events are recorded in the central design. At the lower third of the piece are other emblematic illustrations of pictorial character. The following account is given in the " Livre du Grand Oracle,'' of the " Roi de Trefle, No. I." — " Man of knowledge and of great sagacity, capable of giving wise and judicious advice." Chief subj ect : — " Phineus, king of Thrace, become blind as a punishment, is seated at a table taking his repast ; on one side the harpies are foulmg his dishes, on the other he is giving advice to the Argonauts as to the road they should take to Colchis. " Follow in all points the counsels of a venerable man whom you have need to consult." Lower portion. Subject of the right-hand side :— " Two groups of rocks, a dove on this side of them. "Distrust and precaution to prevail on undertaking a joui-ney." 170 FRENCH. Subject of the left-liand side : — " Two groups of rocks, a dove beyond them. " Safety on undertaking a journey." Flowers. " Plumbago, Sweet Basil, Poppy. " The undertaking on which you are about to enter is a doubtfiil one, but riches and glory are connected with it, and on taking precautions and counsels from a wise man you may succeed." Like descriptions are given of each of the fifty-two cards. The pieces repre- senting the male and female consultants, have on them simply full-dressed whole- length figures. On the " Diable," " Emblem of a wicked Genius," are the swords of the angel Gabriel and of the angel of Justice, and a thistle in flower. The designs are generally mediocre in conception and inferior in engraving and colouring. The backs are coloured blue. [4f X 3t ™-] [Backs coloured.] F. 87. SECOND HALF OF NINETEENTH CENTURY. PARIS. SET of seventy-eight cards, i. e. twenty-two pure tarots and fifty-six numerals, intended and arranged for the purposes of fortune-telling. It is accompanied by an ornamental title bearing the inscription : " Le Grand Jeu de I'Oracle Des Dames. 78 Cartes Tarots." "Des. et Lith, par G. Regamey Delarue Editeur. Lith, Haugard-Meuge." The designs and sequence of the pure tarots are according to one of EtteiUa's versions. No. 1 is Chaos ; 2, La Lumifere ; 3, Les Plantes ; 1 5, Le Magicien ; 16, Le Jugement dernier; 21 is Le Despot, corresponding to Le Charior, No. vii., of the typical series. Each tarots is numbered at the four corners, and has "Droit" at the top and " Renverse " (in reverse) at the bottom of the design. At each side of the latter is the title. Ze Fou is here the last card, and is numbered 78. The figure-cards of the numeral series are whole-length figures bearing the symbols of their suits in their right hands. They are numbered at each corner, have " Droit " and " Renverse " top and bottom respectively, and the title and value on each side. The marks of the suits are batons, coupes, epees, and deniers. In the pip pieces the marks of the suits are contained within large shields, sur- rounded by floriated ornaments. The face of the shield is unornamented, except in the case of the aces, where a delicate tendril-like design is present. The marks of the suit deniers represent the obverses and reverses of small Roman coins. On the large sign on the ace is the figure of Ceres. These cards have been executed in chromo-lithography, and printed in rather positive colours. Some of the designs are very good, and care has evidently been taken in the treatment of the costumes and draperies, which are intended to be those of the time of the long-toed, pointed shoes known as "poulains." [4|- X 2-|- in.] [Backs decorated.] DIVINATION— GABT0MANG7. 171 F. 88. SECOND HALF OF NINETEENTH CENTURY. PARIS. PIQUET set of cards (thirty-two), of the ordinary suits — piques, trefles, ceeurs, and carreaux. Each piece may be regarded either as an ordinary playing-card, or as a fortune-telling one, the latter belonging rather to the amusing or comic variety than to the serious divinatory class. A quarter portion of each piece is occupied by the representation of an ordinary playing-card, so large and so distinct that there would not be any embarrassment in using the set in cus- tomary play. The remaining portion of the card-piece is taken up with some amusing design, below which is the title. Thus, e.g. on the seven of carreaux a man's head with a night-cap and large spectacles projects from behind the smaller pip card in the left-hand upper comer ; just below, the man puts out his right hand, holding up the index finger towards a woman, who holds up her's likewise, and appears with open mouth to be arguing with the man above. The woman rests with her left hand on a long birch-broom handle. Below the pip card hangs a red parroquet in a cage. Under the design are the words " Bavardace," " Caquets." On the reine de trefles is a very neat design of the honour card at the left- hand upper comer. Below is a three-quarter figinre of a young woman, regard- ing with satisfaction a haudfiil of gold coin, of which there are three piles upon the table over which she leans. Below is engraved " Amour d' Argent." This set is accompanied by a small ornamental title, on which is inscribed : " Le petit Sorcier compose de 32 Cartes." These cards are from engraved metal plates of a soft description, such as pewter or zinc. Some of the small figure-pieces or honours are of extremely careftil and neat execution. The pieces are gaUy coloured throughout. The backs are marked with dotted arrow-heads, and large stars of a green colour. [3|- X 2-|- in.] [Backs decorated.] F. 89. FIRST HALF OP NINETEENTH CENTURY. PARIS. PIQUET set of cards of the suits piques, ceeurs, carreaux, and trefles. It is intended for the purposes of fortune-telhng as well as for ordinary play, but belongs to the amusing variety of fortune-teUing cards, and not to the serious divinatory class. Each card-piece has a representation of a small numeral card at its upper left-hand comer. Occupying the greater portion of the piece is an emblematic design, including ftill-length figures and landscapes ; below is the title. The ace of piques has on it a, Cupid on clouds, about to let off an arrow on some one belpw. Above him are two billing doves, below is the title, L' Amour. The ten of carreaux exhibits a large parterre of flowers, from which a serpent protrudes his neck. Over these are some birds hovering, and at a little distance other 172 FBENCH. birds are being caught in a net. At the lower margin are the words : " Piege ou Trahison." A book of explication accompanies the set. It is entitled : " Le Livre de Destin," and commences with an " Bpitre aux Dames," by M. Violet, editeur, which begins with the assurance that " L'homme galant doit toujours faire hommage aux Dames du fruit de ses travaux." After the address comes the " Maniere de tirer les Cartes," followed by an " Explication des Cartes," with finally the " Rencontre des Cartes ayant meme valeur." The imprint is " Impr. de Carpentier Mericourt, Rue Trainee S. Eustache, No. 15." These cards have been carefully designed, neatly engraved on metal, and the impressions coloured. The costumes and accessories are of modem description. [4|- X 2i in.] [Backs plain.] F. 90. FIRST HALF OP NINETEENTH CENTURY. PARIS. PIQ UET set of cards (thirty-two), of the usual suits, subservient to the purposes of fortune -telling, as weU as of ordinary play. This pack is a replica of F. 89, accompanied by the book of directions. 2i in.] [Backs plain.] F. 91. FIRST HALF OF NINETEENTH CENTURY. PARIS. PIQUET set of cards of the usual suits, intended for the purposes of fortune-telling as well as of ordinary play. The set belongs rather to the amusing than to the serious class of divinatory agents, being based on exactly the same principles as are F. 89 and 90. The greater portion of each piece is occupied by an emblematic design, while the representation of an ordinary numeral of small size is placed at the upper left-hand corner. The title of the design is engraved beneath the latter. The emblematic representations, though after the same kind as those of the previous series, are yet different in detail. On No. 1, the ace oi piques, e.g. are two Cupids wrestling among the clouds, and around whom roses are scattered. Below is the title : " La Bagatelle ou L' Amour." Some of the compositions are very fair, and all are neatly engraved and coloured. The small numerals and honours at the summits of the large pieces are particularly good. This set is accompanied by a book of directions, on which is the title in MS. " Cartes du Destins " — (aux Dames) — " Aug. Legrand." It opens with an account " De la Maniere de Tirer les Cartes ;" which is followed by a " Troisieme moyen pour connaitre la pensee de quelqu'un," and concludes with an " Explica- tion des Cartes." The edges of these cards are gilt. [3t X 2i in.] [Backs plain.] AMUSING— HUMOEOUS. 173 AMUSING— HUMOROUS. F- 92. SECOND HALF OF NINETEENTH CENTURY. PARIS. PULL set (fifty -two) of numerals of the ordinary suits, cceurs, piques, trefles, and carreaux. The series is of an amusing and humorous character. The court-cards are full-length figures, strongly and positively coloured by chromo-lithography, while the figures which are on the pip-pieces are left in outline and in shadow, the marks of the suits being coloured over them. The king of spades represents a Red Indian chief with spear and shield, the queen Joan d'Arc, the valet a " Suisse " in the well-known attire ; the king of clubs is a tippling Boniface on a donkey, the queen a Swiss flower-girl, and the valet a gardener mowing. The king of diamonds is an inferior Court attendant of the period of long-pointed shoes, the queen a buxom market-woman, the valet a man-servant sweeping the carpet. The king of hearts is Cupid, the queen a " star of the ballet," the valet a porter delivei-ing a letter. A supernumerary piece of this valet commences the series. A variety of amusing and comic designs are on the pip numerals. Some of the compositions are serious, however, such as the subject on the ace of spades, which represents a nun at devotion before an altar; on the four of clubs is a bishop in full canonicals with crozier, and on the ten of clubs is a monumental efSgy of a knight in armour. The way in which the mark of the suit, spades, is made to constitute the head and face of a negro nurse in the four of the suit is admirable. The backs are of a rose-colour. [3^ X 2|- in.] [Backs coloured.] SIMPLY FANCIFUL. F- 93- FIRST HALF OF NINETEENTH CENTURY. PARIS. SERIES of thirty cards, having on them whole-length figures repre- senting eminent personages of the time of Louis XIV. These pieces are purely cartes de fantaisie, not possessing any of the essentials of ordinary playing-cards. A book of biographical summaries connected with the persons represented accompanies the series. It is entitled, " Le Siecle de Louis XIV., ou Vie des Personnages Celebres qui 174 FRENCH. ont iUustre ce Siecle. Paris Libraire de Gide FOs, Kue S. Marc-Feydeau, No. 20." Among tlie celebrities are Boileau, Conde, D'Aguesseau, Fenelon, Luxembourg, Mansard, Le Notre, Poussin, Kacine, Madame de Sevigne, and Turenne. The portraits are in general well designed, and neatly engraved and coloured ; some, like those of Tourville, Conde, and Kacine, are bad in proportions and attitudes. The representations of Flechier, Boss'uet, and Fenelon, are particu- larly good. The name is engraved in a separate marginal compartment below the design. [4f X 2f in.] [Backs plain.] F. 94. FIRST HALF OF NINETEENTH CENTURY. PARIS. SERIES of thirty-eight cards, eighteen of which represent emblematic designs ; the remaining twenty giving descriptions of the scenes and persons represented. _ _ These pieces are purely cartes de fantaisie, not having any of the essentials of ordinary playing-cards. The character of the amusement offered may be gleaned from the following account given on the introductory piece of the set : " Jeu de Societe : charades en action. " Chaque charade est composee de trois petites scenes en monologues, ren- fermant le premier mot, le second et I'entier de la charade. La Societe se divise en deux parties, I'une pour jouer et I'autre pour deviner. " Les charades se jouent comme les 'Proverbes,' autre jeu qu'on trouve chez I'auteur de celui-ci, soit en pantomimes, soit en scenes dialoguees. H est bon d'avoir les objets et les costumes qui comdennent a la scene que Ton veut representer. La partie qui a devine joue k son tour." The words of the chai'ades represented by the designs on the eighteen cards are ballot, mariage, theatre, oranges, ecriteau, and delire. The compositions and execution of these pieces are but of mediocre character. [4|- X 2|- in.] [Backs plain.] F. 95- FIRST HALF OF NINETEENTH CENTURY. PARIS. SERIES of fifty-two pieces, having on them emblematic designs with their titles below. The set is purely fancifiil, not having any of the characters of true playing-cards. A supernumerary piece has on it " Explication du Jeu de la Sybylle des Salons. Se vend k Paris chez Alph. Giroux & Cie. Rue du Coq. St. Honore, No. 7 ; Gihaut Freres, Boulevard des Italiens, No. 5-" This series of designs is excellent in all respects. The compositions are good, and full of meaning : they are etched with freedom and delicacy, and the colouring SIMPLY FANCIFUL. 175 is tasteful, light, and appropriate. On each piece at the lower left-hand corner is "Mangion, inv'." The class of subjects represented may be gleaned from the foUowhig emblems. On one card a countryman has brought money to an accountant, which is being sorted in piles on a table, over which the accountant leans ; behind the countryman at his feet are bags of money. Below is the motto : " Beaucoup d' Argent." A man closely enveloped in a cloak, from which protrudes a bludgeon, is waiting concealed behind a wall, for a person who is on the point of passing before him. Below is inscribed, "Ennemi." Some of the figures are well worthy of Gavarni, and such pieces as the Maison de Ville and Maison de Campagne are extremely characteristic of the places represented. [4|- X 2|-in.] [Backs plain.] F. 96. FIRST HALF OF NHSTETEENTH CENTURY. PARIS. SERIES of thirty-six card-pieces, having on them whole-length figures of persons supposed to be engaged in the fui'therance and celebration of a marriage. Accompanying the series is a description of the game, which is entitled : " La Dot. Nouveau Jeu de Societe." Each player must have twenty counters, and be supposed to represent one of the various persons engaged in the ceremony, e.g., le Preteiidu, la Pretendue, le Pere, la Mere, le Cure, le Bedeau, and others. Of these counters the players contribute, according to circumstances, to the " CorbeUle de Mariage." La Pre- tendue, a nicely designed and executed demoiselle, has La Demande made in reference to her, as follows : " Un jeune homme bien ne, d'une bonne tournure, Desirait s'unir a cet objet charmant. On dit qu'il le prendrait sans dot assurement, Mais il est toujours bon de doter la future." The above demande is engraved on a distinct card, as are likewise Le Consentement and Le Contrat. The last card exhibits a table of RefraicJiissemens, which " ayant paru les importuns qui restent dans la main des joueurs ne paient rien, et la partie est terminee." Some of the designs are good, others but mediocre. The execution and colouring are cai-eful. [31: X 2|-in.] [Backs plain.] F. 97. FIRST HALF OF NINETEENTH CENTURY. PARIS. SERIES of thirty-six cards, having on them whole-length male and female figures, in characteristic costumes. Four of the cards have each a figure of Polichinello in various pantomimic attitudes ; one being on stUts. The remaining thirty-two pieces are divided into four suits, distinguished by the colours of the costumes. 176 FRENCH. The eight cards in each suit have different designs on them, but these designs are repeated in each suit. In each suit there is a leader of the "troupe" with book and baton ; a courtier in full dress, plumed cap, and sword ; a countryman by whose side is a diminutive PolicMnello on stilts ; a lady in Court costume with ermined train ; a lady in long veil and train ; a lady with stomacher and feathered hat ; a lady in a bonnet leaning over a parapet, and a country girl with basket on arm. To each of these suits belongs a PolicMnello. It is not easy to make out in all cases the suit to which the card belongs, there being often such a mixture of colours in the costumes as to render the question doubtful. In other cards the distinction is plain enough. The colours distinguishing the suits appear to be brown or violet, blue, red, and green. Excluding the four PolicMnello cards, the number of each suit is that of the suit of a piquet set of cards, but there are neither pips, numbers, nor any indications on the pieces by which they might be said to simulate ordinary playing-cards. The designs, engraving, and colouring, are of a superior character, much care and artistic ability being displayed in them. Accompanying the cards is a title, cut apparently from a sale catalogue. It runs thus : " Jeu des Polichinels Vampires, par A. Giroux. Coloured. Paris, 36." [41- X 2f in.] [Backs plain.] F. 98. FIRST HALF OF NINETEENTH CENTURY. PARIS. SERIES of thirty-two fancy cards, designed for Le Jeu de Quilles. On nine pieces is represented a large skittle in the upright position against a landscape background ; then follow nine pieces with skittles on the ground, and landscapes ; next come nine bowls ; then three pieces, each piece with a running dog on it ; and lastly, two cards, on each of which are two prostrate skittles. Each of the nine pieces having prostrate skittles is numbered at the upper left-hand corner. The cards with the dogs on them are named Medor, Diamant, and Mirault respectively, while those with two prostrate skittles on each are num- bered 2, 4, and 3, 6, 9, respectively. A number of counters must accompany the cards, the game requiring a pool. A paper of directions and rules is given with this set. The engraving and colouring are careful. [Sf X 2f in.] [Backs plain.] F. 99. FIRST HALF OP NINETEENTH CENTURY. PARIS. SERIES of twenty-four cards, having on them designs and scenes emblematic of the vicissitudes of human life. These cards are described here as of purely fanciful charactei-, not- withstanding that the marks of the suits, piques, trefles, coeurs, and carreaux, are placed at the right-hand lower corner of each piece. There is one SIMPLY FANCIFUL. 177 mark only on each card, and the same mark extends but to six pieces. The six cards with the mark o{ piques, and the six with that of trefles, i. e. les douze cartes noires, represent the troubles of humanity ; while those pieces having on them the marks oi cceurs and carreaux, i.e., les rouges, symbolize its joys. Each card has a number and the title of the design at the lower margin. On the card numbered 8, with the mark of trefles, a young lady in a violent passion is smashing the drawing-room chairs ; below is the inscription, " Madame brise Menage." On the piece numbered 6, and with the mark of cceurs, a marriage ceremony is being performed. Below is the title, " Les Amans h FAutel." The game requires to be played with counters, a set of which accompanies the pack. The counters are blue, red, yellow, and white. An explication du jeu is given, entitled, " Jeu des Vicissitudes Humaines, ou les Peines et les Plaisu-s." The designs, execution, and colouring are but of mediocre character. [34- X 2|- in.] [Backs plain.] V. 100. FIRST HALF OP NENETEENTH CENTURY PARIS- SERIES of ninety cards, having on them designs representing hu- morous characters, or laughable incidents. Accompanying these pieces are twenty-four long cards, each card being divided into twenty-seven squares. Some of these squares are coloured, others are left plain ; the colours being yellow, green, blue, and red. The fifteen plain squares on each card are numbered with large numerals, varying from one to ninety according to circumstances. A leaf of instructions accompanies the series, entitled " Regie du Jeu de Loto en Cartes a rire." Counters are required in the game, as a pool is necessary. Each pictorial card is numbered at the top, and below the number is the title of the design represented. Ou No. 8 is " Le bon Coin," with the representation of a drunken man (whose hat has fallen off) leaning helplessly against the friendly corner of a wine-shop, the owner of which, " Boneau M'' de Vin," is at the door, gazing with astonishment at the drunkard. Some of the designs are comical enough in inten- tion, but the artistic power displayed is in many instances but of very mediocre character. All the pieces are coloured. [3|- X 2|- in.] [Backs plain.] F. loi. FIRST HALF OF NINETEENTH CENTURY. PARIS. SERIES of thirty-six cards, having on them whole-length male and female figures, in national costumes. These pieces are for the purpose of playing the Jeu du Nigaud, the performance of which is described on an accompanying sheet. Counters are required in the amusement, a set of which goes along with the cards. These N --V 178 FRENCH. square counters are numbered with large figures up to 36, and correspond to like numbers on the cards. Some of the designs are admirable in respect of drawing, engraving, and colour. [3i X 2|- in.J [Backs plain.] F. 102. NINETEENTH CENTURY. PARIS. SERIES of twenty-eight cards, representing the pieces of a set of dominoes. Each card is divided into six equal compartments. In the middle white space are marked the values of the pieces by the usual black dots, here having a white star in the centre. In the lateral divisions at the corners, opposite diagonally, are shields with castellated crowns, and arabesque ornaments are at the other corners. Each shield is divided longitudinally, having the domino points of the central compartments repeated in its divisions. On the first card is inscribed across the upper central compartment : " Propriete de I'auteur." The engraving of these cards is very neatly executed; the shields and orna- ments being relieved white off a black ground. [31- X 2|- in.] [Backs ?] FLEMISH PLAYING-CARDS. TAROTS. Fl. 103. EIGHTEENTH CENTURY? BRUXELLES. COMPLETE set of combined tarots, i. e. twenty-two atouts and fifty -six numeral cards. The marks of the latter suits are coupes, epees, deniers, and batons. The designs of the tarots proper are like those of the French set, P. 37, before described. No. 2 has on it a whole-length portrait of Le Spagnol Capitano Era- casse, in place of the typical La Papesse. On No. 5 is Bacus in lieu of Ze Pape, and No. 1 2, Lepen-du, must be reversed in order that the fio^ure may hang in the usual way, viz., head downwards. No. 16 is La Fovdre, a. tree struck by lightning, instead of La Maison Dieu, and Le Fou bears a number — xxii. The title on No. 1 is spelt Le Bataleux, on vi. Lamour, and No. 13 has here a title — La Mort. On the ace of deniers is inscribed — top and bottom and in reverse — " Cartes de Suisses, fabriquees par F. I. Vandenborre Cartier a Bruxelles." On the two oi deniers is "F. I. Vandenborre" on a scroll between the marks of the suit, and on the two of coupes on a broad margin at the bottom may be read : " Pour conoistre que la plus basse de Deniez et de Coupes, en porte les plus hautes quaud au fait du jeu." On the shield in the middle of the four of deniers is a lion rampant with a castle on his right paw, in place of the letters I » G in the pack P 37. Though the designs and execution of these cards are poor enough, they are not so bad as those of the French set. M. Merlin, alluding to the old Venetian or Lombardian tarots, draws atten- tion (p. 83) to the constancy with which the primitive types have been preserved and transmitted without notable change to the south and east of France, as like- wise to Switzerland. " The alterations produced by time have done scarcely more than affect the costume of the figures belonging to the numeral series, the cavaliers and valets of which on entering France relinquished undoubtedly the iron armour of the fifteenth centviry for the garments of a more recent epoch. It is not implied that the engravers have been always faithful to the primitiye i8o FLEMISH. models ; they have swerved from them but rarely, however, and in the rich collection of tarots in the Imperial library scarcely three or four examples of such a liberty are to be seen. . . . The Swiss had a jeu de tarot, however, slightly dif- ferent from the Venetian tarot, at least in the eighteenth century, for some engraved wood-blocks preserved in the ' Musee de la porte Hal' at Brussels yield the figures of a series, the ace of deniers in which bears the following address, viz. : ' Cartes de Suisse, fabriquees par T. S. Vanden BoiTe Cartier \ Bruxelles.' " In this set, No. 2, instead of representing La Papesse, is V Espagnol Capitano Fracasse, while on No. 3 the Pope is displaced by a Bacchus astride on a barrel and holding a, bottle in his hand." The backs of these cards are marked with a net-work of hexagonal monili- form meshes, within which are radiant suns printed in black. [4|- X 2\ in.] [Backs decorated.] NUMERALS. FULL SET (52). Fl. 104., NINETEENTH CENTURY. LIEGE. SET of fifty-two numerals of the suits trcfles, cceurs, piques, and car- reaux. The figures on the honours are whole-length and bear titles. In trefles the latter are Alexandre, Ai'gine, and Lancelot ; in cmurs Charles, Judith, and Lahire ; in ji/jae* David, Pallas, and Hogier; and in carreaux Cassar, Kachel, and Hector. The valet of trcfles holds a shield in his right hand, on the border of which are the words, " Administ. des Droits Reunis, 1813." On each coate-card the mark of its suit is placed both at top and bottom, the bottom mark being reversed. Below each mark are black circular spots, three in number on the kings, two on the queens, and one on the valets. [3| X 2|- in.] [Backs plain.] Fl. 105. FIRST HALF OF NINETEENTH CENTURY. BRUXELLES. SERIES of fifty-two numerals of the usual suits — piques^ cceurs, trefles, and carreaux. The coate-cards have on them whole-length figures in semi-histo- rical, semi-theatrical middle-age and subsequent costumes. The kings of piques and of carreaux wear armour, the queen of c<£urs has a high pointed head-dress and long veil, and the queen of piques an elevated cap with large veil. The designs and execution are very mediocre. An introductory or supplementary card accompanies the set ; on it are represented a hand displaying a pip card of each suit, a large mark of a suit at the corners of the piece, and a flower at each side of the hand. The impression is in black from either stone or a zinc plate, probably from the latter. The backs are dotted in pink. [3 T X 1\ m.] [Backs decorated.] NUMERALS. Fl. 1 06. NINETEENTH CENTURY. BRUXELLES. SERIES of fifty-two numerals of the ordinary suits. The coate-cards have busts printed double and in reverse. The queens hold roses in their right hands. The designs and execution are of mediocre character. Engraved on zinc probably. The backs are dotted and starred in black. X 2fin.] [Backs decorated.] [31 Fl. 107. SECOND HALF OF NINETEENTH CENTURY. BRUXELLES. SERIES of fifty-two numerals of the ordinary suits. The figure-cards have busts printed double and in reverse. This set appears to be a replica of Fl. 106, somewhat differently coloured. It is accompanied by a supplementary piece, on which is represented a boy dancing, and holding up in his right hand a seven of diamonds. He holds a cap with feather in his left hand. The backs are like Fl. 1 06. [Sf X 2f in.] [Backs decorated.] Fl. 108. NINETEENTH CENTURY. BRUXELLES. SET of fifty-two numerals of the ordinary suits. The fiuure-cards have on them busts printed double and in reverse. On a, tablet in the middle of the rei de cceurs is the title " Hubertus Agneessens." The aces are illustrated in an exceptional manner. They have each two landscapes printed in reverse, neatly engraved and coloured, the truthfulness of which, however, is less than doubtful. Within a circular space in the middle of the card is placed the mark of the suit. On the ace of spades are portrayed the " Conte de Fife" and the " Conte de Perth ;" on that of clubs the " Chateau de Ribnian" and the " Bord du Rhin." On- the ace of diamonds are the " Chateau de Finckenstein" and the " Chateau de Ribnian ;" on that of hearts the "Bord du Rhin" and "Saint Leonard." The backs are marked with blue vermiform lines. [3-5- X 2-1- in.] [Backs decorated.] i82 FLEMISH. Fl. 109. NINETEENTH CENTURY. BRUXELLES. SET of fifty-two numerals of the usual suits. The honours exhibit busts printed double and in reverse. • The roi de carreaux represents Napoleon I. crowned with a wreath, and holding an eagle in his left hand. The valet of the same suit is a Turk with a scimitar. The king of spades is Henry IV. of France, crowned with a Avreath, and holding a drawn sword in his left hand. On the belt of the valet of clubs is the name VEYRAT T. The backs are marked with a blue vermiform line. r-j^ y 2-in.l [Backs decorated.] PIQUET.. Fl. no. NINETEENTH CENTURY. BRUXELLES. PIQUET set (thirty -two) of cards of the suits piques, trefles, carreaux, and caiurs. The honours are whole-length figures in conventional costumes, very poorly designed and coloured. The king of hearts rests his right hand on a shield bearing a double-headed eagle. One or two of the designs have a slight Spanish look about them. Part of an engraved wrapper accompa- nies this set. It exhibits a valet in conventional costume, having a drawn scimitar in his right hand and a shield on his left, bearing what look like three marks of the sviit trejles with feathered tails. The backs are marbled in Vandyke brown colour. [3t X If i"-] [Backs coloured.] DUTCH PLAYING-CARDS. NUMERALS— FULL SET. D. III. FIRST HALF OF NINETEENTH CENTURY. AMSTERDAM. PACK of fifty- two numerals of the suits spades, hearts, diamonds, and clubs. The coate-cards or honours have on them whole-length, standing figures, in full characteristic costumes, representing historic personages, whose arms are borne by the valets on shields placed on their chests. The king of spades is Godefroid de Bouillon ; the Queen, Richilde, the valet is unnamed. The king of heai'ts is Baudouin de Constantinople, and the queen. Marguerite d'Autriche. The king of clubs exhibits Philippe le Bon, the queen Marie de Bourgogne. The king of diamonds is FranQois Premier ; the queen, L'Infante Isabelle. On the king of each suit a crown surmounts the mark of the latter. The marks of the suits on the aces are surrounded by ornamental and arabesque framework, printed in blue. On the ace of spades is inscribed "Cartes Deposes;" on the ace of hearts, " Daveloy," "Brevete." All the designs are neatly executed and coloured. The lissage is consider- able, the cards working most freely in the hand. The backs are marked with blue dots. The engraved ornamental title of the wrapper accompanies the set. On it is the inscription : " Supra Fijne Speelkaarten Erve Wijsmuller Amsterdam." [3i X 2f in.J [Backs decorated.] D. 112. FIRST HALF OF NINETEENTH CENTURY. AMSTERDAM. PACK of fifty-two numerals of the ordinary suits. The figure cards have on them busts, printed double and in re- verse. The same bust is printed twice on each card. That on the king of spades represents Prins WiUem HI. ; that on the queen of this suit, a lady of Friesland ; on the valet, a field labourer of Noord Brabant. The i84 DUTCH. king of diamonds exhibits Prins Willem I. ; the queen, a young woman of Eiland- marken; the valet, a boatman of Zeeland. On the king of clubs is Prins Frederick Hendrik ; on the queen, a lady of Kamper-eiland ; on the valet, a countryman of EUandmarken. On the king of hearts may be seen Prins Maurits ; on the queen, a young woman of Zuid Holland ; and on the valet, a fisherman of Scheveningen. On each of the aces are two landscapes in reverse. On the ace of clubs are representations of Zaandam and Scheveningen ; on that of diamonds are Leyden and Utrecht. On the ace of spades are Amsterdam and Sgravenhage, and on that of hearts are Rotterdam and Dordrecht. All the figures and landscapes are neatly engraved and coloured, the cards genei-ally being of superior manufacture.' The backs are coloured blue, and over them runs a lace-like pattern of leaves and flowers in white. An engraved ornamental title of a wrapper accompanies the pack. It bears the inscription, " Nederlandsche Speelkaarten. Supra fin." Below are the arms, with supporters, of Holland, and the motto, "je main- tiendrai." [3f X 2i.in.j [Backs decorated.] D. 113. FIRST HALF OF NINETEENTH CENTURY. AMSTERDAM. PACK of fifty-two numerals of the usual suits. The figure cards have on them busts, printed double and in reverse. The kings hold sceptres, the queens flowers, and the knaves partisans. The aces are plain The backs are marked with oak -leaves (?), printed in blue. The engraved title of the wrapper is present, and bears the inscription : "Supra Fijne Speelkaarten Erve Wijsmuller Amsterdam." [34- X 2f in.] [Backs decorated.] CARDS WITH A SECONDARY PURPOSE. SATIRICAL. D. 114. Number 1 642 0/ Political and Personal Satires. FIRST QUARTER OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. SERIES of fifty-two numerals and two supplementary card-pieces, printed ofl" on a large sheet, 21| x 17f- in. in size. The marks of the suits are spades, diamonds, clubs, and hearts. The marks are placed at the upper right-hand corners of the cards. The values are indicated by Arabic numerals placed at the sides of the marks in the suits spades and clubs, and in the centre (if the marks in diamonds and hearts. The figure cards are Ileer, Vrouw, and Knecht, the names of which displace the Arabic numerals. SATIBICAL.—MI8GELLANEA. i8s The major portion of each piece is occupied by a figure and its accessories below which is a couplet in Dutch verse, referring to the emblematic sense of the figure. This set is made subservient to satire on the South Sea, Mississippi, and other bubble companies of the year 1720. Besides the present copy there is another which may be found as No. 8, in vol. i. of " Het Groote Tafereel Der Dwaasheid," a collection of Dutch satires on those schemes in the Library of the Print Room. One of the supplementary pieces bears a large, strutting cock, holding by its beak a placard, on which is represented a horse grazing. Below is the following inscription : — " Dese fyne modese kaarteu worden gemaakt to Schothauenburg by Lawrens Bombarist in de Wroetende droom goud-myn graver." (These fine, fashionable cards were made at Schothauenburg at Lawrence Bombarist's in the rooting dream (of the ?) digger of gold mines.) On the other supplementary piece is the title to the series. A man holds ex- tended a piece of drapery having on it, " AprU-Kaart of Kaart Spel van Momus Naar de Nieuwste Mode." Below is a couplet, having reference to Law and to Fredex-ick Henry's ghost. These card-pieces have been ably designed and engraved; they are not coloured. A set was exhibited before the Archaeological Association by Mr. Patin ("Herald and Genealogist," v. 3, p. 72, l856; "Notes and Queries," I. v. 217). A detailed description of each of the fifty-two pieces, and other information connected with the satire therewith conveyed, may be found in the second volume of the " Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires," p. 648, No. 1642. [31- X If ™-] [Backs plam.] MISCELLANEA. D. 115. THE WORKS OP REMBRANDT. Etchings, vol. V. folio 3. N an impres.sion of the scarce landscape known as the " Vue d'Omval pres d'Amsterdam" (Ch. Blanc, No. 312, Wilson, No. 2o6) m one of the sets of the etchings of the great master in the National Collection, three designs have been superadded, which were etched by some strange hand on the original copper after it had become worn, apparently for the purpose of destroying the plate, or preventing further impressions of its original state being taken. These designs are an eight of clubs, 3f X 2f in. in size ; a woman carrying milk or water-pails, 2f X l-f- in., and a boy blowing soap-bubbles, 2|- X if in. in size. The first two compositions occupy places at the upper right-hand corner of the impression lying transversely, and the piece having the milk-woman on it is so drawn as to appear lying partly over the eight of clubs. The upper right-hand comer of the card touches the right-hand side of the plate mark of the landscape, and the lower left-hand corner of the piece of the woman approaches the upper margin of the landscape. A branch of the large tree on the right is intruded on by the card and the woman. The naked boy blowing bubbles is placed obliquely across the deep mass of foliage, beneath which sit the two figures near the lower i86 DUTCH. left-hand corner of the piece. The composition of the boy is represented as lying on a large piece of green-coloured paper. On the piece of the milk -woman is the word " Boerinue 5" ^^ ^^^ upper part of it ; her boddice is tinted yellow, as are likewise the pails, while the skirt of her dress is light red. A wash of the latter colour has been thrown over a portion of the boy, the iiower-pots on each side of him being coloured yellow. Above the boy is inscribed " Leven 2." The marks of the suit in the card are coloured black. In reference to this peculiar impression M. Charles Blanc remarks : " 1 saw a singular impression of this plate at the British Museum. In place of the two figures which are on the left, those of the young girl and young man who places a garland on her head, is a small coloured engraving of a child blowing soap- bubbles between a vase of flowers, and another vase from which smoke escapes. Above is inscribed the word " Leven " {la vie) and the numeral 2. On the right above the two mills a card — the eight of clubs — is drawn diagonally, and on this card appears to be thrown a coloured figure of a woman after the style of the boy and equally coarse. Above the figure is inscribed " Boerinne " (jpaysanne), and close to it is the number 5. At first I supposed that I had before me simply an impression disfigured by some barbarian, but on closer examination I perceived that the original plate had been scraped, and that another hand had engraved these designs, of which two are coloured, on the veritable copper of Rembrandt. " This is the only example I have seen of this disfigurement of the plate. Who could have been the unhappy person that, possessing a plate of Rembrandt, could hav« permitted or have perpetrated such an act of Vandalism ? " (" L'oeuvre complet de Rembrandt," vol. ii. p. 291.) Wilson, in his " Descriptive Catalogue," p. 1 50, writes : " There are impres- sions of this plate when worn, on which an eight of clubs is engraved at the top on the right." AVhether Wilson here speaks of " impressions " fi-om actual obser- vation, or from hearsay only, is not detenninable. The present impression belonged to the Slade collection, and was formerly in the possession of Deighton, his mark being at the lower right-hand corner of the landscape. It has been recorded here chiefly on account of its peculiarity and rareness. GEKMAN PLAYING-GAKDS. TAROTS. G. ii6. EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. STUTTGART ? COMPLETE set of combined tarots, seventy-eight in number, or twenty-two tarots proper and fifty-six numerals. The marks of the numeral suits are hearts, diamonds, clubs, and spades, and the figure-cards are king, queen, cavaher, and valet. ©"-■a-^«'*^--*^e The designs on the tarots represent a wedding procession, each card-piece having on it either figures on horseback, or groups of the mar- riage guests drawn in festively decorated cars. Below each composition is a couplet in German ; above is the number of the tarot in numerals five-eighths of an inch long. The piece corresponding to the Fou is unnumbered, and appears first. It exhibits two persons : a man in rather a comical costiune standing and playing a harp, a woman semi-recumbent playing a guitar. The couplet is as follows : — " Da wenn unsre Saiten klingen Miis das Herz vor Freiide springen." No. 1, equivalent to "Le Bataleur," is a trumpeter on horseback, holding up a large glass of wine, and has below : — " Ihr Hochzeitgaste kombt herbey Damit der freude volkom sey." The clergyman is represented on No. 6, and has below •the following couplet : — " Der Pastor warn, heiit so schon AVill er zu frau Pastorin gehn." On No. 2 1 are wedding guests in a decorated car, with the verse below : — " Briider last uns lustig sein Denn die freiid ist aUgemein." i88 GERMAN. The designs on these cards are but of mediocre character, but the technical execution of them is rather peculiar. They are from engravings on metal, are coloured and illuminated both in silver and gold. The marks of the suits in spades and clubs have a few gold lines on vphat may be considered the shadow side, here the left ; the marks in hearts and diamonds have them likewise, but on the right side. The figures on the coate-cards are whole-length and heavily draped. In spades, the king is in conventional costume, holds a sceptre in his right hand, be- neath which is a harp. In diamonds, the kiag wears a turban with a plume and aigrette, and carries a sceptre surmounted by a crescent. In hearts, the cavalier is a mounted Tartar (?). Below the figure of the valet of clubs is the address — " Andreas Benedictus Gobel." The backs of the cards are diapered with stars and cross-lines printed in blue. [44- X 2|- in.] [Backs decorated.] G. 117. EIGHTEENTH GENTUKY ? SET of combined tarots, or twenty-two atutti and fifty-six numerals. The suits of the latter are spades, clubs, diamonds, and hearts. The figure-cards are king, queen, cavalier, and valet. The designs on the proper tarots are very poor in character, being chiefly animals in ludicrous actions or positions. The matlo or fou is without number, and is represented by a violin-player in fantastic dress. No. 1 is a harlequin, having a chUd-harlequin perched at the end of the conventional fiat sword of the former. These cards are numbered at both top and bottom with large numerals in margins an inch wide ; the designs occupying the spaces between. The desigTi on No. 7 is an unicorn. At the lower part of the valet of clubs is the address — " I. M. BAKOFEN." The backs are marbled in rose-madder. [4|- X 2|- in.] [Backs coloured.] G. 118. EIGHTEENTH CENTURY? EEGENSBUEG. I'ACK of combined tarots, seventy-eight in number. The suits of the numeral series are spades, clubs, diamonds, and hearts. Two cai'ds are wanting, viz., the queen of diamonds and valet of spades. The designs on the tarots proper are landscapes and sea-pieces of the most inferior design. They are printed double and in reverse on each card, above and below the designs being the numbers in wide margins. The fou is a plumed Indian warrior, discharging an arrow from his bow. No. 1 , equivalent to the Bataleur, is a harlequin holding a human head in his right hand, which is extended upwards. The landscapes, &c., on most of the alouts, though double, vary in composition on each card. On No. 2 is the address — " Wolfgang Scheidl. B. und Karten fabricant in Kegensburg." TAB0T8. iSg The figure-cards of the numeral series have on them busts, printed double and in reverse. An the cards have an ornamental border. The backs are mai'bled in rose-madder. [4 X 24 in.] [Backs coloured.] G. 119. THIRD QUARTER OF NINETEENTH CENTURY. POMERANIA. PACK of modem North German tai-ots, seventy-eight in number. The marks of the numeral suits are spades, clubs, diamonds, and hearts. The tarots proper have each two different designs on them printed in reverse. Each design is numbered in large, open, Arabic figures within the composition. All these tarots designs are from neatly engraved metal plates, and remain uncoloured, with the exception of the " fool," which is a double bust of a man with cap and bells neatly coloured. The compositions vary much in character. On No. 1 5 is a stout gentleman hailing the train on a rail- way ; on No. 10 is a scene reminding one of that in " Auerbach's Keller " (Faust) and likewise a joust at a tournament. No. 19 represents Napoleon I. the night before the battle of Austerlitz, and No. 11a countryman having the grease removed from his coat by a man at a stall, who is vaunting his wonderful compo- sition. The words " Flek Seife " are on an advertisement board by the table of the renovator of soiled garments. On one of the designs of No. 1 3 is a young girl in sorrow at a tomb, near which on a monumental cross is the word " Pommer " and the date " 1852." The figure-car-ds of the numerals have on them busts printed double and in reverse, and are coloured. Most of the compositions are carefully drawn and neatly engraved. The true fou of the tarots is remarkably good. The backs are marked with sinuous dotted lines terminating in three larger dots, printed in blue. [44 X 2i in.] [Backs decorated.] NUMERALS. SUIT MARKS, ITALIAN. G. 120. SECOND HALF OF FIFTEENTH CENTURY. BOUND volume (in a case) lettered "Trappola Cards," (and having the press number 94), containiag forty-seven card-pieces lightly mounted on its pages. These cards are from a series of fifty-two munerals, the suits of which are swords, cups, fruit, and batons ; the fruit being a pomegranate. The pieces wanting are the three of cups, the nine, ten, valet, and king of pomegranates. This is an important and interesting sequence, and one, though very rare, well known both to the archseologist and iconophilist from the references made to it by various writers. The designs are from engravings on copper, the productions of igo GERMAN. a very early master of the German school, who worked with a goldsmith-like technic. They have been attributed by some writers to Israhel'van Meckenen, an ascription, however, not acquiesced in by others. There are good reasons for believing that these cards cannot be more ancient than the time of Martin Schon- gauer — the last quarter of the fifteenth century — since the design on the two of batons of the figure of the naked female with a child upon her knees, and having her right hand on the top of an escutcheon, appears to be taken from a circular print — B. vi. p. 1 6 1 , No. 1 00 — by this master. The idea of the sow and young pigs on the three of swords surely has also a connection with the design of Martin Schongauer, B. vi. p. l6o. No. 95. The figure-cards, or " honours," are king, queen, and valet, proving that in some eai-ly German cards a second valet did not displace the dame, a circumstance here, perhaps, in unison only with the adoption of the Italian marks of suits, coppe, spade, and basioni; the fruit, or pomegranate, being substituted for the sign danari. This fruit " was perhaps intended by the artist to commemorate the marriage of Philip the Fan-, son of the Emperor Maximilian, with Joanna, daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, King and Queen of Spain, who on their subjugation of the kingdom of Granada in 1497 appear to have adopted the Granada, or pomegi-anate, as one of their badges. The cards unquestionably belong to that period, and in support of the speculation it may be further observed that they are generally ascribed to Israel van Mecken, who, as a native of Bocholt, was a subject of Philip, who inherited the Netherlands in right of his mother Mary of Burgundy." (Chatto, Bibl. 4, p. 226.) The figure-cafds are decidedly better designed and executed than any of the other pieces. In some of the former may be perceived the work both of a superior artist and engraver to that of the authors of the ordinary numerals. The queen of swords is an admirably designed and executed figure, and the arabesque work below is delicately and carefully engraved. When placed by the side of the six of batons, for example, the contrast is very marked. The king of swords, valet, queen, and king of cups, and king and queen of batons may be instanced as note- worthy pieces. The valet is always represented on horseback ; the kings, bearing the symbols of their suits in their hands, are seated on rich thrones of Gothic character, and the queens are slender and elegantly draped forms. All the cards are richly oi-namented with groups of figures, often of a burlesque or grotesque character, and with a variety of arabesque-like ornaments. Some of the latter, however, are too large in proportion, and look heavy in work for the size of the card. On the tens and aces are scrolls or banners, on which are letters and inscriptions more or less distinctly engraved, but to which it is diflScult to give any meaning. On a scroll on the ace of swords are the following letters, some of which, too, it must be admitted, are of doubtful definition : — C. T. A. O. T. S. E. S. H. D. On the three of swords are "Ante, Motorum, Meus." On the ten of swords, H. Z. D. H., on the ten of cups C. B. F. S. A., on the ten of batons J N K. Z. Q. Some of these inscriptions are printed in reverse. In the Suit of Sivords, On the ace are a large scimitar and scroll, having on one side an unicorn, on the other a bird on a shrub. On the two, the pictorial design is a man kneeling, and asking alms of a lady. On the three is a sow with her pigs. On the four are birds, and armed men on horseback. On the five are monkeys and flowers. On the six is large arabesque ornamentation. On the seven are two naked children playing with a stag, and plants. On the eight is a peasant addressing a lady. NUMERALS. 191 On the nine, St. George killing the Dragon. On the ten a man in armour, holding a large banner, having below a tree and an escutcheon. Ill the Suit of Cups, On the ace is an ornamental fountain, on the brink of which are two falconers, and above are two Cupids, discharging arrows. On the two is a fool below, a lady and gentleman are above. On the four above is a man kneeling, below is a nondescript animal's head. On the five are two armed men. On the six are four naked children playing. On the seven are only seven cups, each cup being of a different design. On the eight is a lady in the middle, playing with a bird. On the nine is a grotesque figure, into whose mouth falls a stream from one of the cups . On the ten is a banner carried by a Hon. In the Suit of Pomegranates or Fruit, On the ace are two children, seated within the opened fruit, above which are five birds. On the two are two naked children below, one of whom emerges fi-om the fruit ; above are three children, one of whom is enteiing a fruit. On the three are three naked children, and birds and flowers. On the four are five naked children, two of whom are seated within pome- granates, and threaten each other with bows and arrows. On the five are two wild hairy men, and a child in a pomegranate. On the six are various fanciful figures, among which are a naked man, woman, and a monkey. On the seven is a fool below, and above are two boys fighting. On the eight are eight birds. In the Suit of Batons, On the ace are two men sawing the trunk of a tree. On the two is a naked woman with a child on her knee, and her right hand on the top of an escutcheon. Birds are above the marks of the suit. On the three is a centaur fighting against two dragons. On the four are five naked children ; playing on the back of the central figure is a bird. On the five are two birds, and three naked children. On the six are birds, and three playing children. On the seven are birds, flowers, and arabesque ornamentation. On the eight are two playing children above, and ai-abesques below. On the nine is a scroU at the summit of the central mark of the suit. On the ten is a banner carried by a griffin. •The tens in each suit are distinguished by the Roman numeral X only, which is placed, as in all the other pip cards, at the upper margin of the piece. The example in the collection of the British Museum of this rare series was formerly in the possession of Dr. SUberrad, of Kiirnberg. It afterwards passed into the cabinet of Count de Fries at Vienna, next into the hands of the Messrs. Woodburn, and finally into the keeping of Messrs. Smith, of Lisle Street, fi-om whom it was purchased by the authorities of the British Museum. Breitkopf has inserted copies of nine of these engravings in his work on the origin of playing-cards ; Chatto has given four, including the ten of pomegranates, which is wanting in the present series, and Mr. Ottley, in his " Facsimiles of Scarce and Curious Prints," London, 1828, has introduced the entire sequence of forty-seven pieces, accompanied by descriptions of each engraving. 192 GERMAN. These cards are described by Bartsoh, vol. x. p. 76, No. 2, iinder the title of " Cartes allemandes, aveo les marques de la trappola," and are referred to by Passavant, vol. ii. p. 246, as " Cartes h Jouer Allemandes Ancienues." The series of pieces before us has been called erroneously one of " Trappola cards." Breitkopf described the engravings as " German Piquet Cards of the 1 5th Century with Trappola Characters ; " then Von Murr termed them " Trappola Cards ;" Bartsch, " Cartes allemandes avec les marques de la Trappola ;" while Passavant wrote of them as " Cinquante-deux cartes d'unjeu de Trappola." The truth is, there are not any marks special to trappola cards, and that these cards were not intended simply for the game of trappola, nor for that of piquet. The game of trappola is played with a series of numerals, of which the 3, 4, 5, and 6 of each suit are suppressed, and as long as this is done, trappola may be played with cards showing no matter what marks of suits. Now the series under consideration has all the low cards, and therefore could not have been intended solely for the game of trappola. The latter might be played with them, no doubt, if the low cards mentioned were rejected. From the circumstance of trappola being a Venetian game, the original marks of the suits were naturally the Italian ones, viz. spade, bastoni, coppe, and danari. Since like marks, or slight modifications of them have been retained for the cards in Silesia, and a few other places where the game has been practised in more recent times, the idea arose that these marks have some essential connection with the game in which such cards are employed. [5 X 2f in.] [Backs plain.] G. 121. SECOND HALF OF FIFTEENTH CENTURY. SINGLE figure-card — the valet of cups — from the numeral series before described. A young gentleman on horseback advances towards the left hand carrying the symbol of the suit in his right hand. The cavalier wears a low, plumed cap, his hair over his shoulders, and looks downwards towards the right side. Beneath the feet of the horse is arabesque ornamentation, having in the centre a bird. This piece belonged to the Slade Collection, and is among the works of the early German masters. [5 X 2|-in.] [Back plain.] SUIT MARKS, NATIONAL. G. 122. SECOND QUARTER OF FIFTEENTH CENTURY. ' ULM? BOUND quarto volume, on the pages of which are mounted eight small sheets, containing generally three perfect card-pieces and portions of others. The cards are numerals of the suits lierzen, schellen, and eicheln ; both court and pip-cards are present. The first sheet contains a perfect knave of eicheln and king of schellen, with portions of other five figure-cards. The second sheet exhibits a perfect knave of NUMERALS— SUIT MARKS NATIONAL. 193 herzen, king of schellen, knave of eicheln, and portions of other four fignre-cards. On the third sheet are the four of herzen, and the two and fire of schellen. On the fourth sheet are the two, three, seven, and nine of glands ; while the fifth sheet contains a king of glands or eicheln, a king and knave of herzen, with parts of other pieces of the suits herzen, schellen, and eicheln. The sixth sheet contains the knave of eicheln, and portions of four other pieces, and the seventh presents the five and six of eicheln, with parts of four other pieces. The eighth and last sheet presents the ten oi herzen, the ten oi schellen, the king and knave of herzen, and parts of other two pieces. In the figure-cards the kings are seated, the king in the suit of schellen having a sceptre in the left hand. The Untermdnner, or lower knaves, or inferior valets, have either a crossbow or scimitar in their raised hands. On sheet 3, the two of schellen shows the figure of a Uon below the marks of the suit. On the first piece (two of eicheln} of sheet 4, likewise, is a lion and part of an inscription in a scroll. The latter is not satisfactorily decipherable ; it may be read perhaps as either niulner, inwiner, or in(oT zu)ulm. These card-pieces are uncoloured, stencilled in black, and of stiff, archaic design. There is, nevertheless, expression in the head of the king of schellen on sheet 5, and the designs of the suit marks are of good character. These cards, along with F. 42, are in an archaeological aspect two of the more interesting series in the national collection. The present set constitute probably the most ancient playing-cards in the Museum Cabinet. Facsimiles of sheets 2 and 5 are given by Chatto, p. 88, accompanied with the following observations : — [these old cards] " formed part of the covers or boards of an old book, and were sold to the British Museum by ^Ir. D. Colnaghi. Looking at the marks of the suits in these cards, the character of the figures, and the manner in which they are executed, I should say that they are not of a later date than 1440. Though cards of only three suits occur, namely, hearts, bells, and acorns, there can be little doubt that the fourth suit was leaves, as in the pack described by Mr. Gough in the eighth volume of the ' Archaeologia.' As in ]SIr. Gough's cards, so in these there is no queen, though like them there appears to have been three coate-cards in each suit, namely : a king, a knight or superior officer, and a knave or servant ; in other words, king, jack, and jack's man. The lower cards, as in ilr. Gough's pack, appear to have been numbered by then- pips from two to ten without any ace. " That these cards were depicted by means of a stencil is evident from the feebleness and irregularity of the lines, as well as from the numerous breaks in them, which in many instances show where a white isolated space was connected with other blank parts of the stencil. The separation seen in the heads of the fioTires in Xo. 1 of the facsimiles here given would appear to have been occasioned by the stencil either breaking or slipping, while the operator was passing the brush over it. " From the costnme of the figures in these cards I am inclined to think that they are the production of a Venetian card-maker. A Hon, the emblem of St. Mark, the patron saint of Venice, and a distinctive badge of the city, appears as in the annex«i cut in the suit of bells, and a similar figure with part of a mutilated inscription also occurs in the suit of acorns From repeated examination of them I am convinced that they have been depicted by means of a stencil, and not printed nor ' rubbed' oflf from wood-blocks." (Bibl. 4, pp. 88-90.) A close examination of these card-pieces along with the copies of the " Stukely Cards" given by Singer, p. 172, et seq. leads to the belief that they were meant to be a like series with the latter, with the exception of the emblematic figure on the two of glands, which figure in the " Stukely cards " is a unicorn couchant, havino' below a shield bearing a pick and hammer crosswise, probably the arms or mark of the card-maker. The resemblance between the present cards and the 194 QJSBMAN. " Stukely " ones had struck Mr. Taylor also, who referred to it at page 1 14 of the work he edited. The remarks of Passavant in respect to the present subject may be quoted here appositely. " In the Royal Library at Berlin are thirty-one German playing-cards, which belong to the fifteenth century. They have been engraved on wood in a rather coarse manner, in simple outline, the figures being coloured in red and green. The sequence appears to have consisted of forty-eight cards, in four suits of twelve pieces each suit, the latter being hearts, bells, leaves, and glands. " The king is seated, the two valets are erect, the remainder being numerals from two to ten. The ace is wanting, but the two has on it a shield bearing en saltire a pick and a hammer. On the two of glands is a unicorn whose horn is edged like a saw ; the intended meaning here of this animal, usually a symbol of chastity, it is not easy to divine. The pick and the hammer are connected with miners' labour, and these coarsely executed cards may have been intended for the amusement of those persons who worked in the mines. The Berlin specimens came firom the Hofiinann-PaLIersleben Library, and are for the most part in bad condition. The card least mutilated measures still 2 inches 8 lines in length, and 1 inch 9 lines in width. Dr. Stukely, of London, possessed in 1763 forty similar cards, which Chatto, who gives facsimiles, ' regarded as ancient Venetian cards, but they are only copies of those at Berlin, and of very inferior character." (Bibl. vol. i. p. 1 5.) In connection with the present series it may not be out of place to consult the remarks of Singer, pp. 17 2-7, upon the Stukely sequence. [3x2 in.] [Backs plain.] G. 123. wo facsimiles of card-pieces in the set before described, G. 122. The pieces here present are the seven of eicheln and the king of schellen. [3X2 in.] [Backs plain.] G. 124. SECOND HALF OF FIFTEENTH CENTURY. |HREE cards from a numeral series, the suits of which are schellen, herzen, eicheln ? and lauh ? One of the pieces is the king of herzen, another the superior valet of schellen, and the third is the three of schellen. The king is seated, and holds up the index and third finger of the left hand as in the act of benediction ; his right hand rests upon his knee. These card-pieces are not from stencils but from engraved wood-blocks, and are slightly coloured. They are from a very early series unquestionably, and appear to have been re- moved from the binding of a book. [3i X 2 in.] [Backs plain.] ' Singer gives facsimiles of the " Stukely cards," Chatto facsimiles of the present series, which are like the Stukely ones. NUMEBALS—SUIT MARKS NATIONAL. 195 G. 125. FIRST HALF OF SIXTEENTH CENTURY. NURNBERa OR ULM ? I WO pieces of four unseparated cards, each piece belonging to a numeral series of the suits eicheln, laub, roth, and schellen. The cards present are the three of eicheln, three of laub or grim, six of eicheln and six of latib on one sheet ; and the three of roth, three of schellen, four of roth, and four of schellen on the other sheet. On the pieces of eicheln and griin are arabesque-like or ornamental trees to which the suit marks are attached, while on roth and schellen at the lower half of the cards are animal and other figures, but so indistinct, from imperfect printing and mutilation, that they cannot be described. These card-pieces have been printed from engraved wood-blocks and coloured in an inferior manner. They are of stout consistence, and appear to have been removed from the binding of a book. They were formerly in the Weigel collec- tion. See Weigel, "Die Anfange der Druckerkunst," vol. ii. p. 186, n. 311. [3x2 in.] [Backs plain.] G. 126. FIRST QUARTER OF SIXTEENTH CENTURY. ULM. llVE card-pieces, two of which contain two cards each, the other piece is a single card. The cards are nimierals of the suits eicheln, schellen, and herzen, or roth. On one piece are the kings of eicheln and schellen, on a second the six and eight of roth, and the third is the nine of roth. The kino's are seated, holding the symbols of the suits in their hands. The king of eicheln is bearded, and turned towards the right, the king of schellen is bearded, and directed to the left.. On a broad margin to the left of the king of eicheln is the inscription ZU VLM J-j2- . On a scroU on the eight of herzen is the date 1504, and below the marks of the six of herzen is a dog running towards the rio-ht. On the separate card of the nine of herzen is the monogram, The cards appear to have been executed from stencils, and are of neat and careful design. They are uncoloured. Weigel, of whose collection they formed part, remarks : " We do not know anything respecting the author of these cards. On roth nine there is a monogram, which refers probably to the printer or pub- lisher of the cards, and not to the designer of them. If this be the case, the monogram is perhaps that of the well-known Uhn printer, Johannes Zainer, or of a son of the latter, who was Kving in 1523, and printed not only books but wood- cuts." (Op. ctY. p. 183.) These pieces have been removed evidently from the binding of a book. [3f X H "!•] [Backs plain.] 196 GERMAN. £,. 127. FIRST QUARTER OP SIXTEENTH CENTURY. ULM. PIECE of three unseparated numeral cards of the suit roth or herzen. The cards are the six, seven, and nine of herzen. On the six is the figure of a dog running towards the right, with his head raised, and on the nine of the suit is the monogram V+5: • Below the latter, which is on the central card, is the address ZU VLM 44^ , iii a broad margin. These card-pieces are from a series of the same designs as those before noticed — G. 1 26. They are not from the same stencils, however, which have been here of a heavier or coarser kind. The stencil plate appears to have undergone a slip angularly during the working-ofi" the design, and so doubling the lines ; the right-hand lower corner having been the more fixed point. The cards are uncoloured, and have been removed from the binding of a book. [3f X "^j ™-J [Backs plain.] G. 128. |NE entire card and part of another of the suit herzen. The entire piece is the six of the suit, the other is probably the seven. Below the marks of the suit on the first card is the figure of a dog running with his head downwards, towards the right hand. In outline only, and from stencils, uncoloured. This specimen is from a series after the designs of G. 126 and 6. 127, but not from thg same stencil plates. [3f X 2|- in.] [Backs plain.] G. 129. SECOND HALF OF SIXTEENTH CENTURY. Ten more or less perfect cards of the ordinary old German suits, glands, hearts, leaves, and bells. Seven of the ten pieces exhibit the fronts, three the versos of the card-pieces. The numerals present are the three and fom- of leaves, the four and nine of glands, the five and six of hearts, and the thi-ee (?) of bells. In several of the pieces below the suit marks ai-e ornamental designs and figures, difficult to define satisfactorily, however, from the bad condition of the cards. The backs of the cards shown are diapered vnth Jleurs-de-lys running diagonally, and printed in black. The cards are from wood-blocks, and are uncoloured. [3f X 2 in.] [Backs decorated.] NUMERALS— SUIT MARKS NATIONAL. 197 G. 130. SECOND HALF OF SIXTEENTH CENTURY. SOUTHERN GERMANY. ^MUTILATED sheet, containing portions, more or less perfect, of sixteen card-pieces ; nine cards are in tolerably good condition. The suits are eicheln, roth, laub, and schellen. A noteworthy circum- stance is that seated queens occupy the places of the superior valets, or obermixTiner, in the suits of acorns and hearts. It may be remarked also that while io the suit of glands or acorQs, and probably in leaves, the suit-marks are con- nected by arabesque or ornamental trees, the marks in hearts and bells are not so connected. The kings of hearts, glands, and bells are in the central row of pieces ; each king is mounted on a rearing or curvetting horse, and holds a sceptre in the left hand. On the horses behind the kings of bells and glands are sows rearing up on their hind legs. The king of bells rides towards the right hand, the king of glands towards the left. The eight of hearts and eight of bells are perfect pieces. In the upper row the lower portions only of the untermanner, or inferior valets, can be seen. The queens of glands and hearts and the king of leaves in the lower row are entire, mth the exception of the feet. The costume of the figures points to the second half of the sixteenth century. The designs are but of mediocre character, and the execution, as regards the printing, is bad. The pieces are uncoloured. Formerly in the Weigel collection. [3 X 2|- in.] , [Backs plain.] G. 131. FIRST HALF OF SIXTEENTH CENTURY. NURNBERG OR ULM ? |IX pieces of four cards each piece, of the suits herzen; laub, schellen, and eicheln. Eight figure-cards are present, viz., the under valets of leaves, glands, bells, and hearts, the kings of glands and hearts, and the queens of bells and leaves ; queens in this series displacing the superior valets. The queen of bells is represented by a young female turned towards the left, in a long, stiff robe, bordered at the lower part, and with puffy sleeves. On her head is a naiTow dentated crown, and in her raised right hand she holds the symbol of the suit. The queen of leaves is a nearly naked female, having a little drapery around her waist only, one end of which scarf is thrown over her right forearm. Around her neck are a ribbon and medal, on her head a narrow crenated crown, and in her right hand the symbol of the suit. The kings of glands and hearts are on horse- back, holding swords in their right hands. Narrow crowns are on their heads. The horses are slightly caparisoned. The valets of leaves and hearts have di-awn swords in their right hands, while the valet of glands bears an arquebus on his left shoulder, and the valet of bells holds a cup in his left hand, which is raised. igS GERMAN. The pip-cards present are the four, five, six, and nine of leaves ; the seven, two, three, and eight of leaves ; the three, five, seven, and nine of glands ; and the four, six, eight of glands, and the three of bells. The suit marks are connected by arabesque-hke work. Below the marks on the three of bells is a running stag followed by a dog. On the two of leaves is a stag crouching on his hinder quarters, from whose muzzle springs an arabesque stem, supporting and connecting by its branches the marks of the suit. The artistic value of these card designs is but sHght. The figure-cai'ds are uncoloured. The pip-pieces are coloured green and red. The costume points to the second half of the sixteenth century. The backs of the figure-cards are diapered with large black squares or lozenges, running diagonally, each square containing four white pearl-Uke drops. These cards were formerly in the Weigel collection, and three of them may be seen figured in the second vol. p. 1 84, of the " Anf ange der Druckerkunst." [3|- X 2 in.] [Backs decorated.] G. 132. FIRST HALF OF SIXTEENTH CENTURY. ULM? |EVEN cards fi-om a numeral series, the suits of which are leaves, bells, glands, and hearts (?). The cards present are the four, six, seven, and nine of leaves ; the six and seven of beUs, and the ten of glands. The marks of the suit of leaves are connected by a tree-like stem ; those of bells are not so connected. The marks on the ten of glands are connected, and two birds are perched on the base of the flower-like stalk. The impressions are from wood-blocks, and scarcely more than in outline ; the shadow sides of the leaves being indicated by distant lines, and those of the cups of the glands by punotations. On the backs of some of the pieces are the remains of the tarotage. It con- sists of alternate figures of flenrs-de-lys and flowers, running diagonally, in large diamond spaces across the back of the card. They are printed in black. [4 X 2| in.] [Backs decorated.] G. 133- SEVENTEENTH CENTURY? I WBLVE cards from a numeral series of fifty-two, the marks of the suits being leaves, glands, hearts, and bells. The cai-ds present are the king, four, and seven of leaves ; the three and nine of glands j the five, seven, eight, and nine of hearts; and the upper valet, seven, and eight of bells. These cards have on them either figures or arabesque ornaments, along with the marks of the suits. On the king of leaves is a whole-length figure in armour, with large plume to his helmet, and long straight sword by his side. He extends his left hand, and looks upwards towards the left, to which his steps are dii-ected. Below is the couplet, " Ein konig aufrichtig uh grecht Ein loblich gdechtng enpfecht." [sz'c] NUMERALS— SUIT MARKS NATIONAL. 199 At each of the upper comers of the piece is a mark of the suit. At the base of the tree-like stem, uniting the marks on the four of leaves, are two naked children at play. One is drawing the other in a sledge. At the bottom of the seven of leaves are two arabesque dolphins. The marks on the three of glands rise on a stem from a large vase, on each side of which is a small whole-length figure ; a female on the right, a man on the left- hand side. On the five of hearts is a group of armed men, fighting ; on the seven of the suit there appears to be an ogre or giant about to devour a boy ; on the eight of hearts is a large vase-like ornament ; and on the nine are a man and a woman, as if warming their hands over a cylindrical German ofen. The obermann, or superior valet of bells, is represented by a military officer in puffed sleeves and breeches, and with a single stiff feather in his cap. Below is a couplet, undecipherable, with the exception of the words — " Eines hauptmas gerechte — feld gut regiment." On the seven and eight of bells are grotesque faces and arabesque ornaments. The coarse and slovenly colouring of these cards hinders a full appreciation of the designs. On the back of each card- piece is a musical score of three lines. On that of the kinc of leaves is likewise the inscription, " Paciencia mus ich han." On the seven of hearts may be read also, " Sie ist mein Bill." 12 ; while on the obermann of bells are the words, " So wiinsch ich Ihm ein giite nacht." [3^ X 2|- in.] [Backs decorated.] G. 134. SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. SINGLE figure-card, apparently; but there is not any title or indica- cation of suit. The design is a whole-length figure of an Oriental, with spear and shield. The figure is in outlhie, enclosed in broad dotted border, and of inferior workmanship. [3s- X 2|-in.] [Backs plain.] G. 135- FIKST HALF OF SIXTEENTH CENTURY. NURNBERG ? (Cabds or F. C. Z.) SHEET of ten unseparated card-pieces in two rows of five pieces each row. The marks of the suits are hearts, bells, leaves, and glands. The upper row contains the sixes of the four suits and the nine of glands ; the lower row the fives of the four suits and the nine of hearts. These cards are highly ornamental, the marks of the suits bemg connected or accompanied by decorative stems and foliage, having below gi'oups of figures of very varied kind. The desio-ns and technical execution are of very superior character, recaUiiig to mind the best period of the school of German wood-engraving. 200 GERMAN. The pieces are unooloured. Commencing at the left-hand corner of the upper row is the six of hearts. On it is a standard-bearer in a landscape, who raises a standard with his right hand, between the marks of the suit. Next comes the six of bells, having below the marks, a fool with the cap and bells on the left hand, and a female on the right hand of an ornamental pedestal which springs from a female head, and has on the top the head of a cherub. On the six of leaves are seated an amorous couple. The man has his right arm around his companion's waist, to whom he offers something to drink from a large cup. At the base of the six of glands is a wedding (?) procession, preceded by a fool with cap and bells, who plays a violin. On the nine of glands are two boars seated, with an open backgammon board between them. The left-hand boar has one foot on the board and appears to be addressing his opponent, who is in the attitude of listening. In both animals there is much expression. On the lower row, beginning at the left, is the five of hearts, having a couple at a fountain. The woman has her back to the spectator. She holds a vase-like pitcher in her left hand, and keys in her right. On the next card — the five of leaves — are a richly dressed burgher and his wife, followed by a female servant, having a pannier-basket at her back, and a large pitcher in her right hand. Below the marks on the five of bells are four naked children dancing in a circle. One child has the back turned to the specta- tor, and holds a flaring torch in the right hand. In the centre of the group is a pedestal, at the top of which is a child blowing two horns. On the five of glands is a man mounted on a goat, and tilting with a spear against a boar. Behind a contiguous tree is a woman attentively regarding the result, and holding up a laurel crown in her left hand. The whole appears to be a travesty of St. George and the Dragon. The last card of the row is the nine of hearts, having on it the figure of a naked child who fondles a dog with each hand. From the boy's head springs an ornamental pedestal, which rises among the signs of the suit. A point of interest in connection with the present sheet of cards is that it forms part of a sequence of fifty-two numerals, known as the cards of F. C. Z., copies of thirty-six of which are given in the work of the Bibliophiles Fran^ais (Bibl. 2, pp. 92-95O of four in Singer, pp. 210-213, and of two in Chatto, pp. 236, 237. Thirty-four pieces were in the Weigel collection. In commenting on them in his larger work, "Die Anfange Der Druckerkunst " (p. 191, vol. ii.), Weigel makes the following remarks: — "No. 314. German Playing-cards with the signature, F. C. Z. 36 pieces (a.d. 1525-1550). These interesting specimens, which are among the best of the German playing-cards of the sixteenth century, are most probably of Niirnberg origin, since the ace of hearts, or roth, bears the arms of the city. Chatto places theii- origin in the year 151 1. We are not aware of the source from which Chatto draws this deduction. On the examples before us there is not any date, but we believe we may, without hesitation, assign their origin to the second quarter of the sixteenth century. " The technic and costume of the figures point to that period, and pai-ticular figures, as the king of bells, for example, strikingly recall certain ones in Diirer's woodcuts. The king of glands would appear to be the portrait of the Emperor Maximilian I. The designer of the cards has placed his monogram, P. C. Z., on the ace of glands [on the two ?] We have searched in vain Murr and Baader's catalogue of old Niirnberg's Formschneider Kartenmacher and llluministen, for the meaning of the signature. A Formschneider of the name of Chi-ist. Zell lived during the second half of the sixteenth century, but it might be too venturesome to look for the author in him, or even in one of his ancestors. " The series, of which we possess thirty-six pieces, is of the ordinary suits ; the pieces are five pip-cards, vi.-x., under and upper valets, king, and ace of each suit. The pip-cards are ornamented with figures overstepping occasionally, in their actions and stories, the bounds of propriety. The drawinn- is of consider- NVMEBAL8—8VIT MARKS NATIONAL. 201 able delicacy, spirit, and firmness, and faU of appreciation of the forms and costumes it is intended to portray. The technic is decided, and that of a practised hand. Two examples of these cards, viz., under valet of glands and upper valet of leaves, are given — but not very accurately — ^by Chatto (pp. 236-7), who finds therein a resemblance to the style of Lucas Crauach. Two other copies may be seen in Singer's ' Researches,' and in the beautiftJ French work, ' Jeux de Cartes Tarots, par la Societe des Bibliophiles Franqais ; ' other representations may be found on plates 92-95." " In the latter work the series is more complete, since, including the pieces now detached, but evidently formerly present, it contains forty-eight cards. Never- theless, we are inclined to believe that our own series, which — ^as before stated — contains but thirty-six pieces, is a complete set, since each suit begins with the pip-card six. We have here evidently two difi'erent editions of one and the same series of cards, intended perhaps for difi'erent countries and places, just as we have at the present day. This is clear from the complete difi'erence of the ace of leaves in our own set fi-om that in the Paris example ; in the latter it bears the arms of Saxony, which probably induced Chatto and others to look on these cards as of Saxon manufacture, and as related to the style of L. Cranach." ( Op. cit. pp. 191-6.) We may remind the reader that numerals of five pips are present in the British Museum example, and of two, three, four pips in the Paris series. It is note- worthy, also, that the piece bearing the arms of Saxony in the Paris version, has on a shield below them a pick and mallet in saltire, resembling those in the Stukely cards before mentioned (p. 193). On a shield borne by a lion on the two of glands, in the Paris set, is another mark, impossible to describe by words, however. This is the same card which bears the signature F. C. Z., the last letter implying zeichnet, probably- These card-pieces are uncoloured, and the backs free from any decoration. [3-1 X 2|- in.] [Backs plam.] G. 136. FIRST QUARTER OF SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. i WO pieces, exhibiting fragments of four numeral cards on each piece. On one piece are the aces of glands and of bells, and the seven of glands and of bells. On the second piece are the aces of leaves and of hearts, the seven of leaves, and the six of hearts. The suit marks are connected by neatly engraved arabesque ornaments. On the aces are large scrolls bearing inscriptions, but of which wis ; is ; m only remain. The marks of the suits have been coloiu-ed — but not carefully — green and red. In these pieces the divisions between the cards, where the latter should be separated, are mdicated by crosses, and not by the usual border lines. One piece has been backed with printed paper, having a Latin text on it. From the Weigel Cabinet. [3t X 2|- in.] [Backs plain.] 202 GERMAN. G. 137. FIRST QUARTER OF SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. ULM? *W0 sheets of numeral cards, each sheet having three rows of three cards each row, of the usual suits. In the upper row of the first sheet are the under valet of leaves, the king of leaves, and the king of bells. In the second row are the under valets of hearts and bells, and the upper valet of bells. On the lower range are the five, ten, and eight of bells. On the second sheet, upper row, are the kings of hearts and of glands, and the upper valet of leaves. Second row, the under valet of glands, the upper valet of glands, and upper valet of hearts. Lower row, the seven, nine, and six of bells. All the kings are seated, and bear sceptres in their hands ; those of leaves and glands wear turbans, and semi-Oriental costumes. The valets in the central rows have drawn swords in their hands, and are represented in various actions, and positions of attack and defence. The under valet of glands has a sword in each hand. The under valet of leaves (first row of first sheet), is a standard-bearer ; he rests the colours on his left shoulder. The upper valet of leaves (first row of second sheet), is an ofiicer directed towards the left ; he wears a, plumed hat, carries a commander's baton in the right hand, resting the former on his right hip, and his left hand on the other hip. He stands with outstretched legs in a formal manner. Below the marks of the suit on the five of bells, a female is represented sitting in a large bath-tub, leaning over which is a fool with cap and bells, and harlequin's wand(?) in his right hand. At the bottom of the ten of bells sits a hare, turning round a dog on a spit over a fire. On the eight of bells is a goat, and a tub before him. On the seven of bells a fox is seizing a duck ; on the nine of the same suit is represented the fable of the " Fox and the Stork." On the six of bells is a naked woman astride on a hedgehog or porcupine, and holding a mirror in her left outstretched hand, while she seizes with her right the ear of the animal. On the right-hand margin of the first sheet runs an inscription in Roman capitals, but too mutilated to be decipherable. The technical execution of these card-pieces is of an inferior character in all respects. They are from wood-blocks, and are uncoloured. They formed part of T. O. Weigel's collection, who observes of them : — "In R. V. Eitelberger's Essay on Playing Cards (Wien, i860), at p. 16, two examples are given, viz. the two of leaves and upper knave of bells, which closely resemble our own set ; for the soldier on the upper valet of beUs is represented in a like offensive position, and the general intention of the figures and the costume are substantially of the type of our own cards. Both examples are in the fine Hauslab collection at Vienna, and belong to a series of kemptener origin, bearing the address of the designer, George Sohachomair. The date of their production is about the end of the sixteenth century. Oui- own set appears, from the costume of the figures, to belong to that period, and is probably likewise of Kemptener or Ulm origin, since, as before observed, the whole type of the series strikingly coincides with the cards of the Hauslab collection." (Op. cit. vol. ii. p. 197.) These cards are very thickly mounted, and the backs are diapered with lai-ge rosettes, running diagonally. Printed in black. [3?- X 2-5- in.] [Backs decorated.] NUMERALS— SUIT MARKS NATIONAL. 203 G. 138. THIRD QUARTER OF SIXTEENTH CENTURY. ERANKFURT ? (Cakds op H. S. Beham?) [HREE large sheets of unseparated card-pieces, of the suits leaves, glands, flowers, and fruits. The marks of the latter two suits are somewhat of a conventional character, the flower being something like a rose, and the fruit having a distant resemblance to a poppy capsule, or a pomegranate with a slit in it. The first sheet contains the twelve figure-cards, and below them the twos of the four suits. In the first row are the four under valets, in the second row are the four kings, and in the third row from the top are the four upper valets. The kings are moimted ; the horse of the king of leaves is standing quiet, the horses of the kings of glands and of flowers are rearing, and that of the king of fruit trotting forwards. The king of leaves has on a crown with a convex top, surmounted by a small cross. The other kings have simple . dentated crowns. The king of leaves, directed towards the right hand, bears the symbol of his suit in his left hand. The king of glands, advancing in the same direction, bears it in his right hand. The king of flowers, advancing towards the left, carries the long-stalked rose in his left hand ; while the king of firuit, trotting towards the right, turns round in his saddle to the left, and elevates the large capsule with both hands. The valets of leaves are military figures in large plumed hats, like the designs of Burgkmair and of the time of Maximilian. Those of glands are adorned as dissolute rustic Bacchuses ; the valets of flowers are running peasants, with cowl-like caps on their heads, the upper valet blowing a horn as he advances. The valets of fi-uit are characterised by their jerkin boots with large overlapping tops. The marks of the suits, glands, flowers, and leaves, are borne on long curved stalks by the valets. The stalk of the rose on the under valet of flowers is broken and separated from the blossom. The marks of the suits on the pip-cards are throughout the series connected on each piece by a central stout, arborescent, and leafy stem, having lateral branches. Slight variations, however, occur on two cards. On the two of glands (first sheet), at the lower part, is a shield bearing a large pine-apple or fircone-like fruit. This shield hangs from the neck of a winged child, who is holding it with his left hand while he kneels and extends the right arm. From the child's head springs a short stem, bearing the dependent symbols of the suits. At the base of the three of glands (second sheet) is a hog, supporting the short leafy stem which bears the signs of the suit. The second sheet presents the three, four, five, and six, seven, eight, nine, and ten, of fruit and glands. The third sheet bears the three, four, five, and six, and the seven, eight, nine, and ten, of the suits flowers and leaves. All the aces of the series are absent or have been originally suppressed. Each pip-card has its value indicated in Roman numerals at the top, and in Arabic ones at the bottom. These card-pieces are from well-engraved wood-blocks, and are of superior character. They have been attributed to Hans Sebald Beham, a distinguished engraver, bom at Niimberg 1 500, and dying there about 1 SSO. As far as the designs alone of the marks of the suits are concerned, there is much similitude between them and the designs of the suit marks in the series of cards ascribed to 204 GEBMAN. Errhard Sohon (Singer, pp. 42-3). The groups below the connecting stems in the pip-cards, present in the E. Schon series, are wanting in the present or " Beham " sequence. These cards are uncoloured ; the figure pieces are devoid of names or titles, and not any address or inscription is present. [3i X 2|- in.] [Backs plain.] G. 139. FIRST QUARTER OF NINETEENTH CENTURY? PRAG. ji WO sheets of sixteen unseparated card-pieces in each sheet. The cards absent are the four aces, and the three, four, and five of each suit. Each sheet has three rows of six card-pieces on each row. The suit marks are leaves, glands, bells, and hearts. The first sheet contains all the figure-cards, and the six, seven, eight, nine, and ten of hearts, and the seven of bells. In the first row are the four superior valets, in the second row are the four kings, in the third row are the four inferior valets. The superior valets of bells and leaves are whole-length figures in Oriental costume, those of glands and hearts are in dresses of Frederick the Great's time. The valet of hearts carries a letter in his right hand, in his left a footman's cane with tassel. All the kings are on horseback, advancing towards the left hand. The horse of the king of hearts is rearing on his hind Ifegs. The king of leaves is in Oriental costume, and wears a turban sm-moimted by a, crescent. In his left hand is a sceptre, having at the top a radiant sun. The other kings are crowned and carry short sceptres. The king of bells alone has spurs. The under valets of leaves and hearts are in Oriental costume, directing their gaze upward. The under valet of bells is a postilion in " Kannoneu Stiefeln," and with a whip in his right hand. The under valet of glands is a " jager," hold- ing a hawk in his left hand. Each figure-card has the mark of the suit at the proper corner. On the six of hearts — the first card in the upper row of the first sheet — is a monumental erection, having an urn at the top and large tablet at the base, on which is in- scribed — " Feine Teische Karten zu finden Bei Anton Herbst. in Prag. No. 257." On the eight of hearts are two half-draped semi-savage figures, with bows and arrows in their hands. Below the marks on the seven of hearts are two female figures, one carrying a large jug, the other having a tray upon her head. On the seven of bells — the sixth piece in the upper row of sheet one — are two men, having between them a couple of posts, connected by a cord at the top, from which hangs a bird. The man on the right is ranniug towards the latter, whila he on the left appears as if shooting or pointing with a stick upwards. On the ten of hearts is an Indian woman, reclining in a sort of hammock supported by palm trees ; below, seated on the ground and raising his left hand, is an Indian, with the conventional circle of feathers around his head. On the nine of hearts is a drummer and another person in a dancing attifaide ; both have feather head- dresses. The second sheet contains the six, eight, nine of bells, seven and nine of glands, and seven of leaves in the first row. On the second row are the eight of glands, two of hearts, glands, bells, and leaves, and eight of leaves. On the third row are the six of glands, the nine of leaves, the ten of glands, the ten of bells, the ten of leaves, and the six of leaves. On each of these card-pieces are figures or scenes NUMERALS— SUIT MARKS NATIONAL. 205 of a grotesque character. Monkeys wear cocked hats and ride dogs, carry lant- homs, umbrellas, &c. A mermaid is on the two of bells ; a sea-dog or lion, from whose fish-like tail rises the stem bearing the symbols of the suit, is on the two of glands, while on the seven of leaves a man rides astride on the trunk of an ele- phant. A rearing tiger, muzzled, and led in chains by a man in Oriental dress, is on the eight of leaves. The tens are the only pip-cards which have their values expressed in Roman numerals placed at the top of the pieces. Each card has an ornamental border. This series consists of very inferior designs fi-om wood-blocks engraved in an equally bad manner, as far, at least, as the decorative figm-es and scenes are con- cerned. The suit marks themselves have been executed in a neater manner. All the pieces are uncoloured. [Sf X 2|- in.] [Backs plain.] G. 140. FIRST HALF OF NINETEENTH CENTURY. PRAG. SHEET containing eighteen unseparated card-pieces of the suits, bells, leaves, hearts, and glands. There are three rows, each row having six cards. The upper row exhibits the under valet of leaves, the upper valets of bells and glands, the ten of hearts, the nine of hearts, and the six of this suit. On the second row are the kings of leaves, beUs, and glands, the two of hearts, with the under valet and seven of the same suit. On the third row are the upper valet of leaves, the under valets of bells and glands, the king of hearts, the upper valet, and ten of hearts. The designs on this sheet of card-pieces have been suggested evidently by those in &. 137 — the sequence containing the fighting figures. The valets of bells, glands, and hearts have swords in their hands, and are in either offensive or defensive postures. The valets of glands carry a sword in each hand, as do the valets of the like suit in G. 137. The under valet of leaves is here a military fifer, the upper valet a drummer. The four kings are in Oriental costume and seated, as in G. 137. The costume of both kings and valets is based clearly on that in the previous series. The pip-cards have ornamental designs on them. On the ten of hearts a Cupid holds his bow towards a flower ; on the nine of the same suit is a cone, around which is spirally twisted a branch of leaves. On the two of hearts is a shield of armorial bearings, crested by a bird and leaves. The seven of hearts exhibits a tub, from which rises a small tree, while the six of hearts bears on a shield the following inscription — " HiB Kabden. Fedi Zn FiNDEN Seisd IM. PEA." On the ten of hearts is the value in a Roman numeral at the top of the piece. All the pieces are uncoloured, the drawing, technic, &c., being even worse than in the preceding series, G. 1 39- [3f X 2|-in.] [Backs plain.] 2o6 GERMAN. G. 141. FIRST QUARTER OF NINETEENTH CENTURY. FRANKFURT. ' PACK of fifty-two numerals of the suits hearts, clubs, spades, and diamonds. The coate-cards are king, queen, and valet, as busts printed double and in reverse. All the aces bear two designs (in reverse) of battle scenes, white circular spaces being reserved in the centre of the card for the mark of the suit. On the ace of hearts are represented an attack on Frankiurt and the battle of Hanau. On the upper division is the following address, on a pedestal surmounted by a shield bearing an eagle and machiolated crown — " Zu finden bei E L Wiist in Frankfurt a/m." The word Frankfurt is at the upper right-hand corner, and that of Hanau at the lower left-hand corner (in reverse) of the card-piece. Within the space for the suit mark is " J C F Neubauer fee." The battle of Leipzig and " heiliger augenbKok," or prayer before action, are represented on the ace of diamonds ; on the ace of spades are the engagements at Brienne and Katzbach. On the ace of clubs are the attack on Montmartre and the entry into Paris. The busts on the figure-cards are intended to be in the costume of the time. Mr. Chatto, who was cognisant of this series, remarks, " The Duke of Wellington figures as the knave of diamonds, and Marshal Blucher as the knave of clubs " (p. 260). An ornamental engraved title of a wrapper accompanies this set, having on it the following inscription : — " Feine Spiel-Karten in Staats MUitair Costum, dem Andenken in die merkwiirdigen Jahre 1813 und 18 14 gewidmet. Von. Corn, Ludw., Wiist in Frankfurt a.M." The above is encircled in a wreath of oak -leaves, at the top of which is an eagle displayed with the letter F on its breast ; below are a sword and conqueror's pahn within another wreath. The whole is printed in blue ink. These cards are neatly engraved and coloured, but the compositions on the aces are destitute of any artistic merit. The backs are adorned with blue dotted lines and oval ornaments. l3i X 2| in.] [Backs decorated.] G. 142. SECOND QUARTER OF NINETEENTH CENTURY? VIENNA? ^LL the coate-carda, with the exception of the valet of spades, of a numeral series of fifty-two (?). The figures are king, queen, and valet, in busts printed double and in reverse. On one of the divisions the name of the person represented is engraved in modem Greek, on the other in Roman characters. Thus, the king of spades is 2oi/X[^dv on one bust, and Soliman on the other. The queen of the same suit is QcoSwpa and Theodora. The king of hearts is Apovv a\ (Oao-yt^ and Harun al NUMERALS— SUIT MARKS NATIONAL. 207 Rashid, the queen So/S/SalSf and Sobbaide, the valet 'BorcrapiQ and Botsarys. The king of diamonds bears Mzy^ficZ and Mohammed II., the queen Pwfav?; and lioxane, the valet Xlvppog and Pyrrhus. The king of clubs is iLtaovp-^ey and Timur Beg, the queen is ^arifia and Fatima, and the valet I,Kavdep-Bey and Skanderbeg. On a transverse space between the busts on the valet of clubs is the address, "Niederlage am Peter, No. 577." These cards are neatly engraved and coloured, though without any particular artistic merit. The backs are tarotees with pale blue dots in diamond shapes, within dotted circles. The series was probably published at Vienna for the Greek market. [3-1 X 2 in.] [Backs decorated.] SUIT MARKS ANIMATED. G. 143. SECOND HALF OF FIFTEENTH CENTURY. COLOGNE. (CiHCULAK Cards.) ^HREE circular card-pieces of a numeral series, the exact number of the suits of which is, in the opinion of some persons, undetermined. The cards here present are the upper valet of parroquets, the under valet of roses, and the under valet of columbines. The upper valet of parroquets is a single piece ; the two other pieces are on one sheet, having been engraved on the same plate. They touch each other by the outer borders. The valet of parroquets is an armed man, running towards the right hand. He bears on his right shoulder a mace-like flail, having a spiked iron globe at- tached. A long curved sword is at his side. On a level with his shoulder, at the right-hand upper p*i; of the field, is the mark of the suit. The valet of roses is a man proceeding towards the right. He bears a cross- bow on his left shoulder, and holds an arrow in his right hand. Prom his left side, and projecting from behind his back, is a bundle of arrows. The mark of the suit is on a level with his knee, at the right-hand lower part of the circular field. The valet of columbines is an armed man dressed in a long slit coat, and walking towards the left. He bears a long spear or halberd on his left shoulder, and from his left side projects a long straight sword. He carries the mark of the suit in his right hand. The groundwork of each piece is formed of hillocks with plants on them. The field of each card-piece is enclosed within a border of three cu-cles. Considering their time of production the designs ^n these cards are good, as is also the technic. Though the three specimens here present are of the same set as regards de- sign, it may be doubted if they have all been engraved by the same hand. The lower two cards appear to be the work of a heavier burin than that which produced the upper valet. Much interest attaches to these specimens of early German metal engraving, and rare examples of playing-cards ; they are three of a sequence described by Bartsch, vol. x. p. 70 ; Singer, pp. 45, 205; Passavant, vol. ii. pp. 176-7; ftlluded to by Chatto, p. 223, and by Taylor, p. 119. 2o8 GERMANY. The following quotation is from Passavant, under " Le Maitre des Cartes k jouer de forme ronde" (O/). cit): — " The originals of these cards are to be ranked among the finer engravings, au burin, of the fifteenth century. The inscription, Salve Felix Colonia, accompanied by three crowns, which is on the titled wrapper, informs us that these cards had their origin at Cologne. We must conclude, at the same time, that they appeared between the years 1461 and 1483, if we accept the figure of the mounted king of columbines as representing Louis XI. of France, who reigned at that period. Up to the present time we have remained in ignorance as to the master who exe- cuted these engravings, and further, it is almost impossible to point out any other engi-aving which could be safely attributed to him. His manner resembles that of John of Cologne, from ZwoUe, though it cannot be said to be identical with it in details. The five suits — each suit having thirteen pieces — contain nine pip-cards in each suit, an upper and under valet (pher et unter), a dame, and a king, as was formerly the practice in Germany. " Hitherto but a few incomplete specimens of the original series have been recorded, as those, e.g., at Oxford and Dresden. They are executed with much delicacy of drawing, the etching generally terminating with points or dots, and some impressions being printed off in a pale black ink. " There are two copies of the original cards. " (a). The first copy, that by Telman de Wesel, bears at the lower portion of each piece the initials T. W. " (b). The second, by an engraver of Upper Germany, is treated in a stiff and very inferior manner to the former by Telman. The king of pinks (Bartsch, N. 39 of the original series) bears on the bridle of the horse the inscription :, ' Demi. Ich. War. Gertei (Getrei ?).' In the Albertine collection. " Heinecken (' Neue Nachrichten,' p. 353), mentions a mounted king of the suit of pinks, who bears on his crown the inscription, 'Ich. Win,' &c." {Op. cit.) Prom the scattered and imperfect sets of these cards which exist, two deduc- tions have been drawn, one of which is no doubt right, but the other we think' rather questionable. The first conclusion has been that not any pip-cards of the value ten entered into either of the suits. Nevertheless, the number of pieces in each suit was the regular one, viz. thirteen ; but this was made up by there being four figure-cards or honours, viz., a king, queen, and two valets. The second conclusion has been that this series consisted o{ Jive suits, viz. hares, parroquets, pinks, columbines, and roses. It is true that some pieces of a suit of roses exist, as likewise of suits of pinks and columbines, and which appear to be undoubtedly the work of the same engraver, as proved by the examples in the British Museum collection. This suit of roses was intended, we think, to dis- place, as occasion or taste might demand, the suit of pinks, and not to be added to it. Singer's belief that tens existed in the sequence, that there were five suits of fourteen cards each suit, and that the series belonged to Tarocchino, does not merit discussion. Mr. Chatto writes in connection with these examples : — " In the circular cards described by Bartsch and Singer the inscription on the ace of hares is in Latin, and the initials of the engraver, T. W. are wanting. (See next series, G. 144.) From a wrapper, of which a facsimile is given by Singer, it would appear that those cards were engraved at Cologne, and it has been supposed that they are of as early a date as 1470. They are unquestionably the work of either a German or a Flemish artist ; and some amateurs of engraving have erroneously ascribed them to Martin Schongauer. Bartsch, in his description of them, includes a fifth suit — namely, that of roses — and says that each suit consisted of thirteen cards, which would thus give sixty -five pieces for the complete pack. Mr. Siager also, in his account of such of those cards as were formerly in the collection of Mr. Douce, gives it as his opinion that the complete NUMERALS— SUIT MARKS ANIMATED. 209 pack ought to consist of five suits of fourteen cards each — in all seventy pieces. Mons. Duchesne, however, thinks that those authors were wrong, and that the complete pack consisted of only four suits of thirteen cards each, as diaplaj'ed by those preserved in the BibliothSque du Eoi. But as he entirely overlooks the difficulty of accounting for a suit of roses engraved in the same style, he does not seem to be justified in pronouncing so decisively that Bai-tsch and Singer are wrong in supposing that a complete pack consisted of five suits, for it is by no means unlikely that a fifth suit might have been introduced by the artist with a view of giviag variety to the game, but which might have been subsequently discarded as inconsistent with the old established principles of the game, and as only makmg it more complicated, without rendering it more interesting." {,Op. cit.) These cards are uncoloured. [2|-in. diameter.] [Backs plain.J G. 144. FIRST QUARTER OF SIXTEENTH CENTURY. (CiRCDLAR Cards by Telman von Wesel.) BOUND folio volume, lettered " Cartes 'k jouer du XVI. Sieole," with the press mark, " Sheepshanks Cabinet, 23, No. 2." It contains a series of fifty-two circular card-pieces of the suits hares (or rabbits), parroquets, pinks, and columbines. Of the specimens present, twenty-six are genuine pieces, and twenty-six are facsimile drawings. The card-pieces are unseparated, with the exception of two — the queens of hares and columbines — appearing as they came from the hands of the printer in separate sheets, either of four or six cards each sheet. The original or genuine pieces ai-e the four aces on sheet 1 ; the two and three of columbines on sheet 2 ; the nine of hares on sheet 4 ; the four, five, six, seven, eight, and nine of pinks on sheet 6 ; the four, five, six, seven, eight, and nine of parroquets on sheet 7 ; the six valets on sheet 8 ; and the queen of hares, number 9. Within the outer circle of the border at the lower part of each card are the initials T. W. This circumstance, combined with the style and technic of these rare and interesting objects, has led to the opinion that they are copies by Telman von Wesel, generally in reverse, and with certain variations of the series last noticed (G. 143). The values of the pip-cards are given in Roman numbers at the lower portion, and in Arabic figures at the upper part of each piece close to the inner circle of the border. In the Arabic numbering the numerals 4 and 7 are of the old forms : ^ (4) 1 (7). and the 5 is 7. The figure-cards have not either titles or numbers. On the first sheet are the aces of the four suits — rare, genuine pieces. In the first ace, that of hares, the hare sits upright in the centre of the circle, having above a long waved scroll or banderol, on which is the inscription in Platt-Deutsch : n ii "AVE. MI. DEINT. MB. VIN DAEKOM. MOT. IC. EN. LEPUS. SIN.'' The precise meaning of this it is not easy to determine. Passavant read it thus : " O weh ! mich drangt man fein, Darum muss ich ein Hase sein." i. e. Alas ! men hotly me pursue, I am a hare it is most true. P 210 GERMAN. Chatto remarks : " Taking the contracted ave to have been intended for auwe, a meadow, the couplet may be thus done into English — ' Me o'er fields men keen pursue, Therefore Tm the hare you view.' But supposing the word ave to have been meant for augen, the eyes, and giving a slight tm-n to one or two other words, the meaning would be that the hare was called lepus, quasi lippus, on account of its blear eyes" (p. 222). On the ace of hares in the original set, from which the present is supposed to have been copied, is the following inscription, according to Bartsch (vol. x. p. 75) : " Felix medic, quisquis turba parte quiet," which favours rather Passavant's reading than that of Chatto. On the second ace is a parroquet perched on a stumpy tree ; above in a waved scroll is the inscription — " QniDCtniD tacimus. vjenit. ex alto." On the ace of pinks, above the large flower in the centre, on a very long waved scroU is : " fobtuna. opes, aufekkb. non. animum. potest." On a scroll around the drooping flower on the ace of columbines may be read — " Pab. ille. Svpis [superis] cvi Paett (? Parturiunt) Dies, et Pobtvna. FviT." On sheet 2 are inlaid the two and three of columbines, genuine pieces, and the two and three of hares, facsimile copies. On the two of hares is a large leaf below the marks of the suit. On sheet 3 are copies only of the two and three of parroquets, and of the two and three of pinks. On sheet 4 the only genuine card is the nine of hares, the four, five, six, seven, and eight of hares being copies. The hares on the four, five, and six are represented eating leaves. On the fifth sheet all the pieces are copies, and consist of the four, five, six, seven, eight, and nine of columbines. The six cards of the sixth sheet are genuine, and include the four, five, six, seven, eight, and nine of pinks. On sheet 7 all the pieces are genuine, and comprehend the four, five, six, seven, eight, and nine of parroquets. Sheet 8 includes six valets in two longitudinal rows of three each row. All the pieces are genuine. The first valet is the oher of hares. His dress is peculiar: he has a long-tailed cap on his head, carries a large arrow in his right hand, and runs towards a hare on a bank on the right. The hare jumps towards the man. The unter of parroquets has been discharging an arrow at the bird sitting on the ground at the right hand ; the bu-d has caught the arrow in its mouth. The third valet is the unter of hares. He is in oriental costume, bears a lance on his left shoulder, and carries a hare head downwards by the hind legs in his right hand. The first card in the lower row is the ober of columbines. His back is turned to the spec- tator. He advances towards the right, bearing a lance on his left shoulder, and a long sword projecting backwards fi-om under his right arm. The untermam of columbines follows ; he is a young man of condition advancing in front, extending the left hand, and supporting some object — difficult to define — with the right against his chest. The symbol of the suit is at the right hand. There ai-e some peculiar marks immediately in the foreground at the feet of the young man ; they may be intended for ants, upon which the student-like youth may be moralising. The unter of pinks is a stooping figure in a large cloak directed towards the left, and contemplating with raised hand the flower, the mark of the suit. Below this sheet (8) of valets is a single card, No. 9, representing the queen of hares. It is genuine. The lady is mounted and rides towards the left ; she wears a coronetted head-dress, rich drapery spotted with y?eMr«-(?e-/ys, and having peculiar leafy appen- dages to the arms. The palfrey is richly caparisoned, and has a tuft of hair with a cross upon it projecting from the brow. Behind the queen on the left hand a NUMERALS— SUIT MARKS ANIMATED. 211 hare is seated on a bank level with the lady's shoulder. On sheet 1 o are four facsimiles of the kings of hares, parroquets, columbines, and pinks. The king of hares is a mounted Turk galloping towards the right. The hare is behind, spring- ing towards his back from a bank. The king of parroquets is mounted on a rearing horse turned towards the left. The bird is perched on a branch behind the horseman. The king of columbines on horseback advances towards the right ; the mark of the suit is behind him on the left. The king of pinks mounted rides towards the left. The flower of the suit is on the right. The king of pinks is a youthful and graceful figure with long wavy hair, the king of columbines is an old man. Sheet 1 1 contains facsimiles only of the queens of pinks and parroquets, and of the upper valets of the same suits ; both queens are on horseback advancing towards the left hand. The flower of the suit is on the right, and behind the queen of pinks ; the bird of the queen of parroquets is on the left in front of the lady. The two valets are armed men running towards the left ; one bears a halberd, the other a mace-like flail on his shoulder — long swords are at their sides. The marks of their suits are on the left hand, i.e. in front of them. Below is No. 1 2, a single card, being a facsimile of the queen of columbines. She is seated on a mule advancing towards the right. Her full-front is towards the spectator. The head-dress is peculiar. The flower-mark of the suit is on the left-hand side of the circla It should be remarked that in the present sequence there are not any tens, but that there are four court-cards — king, queen, and upper and under valets. In reference to this circumstance Chatto observes : " The third character in those coat-cards cannot properly be called a cavalier, and has indeed very little pre- tensions to the designation of squire. The knaves are evidently conuuon foot- soldiers, such as were known in Italy by the name of fanti." — " The distinction between the two latter is not, indeed, very clearly expressed in the costume, though there cannot be a doubt that the lowest character is that which in each suit is represented as running, and thus plainly corresponding with the Italian fante." (p. 221.) Though a full and regular numeral sequence is here present, viz., fifty-two cards divided into four suits of thirteen cards each suit, some authorities con- sider that the series has properly five suits of fourteen cards each suit ; in toto, seventy pieces, similar to the sequence G. 143. According to this view the original sequence is supposed to have possessed the tens and a fifth suit, the suit of roses. The number being thus increased to seventy, the multiplicity of suits and the circular shape of the pieces have been assumed to show in this example, not only the Oriental origin of playing-cards, but the Persian characteristics of the latter in the style and decorations of the pieces. " Demandez " — writes M. B. d'Ambly — " au Cabinet des Estampes I'exem- plaire des cartes rondes. EHes sont a peu pres du meme temps, car on croit y lire la date 1477, oe sont les seules que j'aie vues avec cette forme. En Orient on aime, on adore veritablement cette forme-Ik, qui est la forme symbolique du pantheisme. En Europe on n'en a pas voulu ; nous aimons les angles." (Bibl. 3, P- 85.) A complete set of genuine impressions — fifty-two in number — of these card- pieces is preserved in the Paris Collection. It formerly belonged to a Monsieur Volpato, " Amatem: distingue attache au Theatre Italien k Paris." (Bibl. 2, fol. 2 verso. No. 10), and were purchased of him for the Bibliotheque du Koi in 1833. M. Volpato received in exchange twenty-six genuine cards of the same series, and twenty-six facsimile drawings of other pieces necessary to complete the set, along with a siim of money. M. Volpato afterwards sent his copy to the Messrs. Smith of Lisle Street for sale. It passed into the Sheepshanks Cabinet, and from thence to the Collection of the British Museum, being the series now under examination. 212 GERMAN. Accompanying the latter is the legal agreement to the transaction just referred to, having attached to it M. Gruizot's signature. It is as follows : '' Entre les Soussignes Letronne Directeur de la Bibliotheque royale agissant au nom du conservatoire de la dite Bibliotheque et avec Tautorisation du Ministre de I'lnstruction publique, k lui dounee par la lettre en date du 22 Decembre, 1832, d'une part. " Bt Jean Antoine Vincent Volpato artiste graveur demeurant 'k Paris, rue Godot Mauroy, No. 36, d"autre part. " II a ete convenu de ce qui suit, savoir moi Volpato, je c&de au departement des estampes cartes et plans de la Bibliotheque royale, un jeu de cartes complet de 52 cartes grave vers 1477, toutes dans un etat de parfaite conservation et a pleine marge. Ces cartes proviennent de la vente du Cabinet de M. Bitter, Peintre, faite k Bercy en 1 832, sont en forme de medallions ronds et portent au bas la marque T. W. ; elles sont au nombre de six sur six planches, et de quatre sur quatre autres planches. " La quelle cession en faite par moi pour le prix de deux mille cinq cents francs. " Bt j'acoepte pour le prix de la m^me jeu — 1°, une somme de mlUe huit cents francs qui me sera fournie en deux payemens ; 2°, pour les sept cents francs restant je m'engage k prendre vingt-six cai'tes de ce meme jeu, savoir, trois planches entiere de six medallions chaque, mais sans marge et avec quelques deteriorations, une planche contenant les quatres As, enfin quatres autres cartes separees et rognees. " Bt moi Letronne m'engage k faire payer \ M. Volpato la somme de mille huit cents francs en deux paymens, savoir, le premier sur les depenses de Janvier, 1 833, et le second sur celles d'Avril, 1 833, et k lui livrer pour solde du prix total de 2,500 fi-ancs les vingt six cartes ci-dessus mentionnees pour la valeur de sept cents francs les dites cartes provenant, vingt quatre du volume No. 624, pages 13, 14, 15, et 16 de la collection donnee par M. Begon en 17 70, la vingt cinquieme du No. 57, page ID de la Collection aoquise de M. de Marolles en 1666, et la vingt sixieme d'une donation faite par M. Delamotte en I'an 9. " Apres que le Present Marche aura ete soumis k 1' approbation du Ministre de I'instruction publique, conformement ^ I'ordonance du Roi en date du 14 Septembre, r822. " Le present Acte Fait double, Paris, Bibliotheque royale, le 10 Janvier, 1 833. " Volpato. " Letronne Directeur de la B. R^. " Vu et approuve Paris, le 22 Janvier, 1833. Le Ministre Secretaire d'Btat au departement de I'lnstruction publique. " Guizot." The set thus acquired by the Parisian authorities from Volpato has been copied in entirety by the Bibliophiles Frangais for their work on " Jeux de Cartes Tarots et de Cartes Numerales" (pi. 71 -80). [2|. in. diameter.] [Backs plain.] G. 145. FIRST QUARTER OF SIXTEENTH CENTURY. FRANKFORT ? 'WO circular card-pieces of a numeral series of fifty-two. The cards present are the under valet of hares and the upper valet of par- roquets. Within the circle of the border at the lower part of each , piece are the letters T. W. These examples are from the series just described (G. 144), supposed to have NUMERALS— SUIT MARKS ANIMATED. 213 been engi-aved by Telman von Wesel, after an older sequence (G. 143). The description of the two valets of hares and parroquets, under that number, may apply to the present examples, which formed part of the "WiUet Collection. [21 in. diameter.] [Backs plain.] G. 146. FIRST QUARTER OF SIXTEENTH CENTURY. FRANKFURT ? V wo circular card-pieces of a numeral series of fifty -two. The cards present are the six of hares and the seven of columbines. Within the circle of the border at the lower part of each piece are the letters T. W. From the series previously described, as engraved by Telman von Wesel (Gr. 144)- The examples formed part of the Slade collection. [2|- in. diameter.] [Backs plain.] G. 147. LAST QUARTER OF FIFTEENTH CENTURY? CARD-PIECE from a numeral series, one of the suits of which had chimeric animals for its sign. The example present is a three of animals, the latter being a frog and two dragons. The animals are represented as on the declivity of a hill on which grow a tree and plants. A large dragon with spotted body aud jagged curled tail is in the centre. To the left is another dragon with small body, but a longer neck and tail. Its head is at the bottom of the piece, the tad extending upwards to the spot on the side of the hill from which the ti-ee springs ; above the central dragon and near the top of the hiU is a laxge frog, directed towards the left. This example was formerly in the Weigel cabinet, into which it had passed from that of Quandt. It is No. 446 in Weigel's large work. "Its period of production may be assumed to have been from 1470 to 1480. The somewhat awkward and laboured technic implies the hand of the goldsmith. The print is interesting from the circumstance that it appears to be not an im- pression from one plate simply, but from two superimposed plates." (Vol. ii. P-379-) This piece is referred to by Passavant, vol. ii. p. 243, n. 226, but neither he nor Weigel alludes to it as a card. Bartsch, however, recognized its true character, and as such described it (vol. x. p. 103, No. 8). [3f X 2f in.] [Back plain.] 214 GERMAN. G. 148. SECOND HALF OF FIFTEENTH CENTURY. PORTION of a card-piece of a numeral series, one of the suits of wMch were quadrupeds — ^bears and lions. The part present represents a bear sucking his left fore-paw, and _ _ scratching himself with his right hind claw. In the sequence of which this card-piece forms part, the suits appear to have been— bears and lions, stags, birds, and flowers and leaves (^laub or grun). A somewhat different view is taken by Chatto, pp. 224, 225. We are of opinion, however, that the strange little figures in the numeral piece five of plate 9 1 , in the " Jeux de Cartes Tarots," &c. of the Bibliophiles Fi-angais (Bibl. 2), belong to the suit of leaves. The present example appears to be an impression from a card-plate which had been cut down to form a separate print, on account of the admirable technical execution and truth to nature exhibited in the design, or for the reason adduced by Wilson, presently to be noticed. The sequence, of which it is supposed to be an unit, may be found described by Passavant, vol. ii. p. 73, as the work of "Le Maitre aux cartes k jouer," who is presumed to have belonged to the school of the Master of 1 446. In the work of the Bibliophiles Frangais, forty pieces of the sequence are re- presented by lithographic facsimiles. We believe that twenty -nine of the cards in the Paris Cabinet were procured at the sale of Mr. Wilson's collection, and are described by the latter writer in his " Catalogue Raisonne of the Select Collection of Engravings of an Amateur," London, 1828, p. 87. In Mr. Wilson's cabinet and in the Dresden Collection were several pieces of separate figures of the suit marks to which the present specimen belongs. Mr. Wilson remarks in connection with these pieces : " All these plates are of an irregular form, several of them the exact shapes of the figures which they contain ; those indicating the suits on the court-cards are all impressed in spaces curiously left for the purpose in the work of the larger plates." Bartsch alludes in vol. x. p. 80, et seq. to some pieces of this series. [If X 2|^in.] [Back plain.] G. 149. LAST QUARTER OF FIFTEENTH CENTURY. SINGLE piece from a numeral series, the mark of one of the suits of which was deer. The example present is the three of deer. To the right is a stag, full homed, raising his right fore and hind legs ; a fawn is grazing in the foreground, and behind and above, on a gentle elevation, is a doe looking towards the left. Large plantain-like herbs are on the ground. The impression is from a copper plate, and the technic that of the goldsmith engraver. It is described by Bartsch, vol. x. p. 103, n. 6. [3f X 2| in.] [Back plain.] NUMEBALS—SUIT MARKS ANIMATED. 215 G. 150. LAST QUARTER OF FIFTEENTH CENTURY. SINGLE card-piece from a numeral series of which dogs formed the mark of one of the suits. The example present is the four of dogs. The animals are placed two above and two below. The left lower one sits on his hind quarters and looks towards the right. The right lower dog lies and licks himself. The upper left animal turns towards the right upper one, who rears on his hind legs and regards his neighbour. The engraving is from a copper-plate, and evidently the work of a firm and practised hand. It is described by Bartsch, vol. x. p. 1 06, n. 1 5 ; Pass. vol. 2, p. 249, n. 4. Accompanying this card are two photographs of a five of dogs and an eight of the same suit, contained in the Douce Collection, now at Oxford. These pieces are evidently by the same able hand, whether as respects design or technic, as the four of dogs here described ; but they are not of the same dimensions as the latter, nor as regards each other. The five of dogs is 4|- X 3|- ia, the eight of dogs 5f ^ 3|- ™- The originals are described by Bartsch, vol. x. p. 106, n. 16 ; 108, n. 20. [4|- X 3| in.] [Back plain.] G. 151. LAST QUARTER OP FIFTEENTH CENTURY? SINGLE card from a numeral series having a suit of birds. The example present is a three of birds, two of which are chimeric cocks opposed to each other on a hillock. The other is a large crow flying above towards the left. The cock on the right hand has the crest erected, and elevates his right leg as if in anger ; the one opposite regards him with disdainful astonishment. From a copper-plate coarsely engraved in the style of a goldsmith engraver. Described by Bartsch, vol. x. p. 112, No. 10. [3|- X 2f in.] [Back plain.] G. 152. LAST QUARTER OF FIFTEENTH CENTURY. I SINGLE card-piece of a numeral series of which one of the suits was birds. The example present is the three of birds. __^„^___ In the upper part of the field is a parroquet, perched on an orna- mental scroU-like branch, seizing one end of it by the mouth. Below, to the left, a sort of eagle bites his own right wing ; while at the base, towards the right ■ hand, another eagle-like bird seizes by the beak an ornamental branch. From a copper-plate, heavily and coarsely engraved in the goldsmith style. Described by Bartsch, vol. x. p. U 2, n. 9. [37 X 2|in.] [Backplam.] 216 OEBMAN. G. 153- FIRST QUARTER OF SIXTEENTH CENTURY. SINGLE card-piece from a numeral series having a suit of birds. The example present is a three of birds, or chimeric eagles. One of the latter flies oflT above with a small ornamental branch in his _ claws ; below, at the left hand, a long-necked chimeric raptoi-ial scratches his raised right leg with his beak, while to the right hand another bird raises his right leg and looks upwards. From a copper-plate which, though heavily and stiffly engraved, has been rather more carefully worked than the preceding. Described by Bartsch, vol. x. p. U 1, n. "J. [2i X 2f in.] [Back plain.] G. 154. LAST QUARTER OF FIFTEENTH CENTURY. SINGLE card-piece from a numeral series, having birds for one of its suits. The example present is a four of birds, from a different series to any of the preceding. At the upper part of the field two parrot-like birds fly, the bird on the left Iiand downwards, that on the right upwards. Below, on the right, is a chimeric cock, strutting towards the left hand. On the left is a fanciful, peacock-like bii-d walking towards the left, but looks back at his neighbour the cock. From a copper -plate engraving, the technic of which is more delicate and re- fined than that of any of the previous bird-pieces. The plate appears to have been very irregvilarly cut in a circular form by the artist, previous to having it more carefully trimmed by the coppersmith. Described by Bartsch, vol. x. p. go. [3I in. longest diameter.] [Back plain.] G. 155. LAST QUARTER OF FIFTEENTH CENTURY. SINGLE card-piece from a numeral series, one of the suits of which is birds. The example present is the eight of birds. At the upper part of the piece are three parrots ; one has a long tail, another scratches his head with the right claw, and at the extreme right is a pelican (?). In the centre is a parrot with a long tail extended horizontally. At the lower part is a heron-like bird on the left, and to the right are two non- descript birds, one of which has a long tail extended horizontally. The design and technic of this piece are evidently from the same hands to which we owe the suit of dogs, G. 150. Described by Bartsch, vol. x. p. 116, No. 20. Pass. v. 2, p. 250, n. 8. [3f X 4f in-] [Back plain.] NUMERALS— SUIT MARKS ANIMATED. 217 G. 156. SECOND HALF OF SIXTEENTH CENTURY. NURNBERG ? (Cards by Virgil Solis.) jIFTY-ONE card-pieces from a numeral series of fifty-two, the suits of whicli are lions (for schellen), monkeys (for eichelri), peacocks (for grv/ii), and parrots (for herzeii). The suits of lions, monkeys, and parrots are complete ; the suit of peacocks wants one coate-card, viz., the queen. Certain pieces of the sequence under consideration are original impressions, others are copies only. AU the members of the suit of lions here present are genuine, as are likewise those of the suits of peacocks and monkeys. In parrots, all the pieces are copies, except the nine and king of the suit. This is an important and interestiog series of card-pieces. It forms one of the better examples of card-engraving produced during the sixteenth century, and one of the chief efforts of the well-known designer and engraver, VergUius (or Virgil) Solis, who was bom at Niimberg in 1514, and died in 1562. Though not at the summit of his art, V. Solis, like Jobst Amman, his follower, produced among the almost innumerable prints which bear his mark, some very good engravings, both on wood and copper. His engravings on metal as designs for gold and silversmiths, and his friezes and scrolls are very beautifiil, and probably represent the master at his best. Impressions from many of these plates have now become scarce in good states and condition, and command high prices. The set of cards under notice is extremely rare as a complete sequence, and when of fine impression is of proportionate price. In the Weigel cabinet was a choice set in admirable condition. The possessor of it observed : " This series belongs to the more interesting and beautiful German playing- cards of the sixteenth century. It includes four suits and fifty- two pieces, but these are not expressed by schellen, eicheln, griin, and rotli, but by animals ; by lions, monkeys, peacocks, and parrots. There is another peculiarity to be noticed : instead of upper and inferior knaves, queen and valet appear. This departure from the usual custom appears to show that this ' tarocks pack ' was not intended for the commonalty, but for the higher classes of the community at the time of its production. " Since but a small part of that mannered and marked handicraft style which pervaded his [V. Solis] later productions appears in these cards, and as they bear the iinpress of a fresh and youthful spirit, they must have been produced at his earlier and better period, a time when he was more sensibly affected by the influence which Diirer and his pupils produced on German art. The drawing, making allowance for some hardness of line, is in general sure and masterly, and recalls to mind, in the fio-ures particularly of the soldiers, the manner of Aldegi-ever. The technic is careful and clean, the composition full of taste and rigidly symmetric, the actions of the animals natural, and often not without humour ; and moreover there is less of that vulgarity and grossness which the master afterwards introduced often in his playing-cards. " In R. Eitelberger's ' Memoir on Playing-Cards, with special reference to some examples of old packs existing at Vienna' ( Wien, 1 860), may be seen a faithful copy in wood of the ace of lions." (" Anf ange," &c. vol. ii. p. 207.) The pip-cards in the various suits have their values in Roman numerals marked at the tops ; the figure-cards are devoid of marks and inscriptions. On the aces of the four suits, the titles of the suits and the cipher of the master are placed. 2i8 GERMAN. The symbols of a suit axe symmetrically and harmoniously connected by a variety of arabesque and ornamental work. On the ace of lions the upper half of the piece is occupied by a lion seated on his hind quarters. He holds in his ex- tended fore paws an ornamental bar, to which is suspended a shield, on which is inscribed the word, " Schelen," below which is the master's cipher. The lower third of the piece is filled up with arabesques, and the number I. is above the head of the lion. The queen of lions (schellen) exhibits a richly costumed, coronetted lady on horseback. She holds in her left hand a long sceptre, and the horse, richly caparisoned, curvets and directs his steps towards the left. On a fallen tree at the right hand behind the horse is a lion gazing at the lady. The upper third of the ace of monkeys is occupied by an ape seated on an ornamental frame between two baskets of fruit. Above is the number I. Below the monkey, and in the centre of the card on a shield, is the word aicheln, having under it the cipher of the master. Three ornamental human masks disposed triangularly occupy the lower part of the card. The knave of monkeys repre- sents a soldier in a landscape and walking towards the right. He carries an ape astride on his right shoulder, who bears a musket on his left shoulder, the stock of which is supported by the left hand of the man. The queen of monkeys is a lady mounted on a richly caparisoned horse advancing to the right hand. She is crowned, bears a sceptre in her left hand, and has her back turned towards the spectator. Behind her on the hind quarters of the horse stands an ape extending his right arm to the lady's shoulder, and micturating on her dress. The king of monkeys is mounted on a decorated charger, advancing to the right. A plume of feathers is on the forehead of the horse. The king has on a crown, over which falls the tasselled end of a cap. He carries a sceptre in his right hand. On the horse's hind quarters stands an ape, leaning with the right arm on the king's left shoulder. The ape holds a whip in his left hand and raises his left leg to- wards the king. On the ace of peacocks, the sign bird stands with outspread tail on some ornamental foliage which is at the centre of the piece. Below is a shield, on which is the word gruen, having under it the cipher of the master. Vine-leaves and grapes are on each side of the shield. On the ace of parrots the bird stands with outspread wings on some flower- stalks at the upper part of the piece. The taU of the parrot descends to the beginning of the upper third of the card, where is a shield having inscribed on it EOT, and below the cipher of the master. All the pieces of the suit of parrots are but copies, it should be remembered, except the nine and king. The knave is a soldier advancing towards the left, where may be seen the symbolical bird perched on a branch, and stretching towards the man. The latter carries a halberd on his left shoulder and a long, straight sword at his left side. The cipher of the master has been added at the lower left-hand corner. The queen is mounted and turned towards the spectator ; the horse advances towards the left, she carries a sceptre in her left hand, at the upper right- hand comer is the bird of the suit, perched on a slender branch. The cipher of the master has been added at the left-hand lower comer. The king of parrots is mounted on a charger and trots towards the left. He carries a sceptre in his right hand, and from his left side hangs a sword, at the upper right-hand comer is the bird of the suit. The impressions, both originals and copies, are from metal and are uncoloured. This series of playing-cards is described by Bartsch, vol. ix. p. 282, No. 300- 351 ; is alluded to by Chatto, p. 238 ; and by Taylor, p. 124. Why Weigel should term this sequence a « Taxocks-Spiel " is not apparent. [3f X 2|-in.] [Backs plain.] NUMERALS— SUIT MARKS ANIMATED. 219 G. 157. SECOND HALF OF SIXTEENTH CENTURY. NURNBEEG? fWENTY-FOUR card-pieces from a numeral series of fifty-two, tlie suits of which are lions, monkeys, parrots, and peacocks. These examples are from the sequence designed and engraved by Virgil Solis, before described (G. 156). The cards present are the three, eight, nine, and ten of lions, the entire suit of monkeys, the one, two, three, six, and ten of peacocks, and the nine and king of parrots. The members of the suit of lions are all genuine, those of monkeys are copies, the pieces of the suit of peacocks are from the original plates, and those of parrots are copies. The impressions in the suit of peacocks have, it must be admitted, a somewhat suspicious look ; but this is explained by their having been taken after the original plates had been re-worked and rather heavily inked. [3f X 2|- in.] [Backs plain.] G. 158. SECOND HALF OP SIXTEENTH CENTURY. NURNBERG ? OUR card-pieces from the numeral series, designed and engraved by Virgil Solis (G. 156). The examples present are the two, three, andfour of monkeys, and the nine of lions. The pieces of the suit of monkeys are genuine, the nine of Hons is a copy. [3f X 2|-in.] [Backs plain.] CARDS WITH A SECONDARY PURPOSE. EDUCATIONAL, INSTRUCTIVE. G. 159. LAST QUARTER OF SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. NURNBERG. (Geogeaphic.) SEQUENCE of fifty-two numerals, the suits of which are spades; clubs, hearts, and diamonds. The honours are kimig, dame, and knecht, indicated by these titles only. This series is intended to be subservient to the purpose of instruction in geo- graphy. Each piece, with the exception of an upper margin rather more than an inch wide, is occupied by a map or chart of a particular country or sea-board. 220 OEBMAN. Above it, in the upper margin, is the name of the place represented, and gene- rally a scale of miles. Above these are the name and mark of the suit in the " honours," and in the pip-cards the particular number of marks placed in a single horizontal line, with their value in Arabic numerals at the left-hand corner. The ace of spades has on it " Typus Orbis Terrarum," with the address : " I. H. Seyfrid delineavit. Withelm Pfaun Sculpsit." The suits of spades and hearts are occupied with the various regions and dis- tricts of Germany, Austria, and Prussia, as formerly recognized. On the suit of diamonds are maps of Switzerland, Belgium, Holland, Flanders, Spain, and other places ; while the king of clubs shows Anglia, the dame Scotia, and the knave Hibernia. Norway, Poland, Italy, &c. &c. are likewise in the suit. A volume of more than 230 pages, bound in vellum, gilt edged, and illus- . trated with maps, accompanies this set of cards. The whole is enclosed in an old-fashioned leathern slip-case, above five inches high and more than three inches ia width. This case is probably two hundred years old. The volume in question has the following title : — " EuropEeisch-Geographische Spiel-Charte/ Darinnen Vermittels Ml Sonderbarer Blatlein alle in Europa befindliche Konig- reiche und Lander, samt deren Vornemsten Stadten, zu des curiosen Lesers Sonderbarer Belustigung und anmuthigen Zeitkiirtzung in moglichster Nettig- keit praesentiret werden ; worzu noch iiber das V absonderHche Land-Chart- lein gefiiget worden welche Solche Oerter vorstellig machen die nicht fiiglich unter die andem haben konnen gebracht werden. Samt einer Kurtze Beschreibung aller vomeemsten und notablesten Sachen so ia denen beriihmtesten Landern und Stadten theils zu sehen sind ; theils sich vor langer und kurzer Zeit ereignet und zugetragen. Niimberg. In Verlegung Johann Hoffmann Buch und Kunsthandlers. Anno 1678." In a " Kurtze Voransprache an den Hoohgeneigten Leser " we are informed that the credit of the invention is due to the learned and well-known author " Herrn M. Johann Pretorio," to whom, as likewise to his associated and able representative Hn. I. H. Seyfrieden, not a small amount of thanks is due. To Pranciscus Nigrinus the reader is indebted for the geographic descriptions which follow. An engraved and coloured frontispiece precedes the title page. It represents eight persons seated at a long table covered with green cloth, playing with the geographic cards. At the top of the print is the following title on a scroll, borne by a figure of Mercury, descending with a pack of cards in his right hand : — " Europaisch Geographische Spiel-Charte." At the bottom is the couplet — " Dvu-ch Spielen das Land Wird werden bekannt." HiNSCHMAN. This series of cards was known to Mr. Taylor, who writes : — " Mr. Quaritch has a German geographical pack, in which the marks of the suits are arranged in the same way as the above, in a row at the top, but of the French order and pattern — konig, dame, knecht, and Asz, and the fall number of pips. '1 he ace of spades is entitled " Typus Orbis Terrarum," and contains a map on Mercator's projection, the longitude calculated from Ferrol. It bears the designer's and engraver's name, I. H. Seyfrid and Wilhelm Pfaun. Each cai-d has a coloured map of one of the countries of Em-ope, without apparent preference, except that the ace of hearts is Europe and the king Germania. The cards are of larger size than the ordinary sort, their backs marbled, and the edges gilt. As Livonia is not included in ' Muscovia,' and St. Petersburg not mentioned, they are probably of the latter part of the seventeenth century, and anterior to Peter the Great." (Bibl. g, p. 213.) [41 X 2i in.] [Backs marbled.] EDUCATIONAL— INSTRUCTIVE. 221 G. 160. NINETEENTH CENTUKY. |IX cards from a numeral series, the marks of tlie suits of wLich are clubs, diamonds, spades, and hearts. The cards present are the two, four, and seven of clubs, the seven of diamonds, and the seven and ten of spades. The whole field of each piece is occupied by representations of animals of various kinds, in a landscape. The designs, which are from engraved metal plates, are coloured, and over these the marks of the suits are stamped in the ordinary way. The secondary intention of these cards is to afford instruction in natural history. On the two of clubs is a stag in the foreground ; in the distance a stag hunt is represented. On the four of clubs is a mountain huntsman, accompanied by his dog. On the seven of the same suit are two rabbits, each animal showing different aspects. Two dogs of different kiads are on the seven of diamonds, as is the case also with the seven of spades. On the ten of the last smt is a dog jumpiog towards a monkey with whip in hand on horseback. [3f X ^ i°-] [Backs plain.] AMUSING. G. 161. (^Printed Books Department, 554) b. 38.) LAST QUARTER OF SIXTEENTH CENTURY. NURNBERG. (Caeds bt Jobst Amman.) BOUND small quarto volume of sixty-four leaves, containing a sequence of fifty-two card-pieces of a numeral series, along with dedicatory, poetic, and other printed matter. The marks of the suits are printers' ink-balls, books, wine-cups of metal {i. e. formed by the skill of the goldsmith), and vases or goblets studded with large bosses. The figure-cards or honours are kings, upper and inferior valets. The page, or each card-piece is 7|- in. high by 5|- in. wide. The central portion, to the extent of 4 in. and 2|- in., is occupied by the card design itself, above which are four lines of Latin verse, and below from four to eight lines of German verse, which are generally a free translation of the Latin superscription, explanatory of the design. The suit marks are large in size, and occupy the upper portion of the card-space ; below are figure compositions, representing nobles, burghers, and artisans at various occupations, either of duty or amusement. The value of the ten of each suit is indicated by the Roman numeral X on a small scroll at one of the upper comers ; the mark of the suit (one in number only), is held by a female (whole-length figure) in rich costume. 222 GEBMAN. All the kings are mounted. On the three and five of books, the eight and nine of cups, animals form the subjects of the compositions, and play parts like- wise in some of the other pieces. The designs on the six of printers' balls, the five of books, and the ace of goblets, have incidents of a vulgar, gross, or even obscene character. On the aces of printers' balls and of books are shields of armorial bearings below the marks of the suits. On the nine of cups are the letters i A (lobst Amman), on an ornamental tablet in the centre of the field, between the two rows of suit marks. On the ace of printers' balls are represented the arms of " Sig- mundt Feyrahend—weit gepreist.'" The title-page of the volume bears the inscription printed in black and red ink : — Iodoci Ammanni, Civis Noribebgensis Charta Lvsoria Tetrastichis illustrata per lanum Heinricum Scroterum de Gustrou Megapolitanum, Equitem & p, L, Cffisarem .R^iitifllic^e vfi woi.qcriffcne ^iQunn in cinmn Morten spiel durch den Kunstreichen iind Weitberiimteu Jost Amman, Burger in Nurn- berg, — Allen vnd jeden der Kunst liebhabenden / zu besonderm nutz / liest und wolgefallen jetzund erst new an tag geben. Und mit Kurtzen latienischen und teeutschen Verslein illustru-t. Durch lanum Heinricum Schroterum von Giist- row/ Kayserlichen Coronirten Poeten. Gedruckt zu Niirnberg/ durch Leonhardt Heusler. Anno m.d.lxxxviii." Then follows a dedicatory address in Latin poetry — " Vere nobilibus magni- ficis etq. clarissimis viris ac Dominis D. HUario Eulando — D. Gerhardo Eulando — D. Oswaldo Rulando — Fratribus Germanis, Dominis et Patronis suis perpetua ob- servantia reverenter colendis. — Sigmund." This is succeeded by laudatory verses to the same. After the dedicatory and laudatory addresses, we have the following fi:om the "Liber de Leipso:" — " Charta mihi titulum tribuit Lusokia ; lusus Et Ghartae in pretio munera vulgus habet Sed neo ego laudes moror aut convioia vulgi Sit mihi sat claris posse placere viris IIos rogo, ut a rerum quandam graviore vacantes Cura, si chartis ludere forte velint CoUudant nostris : sine rixis vulnere morte Ludenti quoniam lucra benigna dabunt." Then follow the fifty-two card-pieces. After which come two compositions : the first representing a lady and gentleman, seated on a garden seat, embracing each other ; the second, a whole-length figure of a richly dressed female playing on a guitar. On the first piece is the following inscription : " Duas sequentes Tabellas addimus ne vacarent chartK," with six lines of Latin verse referring to the design. On the second piece are eight lines of Latin verse. Finally comes " Eiusdem Scroteri Cai-men in laudem jodoci Ammanni hujus Chartse inventoris ad Candidum Lectorem." The short colophon runs thus : " Nobibebg^ Excudebat Leonhardus Heus- lerus." As an example of the character of the pages of the volume we may instance the three of printers' inking-balls. Below the marks of the suit a gentleman and his wife are represented as seated at a table, on which is a lighted candle and a pack of cards. A large dog is by the side of the lady. The latter holds a goblet in her right hand, and a card in the left, which she appears to be showing to her husband, who, while regarding it, seems about to play his card with the right hand, as he holds some pieces in the left. Above the composition ai-e the following lines : — AMUSING. 223 " Sum tua, vicisti, vitae o mihi dulce levamen Sit tibi cura mei, sit mihi ciira tui O suave imgprium, vel nectare dulcius unum In geminis ubi cor, mens amor et studium." Below are these lines in German : — " Du hast gewonnen edler Hort Ich will nun dein sein hie et dort Da lebet Gott wo Mann und Weib Zwey menschen sein, ein Seel, ein Leib." This rare and choice volume (formerly in the Praun collection) is a good example of design and wood- engraving. The artist, Jobst Amman, was born at Ziirichin 1539, a^d died at Niirnberg in 159 1. He was one of the most prolific designers of his time for engraving, both in wood and metal. The rarest of all the works of this master is the present book of cards. Becker (" Jobst Amman Zeichner und Formschneider Kupferatzer und Stecher von C. Becker nebst Zusatzen von E. Weigel mit 1 7 Holzschnitten und Keo-ister," Leipzig, 1854) remarks : "Although it is probable that an average number of impressions was printed, few examples are known. Among them, however, is a very well-coloured copy. The separate woodcuts are not to be met with in other books, the opposite of which occurrence mostly happens in the case of the other works of Amman. One or two copies only are known in which the wood-blocks have been worked off on sheets to the number of six on each sheet. The technic of these highly humorous woodcuts is so peculiar and masterly that one cannot help believing the engraving itself must have been executed by the hand of Amman, a belief supported by the circumstance that the mark of a formschneider is not to be found on any of the blocks, while it is usually to be met with in most of the woodcut books of the master." (p. 140.) Becker concludes by stating that "this rare work has not been described by any writer on art." Becker is wrong in this statement. The book was fully described nearly half-a-century before Becker himself did it. It is true that the work escaped Bartsch's notice, nor is it alluded to by Nagler in his " Kiinstler- Lexicon ;" but Singer in his well-known work devotes nearly twenty pages to its consideration, and gives facsimiles of eight entire card-pieces and groups from five others. (Bibl. 8 pp. 180-197.) From Singer's commentary on Amman's book the following is extracted. " The beautiful pack of cards engraved by Jost Ammon, of which the suc- ceeding pages afford specimens, is accompanied by moral distichs in Latin and German, and were published in the form of a small volume in 4to. as well as for the purpose of playing-cards. Their moral intention was apparently to inculcate the advantages of industry and learning over idleness and drunkenness. The subjects are for the most part treated humorously ; the four suits are books, printers' balls, wine-pots, and drinking-cups. We shall give a brief description of the subject on each card, and proceed to present the reader with facsimiles of some of the most interesting cards of each suit, beginning with that of books, emblematical of learning, the deuce of which suit contains the following spirited representation of the ancient bookbinder, accompanied by Latin and German verses by H. S. de Gustrou. " De Murr in his ' Bibliotheque de Peinture, de Sculpture, et de Gra- vure,' Francfort, 1770, 12mo. v. 2, p. 470, mentions them among the works of Jost Ammon, thus : ' Charta Lusoria tetrastichis illustrata per Janum Heinricum Scroterum de Gustrou Noribergae,' 1588, 4to. It seems, however, probable that they had been some time used as playing-cards before they were thus collected together in a volume and accompanied by metrical inscriptions, and Sigismund Feyrabend's name occurs in the German verses under the ace of printers' balls, so 224 GERMAN. that he was most probably the publisher. It has been already mentioned that Jost Ammon was principally employed in decorating books printed by him. . . . We had omitted to notice that the set of these ;>cards which we here describe have been formed from the little book before mentioned ; the accompanying verses are pasted on the backs of the cards. Notwithstanding the numerous impressions which it is most likely were taken off, copies of this little book or complete packs of the cards are at the present day of the utmost rarity, even in Germany. We were assured by the parties from whom the present set were obtained that another complete copy would with difficulty be found, even in the most celebrated col- lections in that country. Single cards of various packs are to be found in the cabinets of some curious collectors, but we know not of any other complete set of these decorated cards in this country." {Op. cit.) Though it is possible that these cards may have been used for the purposes of ordinary play, as suggested by Singer, yet we think it not very probable, and should accord with Chatto's opinion, that judging from the verses, " Liber de Leipso " previously quoted, they were not originally designed with that intention. [4 X 2|. in.] [Backs plain.] G. 162. FIRST QUARTER OF NINETEENTH CENTURY. TUBINGEN. SERIES of fifty-two numerals, the suits of which are clubs, spades, hearts, and diamonds. The figure-cards or honours are, roi, dame, valet. Each piece is occupied by a composition, over which are placed the marks of the suit in the usual form. The designs are of very varied character ; instructive, amusing, laughable, &c. This series is interesting, as being the first which appeared of Cotta's " Karten Almanach" at Tubingen in 1806. The latter continued to be published for several years " as a small pocket volume of a square form, and the illustrations consisted entirely of fanciful cards, the mark of the suit being always introduced into each subject either by hook or by crook. The designs for the cards in the first four volumes, from 1806 to 1809 inclusive, are said to have been made by a lady." (Chatto, p. 259.) In the present seqvienee the roi de trefles represents Pu-rhus, the dame. Ester, the valet, Areas. In piques the roi is Assuerus, the dame, Andromaque, the valet, Burrhus. In carreaux the roi is Agamemnon, the dame, Agripine, the valet, Oreste. In cceurs the roi is Ulisse, the dame, Iphigenie, the valet, Mardoohee. The words roi, dame, valet are engraved above the whole-length figure on each coate-card, the symbol of the suit being at one of the upper corners, and the title at the bottom of the piece. The ace of trefles bears the address : " A Tubinge chez T. G. Gotta, Libraire." On the six of carreaux is a representation of the ponte rotto, formerly the pons palatinus or senatorius, the first stone bridge buUt at Rome, and half of which was destroyed by an inundation of the Tiber in 1 598. Some of the cards, e. g. the five and seven of trefles and oi piques, the three and eight oi piques have on them designs of a religious character. On others are domestic scenes ; the ten of carreaux exhibits a Christmas tree with children amusing themselves. On the seven of comrs is a family tea-party. Several of the pip-cards of the suit cciurs have purely fanciful or ideal subjects, in which Cupids play an important part. The design on the nine of piques is comic in chai;acter, and includes two boys playing at cards. AMUSING. 225 The members of this series have been executed in the " stipple " manner by means of the roulette on copper, and afterwai-ds coloured carefally and delicately. An explanatory little book accompanies the set, having as title, " Karten Almanach, Tubingen, in der J. G. Cotta' schen Buchhandlung, 1806." An ingenious conversation is represented as being carried on between several male and female persons, which serves to elucidate the subjects treated on the cards of the various suits. The researches of Breitkopf are specially alluded to, and the theory maintained that playing-cards owe their origin to chess. " The knight, however, was suppressed, and the gallant French people changed the commander, a second Tiresias, into a lady." (Explanatory Book.) [3f X 2i in.] [Backs plain.] MISCELLANEA, G. 163. (Print Room, Library, Oerman Books, No. 7.) SMALL octavo volume, bound, and lettered "Schopferi FIANO- IIAIA 1568." The title-page bears the following inscription: — " IIANOIIAIA Omnium illiberalium mechanicarum aut sedentiarum artium genera continens " " accesserunt etiam venustissimae Imagines omnes omnium arti- ficum negociationes ad vivum Lectori representantes ante hac nee visse, nee unquam editae : per Hartman Schopperum Novoferens, Noricum, IVancofurti ad Mffinum cum Privilegio CEesareo mdi,xviii." This work is generally known as " lobst Amman's Book of Trades." The cuts in it were designed by the artist, and the descriptions in Latin verse were by Hartman Schopper. It issued from the press of " Sigismundus Feyrabend civis et Typographus Francftirdianius. Calend. Januarii Anno mdlxviii." The volume contains outs of a FormscTineider and a, Briefmaler. The first appears to be engraving on wood, and the second to be colouring certain figures by means of a stencil. Up to the latter end of the fifteenth century a distinction was preserved between the calling of a kartenmaler, and that of a form,' Schneider, though persons .following either belonged to the same guild. A few years subsequent to the formschneider, the hriefmaler occurs in the civic books of various German towns, but though his designation has the same literal meaning a-s that of the kartenmaler, his business seems to have been more general, including that of the card-painter, and of the wood-engraver. " About 1470, we find the hriefmalers not only employed in executing figures, but also in engraving the text of block books ; and about the end of the fifteenth century, the term seems to have been generally synonymous with that oi form- schneider. Subsequently, the latter term prevailed as the proper designation of a wood-engraver, wMle that of briefmaler was more especially applied, like that of the original kartenmaler, to designate a person who coloured cards and other figures. " Though we have positive evidence that about the year 1470, the briefmaler was a wood-engraver as Well as a colourer of cards, and though it be highly probable that the outlines on the figures on cards were then engraved on wood, and that from this circumstance the briefmaler became also a wood-engraver, yet we have no proof that the earliest wood-engravers in Europe were the card- maker.s." (Chatto, p. 84.) Notwithstanding that at the time when the work now under notice was pub- lished, the business of a briefmaler was considered as distinct from that of a Q 226 GERMAN. formschneider, there is reason to believe that the old hriefmalers contimied both to engrave and to print wood-cuts. On several large cuts, bearing the dates 1553?! 554, may be read: " Gedruckt zu Niirnberg durch Hanas Glaser Brieif- maler." The following illustrations in the nANOriAIA should be referred to : — Adumbrator — ^Der Reisser, folio C. Sculptor — Der Formschneider, folio C. 2. Illuminator imaginum — Brieffmaler, folio C. 6." G. 164. SECOND HALF OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. POLITICAL broad-side sheet, having on the upper half a represen- tation of a party seated at a round table playing at cards (homhre), in a drawing-room of the "Frau Germanin." On the lower half is a descriptive account in sixteen verses, of the sentiments supposed to be expressed by the various persons engaged at the game. On an ornamental scroll at the bottom of the engraving is the inscription : " Abbildung des Jetzigen Politischen L'Ombre Spiels in Hause der Frau Ger- manin. 1757-" Six persons are seated, playing, viz. a Prussian officer, who holds up the ace of spades, an English nobleman, a French marquis, a son of the Frau Germanin, an Hungarian magnate, and a Swedish baron. Standing by, or sittuig and over- looking the players, are a Danish cavalier, the Fran Oermanin herself, a Saxon officer, and a Russian tourist. Behind, and away from the table, are a Dutch sea-captain, a Swiss proprietor, a Polish woywod, an Italian nobleman, and a grandee of Spain. Through an open window a Turkish night patrol looks into the room. A number is affixed to each member of the group, which corresponds to a verse below — the supposed sentiments of the person indicated. Heaps of money and bags are on the table. A chandelier with eight lighted candles illuminates the scene, while three other lights project from the ornamental scroll-work frame with which the engraving is bordered. Mirrors and a sword hang up against the walls of the room. The Fran Germanin (No. 15), is represented as coming forward and ad- dressing the jilayers at the table in the following words : — " Ich bitt die Herren doch dem Spiel ein end zu machen Es ist doch an der Zeit ; statt schlafen muss ich wachen Sie seyn mir liebe Gast ; wenn sie mil- lassen Ruh Und wenn sie einmal fort, mach ich die Thiire zu." The Turkish patrol calls out (No. 16) : "Ihr Herren machts sein End, und geht einmal nach Haus AVo nicht, so komme ich, und losch die Lichter ans." An engraved ornamental frame borders the letter-press. [18 X 13 in.] [Ba,ck plain.] MISCELLANEA. -227 G. 165. Engravings hy early German Masters, vol. vi. FIRST QUARTER OF SIXTBEXTII CEXTURY. ?HE rare engraving known as "Le grand bal," by the Master MZ, described at page 16 of General History, and in Bartsch, vol. vi. p. 377, No. 13.) The Grand Duke and Duchess of Bavaria are represented playing at cards, and keeping their scores marked upon the table. A five of hearts is exposed. The date 1 500 is on the engraving. Singer, page 274, may be referred to. G. 166. LAST QUARTER OF FIFTEENTH CENTURY? ^X engraving by Israhel Van Meckenen, representing a lady and gentle- man playing at cards. The thi-ee of glands is exposed on the table, and a figure-card is in the lady's hand. This piece has been described previously — General History, p. l5. See the frontispiece to Singer's " Researches," also Bartsch, vol. vi. p. 302, 114.) ENGLISH PLAYING-CARDS. NUMERALS. E. 167. {MS. Department, Shane Collection, 1044,/oZ. 93 verso, art. 421.) LAST QUARTER OF SEVENTEENTH CENTURr. LONDON. SHEET of ten unseparated card-pieces, in two rows of five pieces eaci row. The cards present are king, queen, knave, king, and queen in the first row; and king, queen, knave, king, and queen in the second row. Not any marks of suits are present, but the examples may be assumed to belong to a numeral series of fifty-two, of the suits spades, clubs, hearts, and diamonds. On a tablet between the feet of the knave in the upper series is the address : " C. Hewson." The designs are of the conventional character ; the queens bear flowers in their hands. The impressions are from wood-blocks, and are entirely uneoloured. [3|- X 2^ in.] [Backs plain.] E. 168. (MS. Department, Harleian Collection, 5947, /oi 2 verso, fol. 3,) LAST QUARTER OP SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. LONDON. WO sheets of card-pieces, each sheet containing nine cards arranged in three rows. The pieces present are aU figure-cards, a king, queen, and knave being in each row. Not any suit marks are present. The designs are of the conventional character, and the impressions remain entirely uneoloured. 230 BN0LI8E. These examples closely approach the series before mentioned, E. 167; tiie- address of C. Hewson is not present, however, and the engraving of the wood-blooto has been somewhat coai'ser and the printing less carefiJ than in E. 167. [3t X 2^ in.] ^ [Backs plam.] E. 169. LAST QUARTER OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. LONDON. PACK of fifty-two numerals, the snit-marks of which are in reality spear-heads, diamonds, trefoils, and cups, though intended to imply spades, diamonds, clubs, and hearts. The series is interesting fi-om the attempt shown in it to make the card-emblems and the names piques, ire/ies, cceurs, and carreaux more consistent with each other than is usually the case. On the ace of spades or spear-heads is the duty stamp of the reign of " G. III. Rex." The piece is marked No. 10, and bears the address of " Rowley and Co." On the ace of diamonds is the design of a precious stone cut in facets. It is enclosed within an ornamental oval frame-work of oak-leaves, surmounted by the winged cap of Mercury, supported by a trident and caduceus. In the centre of the ace of trefoils is the temate leaf of a trifolium, surrounded by an ornamental frame, above which appear the heads of a scythe, rake, pitch- fork, and reaping-hook. The marks of this suit are printed of a green colour. The ace of cups or hearts has a sacramental-like chalice in the middle of the card, having within it a heart. An ornamental frame-work, into which olive-leaves and fi'uit enter, surround the emblem ; above which is a bishop's mitre, a pastoral staff, and a cross. The figure-cards — king, queen, and knave — are three-quarter figures contained in ovals, and having flat ruled backgrounds. The king of spades wears a crown, carries a sceptre in his right hand, and his mantle is marked wi\hfleurs-de-lys. The queen of this suit wears a crown, and Jleurs-de-lys are on her dress. The knave is a soldier, vrith wig and pig-tail, and carrying a lance. He looks towards the right. The king of diamonds is dressed like one of the German monarchs, wears a crown, carries a sceptre erect, and looks towards the left. The queen is crowned, and her dress adorned with ermine ; the knave is a, soldier in cloak and circular- frilled collar, conical hat and feather, and carrying a partizan in his right hand. The king of trefoils is dressed in a mantle adorned with crowns ; the queen has a veil, descending from the back of the head over her right shoulder ; while the knave is a soldier, having a double-headed black eagle on the front of his tall cap, and carrying a spear in his right hand. The king of the suit of chalices or hearts evidently implies England, from the mantle and order which he wears. The queen intends the same, and the knave is meant for one of the well-known Tower " Beof-eaters." On his chest below a crown is the letter G. All the figure-cards are printed in bluish-black ink. Throughout the series the ace of spades alone is in pure black. The impressions ai-e from engravings on copper, done in a neat but formal style. This series was known to Taylor, who observes: — "Wo have already noticed an attempt (p. 183) io make our card emblems and then- names more consistent NUMERALS. 231 with each other, bnt an earlier and more complete essay in the same direction occurs in a pack, date 1790, by Rowley and Co. Here again the spade is a kind of dagger, of a clumsy and inconvenient form, the ace of the suit being, however, a regular duty-card. The ace of clubs is a clover leaf in an oval, surmounted by agricultural implements. ' Diamonds ' clearly points to the original conventional form of representing this gem, being a veritable diamond, lozenge-shaped, with the facets of the cutting shown in relief. This idea of a quadrangular shape is involved in all the names of the diamond suit, whether it be panes of glass (j-au- ten, ruyten, &c.), or paving-tiles (Spanish, ladrillos), a sense also given to car- reaux by Meuestrier. The ace of hearts in the same pack is represented by a chalice, with a heart engraved on the front, an ii-reveront introduction charac- teristic of that epoch, for we are left in no doubt as to what is meant, for the oval in which it is contained is surmounted by a mitre, cross, and crozier. The court-cards appear to be portraits, and the costumes are of the period." (Taylor, P- 232.) _ The intention of the cup or chalice in this suit was, we assume, to link the suit with the coppe or cups of the early Italian numerals, which were believed to have originally symbolized the clergy, the coppe themselves descending from an emblem symbolizing the ancient Egyptian hierarchy. In the same way swords, piques, spades, symbolized the military class ; money, deniers, carreaux, diamonds, the mercantile ; and bastoni, trefles, clubs, the agricultural communities. [3i X 2 J in.] [Backs plain.] E. 170. LAST QUARTER OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. LONDON. PACK of fifty-two numerals of the suits spear-heads (spades), dia- monds, trefoils (clubs), and cups (hearts). This series is a duplicate of the one last described, G. 169. The duty-card — the ace of spades — bears the number 16, with the address of Rowley and Co. [3i X 2^- in.] [Backs plain.] E. 171. LAST QUARTER OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. LONDON. PACK of fifty-two numerals of the usual suits, spades, diamonds, hearts, and clubs. The designs on the figure cards are of the old conventional character, but there are certain variations in those of each suit. The king of spades has a three-quarter face turned towards the right ; the kings of clubs and of hearts have three-quarter faces turned towards the left. The kings of spades and of clubs hold swords erect in their left hands, the king of hearts holds a sword in guard across the head, while the king of diamonds carries a partizan. All the queens have three-quarter faces ; those of spades and hearts are turned towards the left, those of diamonds and clubs to the right hand. Bach queen holds a rose (?) in her left hand. 232 ENGLISH. The knaves of spades and of hearts have profile faces to the right, those of diamonds and clubs have three-quarter faces, one to the right, the other to the left hand. The knave of spades holds a spear in his left hand, the other knaves have spears in their right hands. The knave of spades has a curved sword, the knaves of diamonds and of hearts straight weapons. The knave of clubs is with- out a sword. The decorations of the dresses differ somewhat in each figure. The ace of spades is the " duty-card." The mark of the suit on the latter is on a large oval shield, surmounted by a crown, having below the motto, " Dieu et mon Droit." Around the shield is the motto of the Order of the Garter, " Honi soit qui mal y pense." The card bears the inscription; " G. iii Rex. No. 6. Exportation l. Hardy." [3|- X 2-i- in.] [Backs plain.] E. 172. TIME OF GEORGE III. LONDON". PACK of fifty-two numerals of the usual suits. The coate-cards have figures on them, nearly similar to those on the cards last described (E. 171), but they are not from the same blocks, and may be perhaps of a somewhat earlier date than E. 171. The ace of spades is the " duty-card," of the same character as that of E. 171. The inscriptions are " Sixpence additional Duty " above the crown and at the sides of the shield. Below is the address, " Gibson." The number of the pack is 1 50. [3i X 2i ill.] [Backs plain.] E. 173. THIRD QUARTER OF NINETEENTH CENTURY. LONDON. PACK of fifty-two numerals of the ordinary suits. _ The figure-cards are king, queen, and knave, represented in busts printed double and in reverse. Accompanying the pack are two wrappers, an outer and inner one. The last is of bright green glazed paper, having on it a bust of the " Great Mogul," printed in gold ; below which is the inscription, " International Playing- Cards. Ent. Sta. Hall," At the right-hand margin is " Designed by Reuben Townroe for Felix Summerly's Art Manufactures." On the left margin is the address, " De La Rue and C° 1 10 Buuhill Row London." The outer envelope is the stamp or duty cover, ornamentaUy engraved, and printed in lioht blua On the central fold may be read, " De La Rue & C". no Buuhill Row°London The seller is to cancel the Stamp by writing in Ink or printing his name upon It. Penalty for omission £5." Below this is elaborately en<>raved by machLe the stamp of four cn-cles, having at the top " Card-Stamp," at the bottom " Three pence," and the letters " V R" in large open capitals at the sides On the left lateral fold is engraved, in open letters, the following caution • " On opening a pack of cards, the wrapper is to be destroyed. Penalty £20 if retained for use again," ' NUMEBALS. 233 A notice of these cai'ds reprinted from the " Times '' of December 3rd, 1874, accompanies the pack, from it the follomng extracts are taken : " The well-worn adage as to the non-existence of novelty under the sun does not altogether apply to the international cards, since we find that although national, political, and educational cards have been produced, the notion is original of making international cards. In giving effect to this idea it is satisfactory that the general appeai'ance of the cards is not sacrificed to the temptation of rendering them confusingly picturesque. The leading conventional features of ordinary playing-cards are retained, while an interesting cachet of the period of production is given to the international cards which wUl not, as might be apprehended, distract the most solemn of whist players. . . . The idea of international playing-cards, as now carried out in this production, was recently originated by jNIr. Felix Summerly, with the aid of j\Ir. Keuben Townroe, an artist whose originality in design and its varied forms of treatment is testified to by the ornamental terra-cotta work on the centre of the Royal Albert Hall, and many decorative works at the South Kensington Museum. "At first glance, if we overlook the aces the cards have the appearance of the modern stereotyped form of cards, a style which we adopted from the French cards made at Chartres in 1 702 ; but on closer inspection we find his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales doing duty as the king of diamonds, the King of the Belgians as the king of hearts, the Crown Prince of Prussia as the king of spades, and the King of Italy as the king of clubs. The likenesses are fairly good, especially that of the King of Italy. " The aces are allotted to the greatest potentates — thus, Her Majesty, as lEmpress of India and Queen of the United Kingdom, appears as the ace of hearts ; the President of the United States is the ace of spades, the Emperor of Russia is the ace of diamonds, and the German Emperor is the ace of clubs. But Mr. Felix Summerly, with perhaps a pardonable penchant to pay an irreproach- able compliment, has allotted to her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales the high office of queen of hearts, while to the Crown Princess of Germany he assigns the dignity of the queen of clubs. The Queen of Greece appears as queen of diamonds, and the Empress of Austria as queen of spades. The four knaves have a more original character about them than the other court-cards. The square and blocky conventionality is maintained, although the actual details are totally different from what are used in ordinary playing-cards. A Scotch piper with distended cheeks vigorously blowing his pipe, the utmost determination of purpose shown in his features, appears as knave of hearts. An oflicious and splendid fiinctionary, obviously a gendarme, is the knave of spades. A yellow- bearded Swiss guide with his rope on his shoulder, and clenching a spiked staff, is the knave of clubs ; while Spain is represented by a keen-eyed and carefully coifed matador as knave of diamonds. As a number of portraits some of the' cards are less successful than others. Looking, however, to the restrictions as respects attitude and form which were imposed on the designer, Mr. Reuben Townroe, we must congratulate him upon the success he has obtained in his portraits of Her Majesty the Queen, the Emperors of Austria and Russia, the Princess of Wales, King Victor Emmanuel, the King of the Belgians, and the Crown Prince of Germany." The backs of these cards are of a deep blue colour of extreme lissage, having on them printed in gold the royal arms of England, with those of Saxe-Coburg- Gotha on a shield of pretence. Below is the double-headed eagle of Prussia, with the George and Dragon on a shield of pretence. The whole is surrounded ivith an ornamental design composed of oak-leaves, acorns, thistles, shamrocks, and roses. It is right to observe that as far as the idea simply of international playing- cards is concerned, it had been previously illustrated by the French. See F. 58. [35 X 2^ in.] [Backs decorated.] 234 ENGLISH. CARDS WITH A SECONDARY PURPOSE. EDUCATIONAL— INSTRUCTIVE. E. 174. LAST QUARTER OF SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. LONDON. (Grammatical.) SET of fifty-two numerals of the ordmary suits and honours. The marks of the suits are relatively large, and placed at the upper left-hand corner of each piece. The values of the pip-cards are indicated by large Roman nvimbers at the upper right-hand corners. On the honours are busts of king, queen, and valet, mostly of different designs in each suit, they are from engraved wood-blocks, are of inferior character in all respects, and remain uncoloured. This series is intended to serve the purpose of teaching the rules of grammar, as comprised in the four principal parts of " LUlie's Grammar." All the rules and instructions are in the Latin language, and occupy in print of different sizes the greater portion of each card. Ten pages of descriptive matter and address in English precede the cards. On the title-page is the inscription : " Grammatical Cards. Imprimatur. June 1, 1676. J. Jane. London. Printed for S. Mearn and A. Clark, and are to be sold by J. Seller, at the Hermitage Stairs in Wapping, and J. HiU, in Exchange Alley, 1677." Then follows the dedication and address : " To all ingenious gentlemen, the perusers of these Sciential cards." The gentlemen have advice addressed them, based on the following quotation from Plutarch : " Proinde recte monebat Plato tit neque corpus exerceremus sine animo neque animimi sine corpore, sed veluti conjugii cujusdam iEquOibrium teneremus corpori." This address is signed " yours, T. B." Next comes " A short tract tauching {sic) the use of these Grammatical cards," in which the reader is assured that " All games may be played thereon with witty jests, sweet flowing Latine and great understanding." " In fine and to conclude all briefly, the use and practise of them shall perform more than I will or can speak in praise of them." The suit of spades teaches " Orthographia," that of clubs " Etymologia," hearts " Syutaxis," and diamonds " Prosodia." Below the bust of the smiling knave of spades is inscribed, " Mel in ore, Orthographia. Cavendum est ab us vitiis quae vulgo propria videntur, viz : locatisimus. Lit. 1. nimia extensio. Lambdacismus. Lit l. nimis operosonus. Isohnotes. Loquendi exilitas. Traulismus. Oris hesitantia. Plateasimus. Vocis crassa et rustica expressio. Below the knave of clubs is " Omnium horarum homo, Etymologia,'' &c. &c. On the knave of hearts is " Syntaxis," " Grata Novitas," and the names of the " Dictionis sex " and " Constructionis 8," the " figura novata arte aliqua dicendi forma." The knave of diamonds bears " Prosodia. Palinodiani Canit," &c. [3|- X 2| in.] [Backs plain.] EDUCATIONAL— INSTBUOTIVE. 235 E. 175. LAST QUARTER OF SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. LONDON. (Grammatic AX. ) > ORT Y cards from a numeral series of fifty- two pieces of the usual suits and honours. The cards wanting are the four of spades, king and five of hearts, the king, three, four, six, seven, eight of clubs, and the king, ace, and ten of diamonds. This imperfect sequence is a duplicate of the set last desci'ibed, E. 1 74, wanting the introductory descriptive pages. In place of the latter is a supple- mentary card, having on it the following inscription :— " These cards are ingeniously contrived for the comprising the general rules of Lillie's Grammar, in the four principal parts thereof, viz. Orthographia, Prosodia, Etymologia, and Syntaxis, thereby rendering it very useful to all Per- sons that have already the Latine Tongue, for the recollecting their memories, and also for the better Improvement of such as have made some beginnings in the study thereof, besides the Divertisements they afford in aU our English games as other common cards. " Advertisement. " These grammatical, as also the geographical cards so ingeniously contrived for improvement of Geography, with any sorts of maps both great and small, and Atlas's both for sea and land, and aU the Maps, Charts, Books, and Atlas's made by Johti Seller, the king's Hydrographer, are sold by John Hills, Stationer, in Exchange Alley, near the Royal Exchange in London." [3f X 2-|- in.] [Backs plain.] E. 176. EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. LONDON. (Akithmetical.) PACK of fifty-two numeral card-pieces of the ordinary suits. This series is made subservient to arithmetical instruction. In the upper right-hand corner of each piece is a reduced repre- sentation of a particular card of the usual design. On the remaining portion of the piece an arithmetical question is proposed and the sum worked out in detail. The whole is enclosed in a frame-like border. The ace of diamonds, which commences the series, has on it the " numeration table," and a " duty stamp (?) " in red. Below is the inscription, " This table shows how to express properly the true value of any number whatsoever whether it be written or named." The ace of hearts illustrates the " Substraction of Cloth Measure," the ace of spades the " Reduction of Money," and the ace of clubs the " Reduction of Cloth Measure." The knave of clubs, the last card of the series, works out " Question 5 " in " Practice." The whole sequence is thus made to include the arithmetic of addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, reduction, the rule of three, and practice. These cards are, as respects both designs and text, impressions from neatly engraved copper-plates. [3| X 21 in.] [Backs plain.] 236 ENGLISH. E. 177. LAST QUARTER OF SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. LONDON. SERIES of thirty-one card-pieces from a numeral set of fifty-two of the ordinary suits. This sequence is more like a shopkeeper's illustrated catalogue of mathematical instruments than anything else. More than 2i inches of each piece is occupied by a neat engi-aving from copper of persons engaged in the use of various astronomic, mathematic, and other scientific appliances. At the upper right-hand comer of each piece is the diminutive representation of an ordinary playing-card, similar to E. 176. On a shield to the left of the small card is the name of the instrument represented in use below. At the lower portion is a description of the design above. Thus on the six of clubs is " baro- meter," on a shield above four standard barometers, backed by numerous enquiring personages. Below is inscribed : " An instrument shewing the gravita- tion of y" Air (Invented by Torricellus) being altered by the different compres- sions of y^ Atmosphere it foretells ( g riseing) Fair or Frost ( g falling) Rain, Snow, Wind, or Storms." The first card of the series is the king of clubs, which bears the following : — " These cards, globes, spheres, mathematical Books, and instruments for Sea and Land, with many other curiositys in Gold, Silver, Steell, Brass, Ivory, and Wood, and the best Charts, Maps, and Prints at y'^ King's Armes and Globes at Charing Cross, and against the Royal Exchange in CornhiU, by Tho. TutteU, Mathematical Instrument maker to the King's most excellent Majesty, where are taught all parts of the Mathematics." Above this account are the arms of England with the motto, " Je maintien- dray ;" from which it may be concluded that the series was published during the reign of William III. On the ace of spades is a list of " Books and Instruments for Navigation." Chattohasthe following remarks : — " In the reign of Charles II. or James II. was published a pack of mathematical cards by Thomas TutteU, ' Mathematical instrument maker to the king's most excellent Majesty.' These cards were designed by Boitard, and engraved by J. Savage, they represent various kinds of mathematical instruments, together with the trades and professions in which they are used. They were evidently ' got up ' as an advertisement. A few years afterwards Moxon, also a mathematical instrument maker, followed suit." (Bibl. 4, p. 1SS-) These cards are neatly designed and executed. See postea, E. 222. MS. Depart. Harleian MSS. No. 5947, fol. 6. C3t X 2|- in.] {;Backs plain.] E. 178. LAST QUARTER OF SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. LONDON. (Geographic.) SERIES of fifty-two numerals of the ordinary suits. These cards are intended to convey geographical information. The greater portion of each piece is occupied by a geographical account of various _ countries, a systematic classification of which is given in a tabular form on the ace of each suit. At the left-hand upper corner of each card is the EDUCATIONAL— INSTBUGTIVE. 237 mark of the suit, and at the right-hand upper comer is the value of the card in Roman numerals, while a small Arabic number is below the mark itself. Each coate-card has a bust within a circle at its upper portion. In the case of the kings there is a crown on the right of the circle, the mark of the suit being on the left. The king of clubs represents John IV. of Portugal for Brazil, the queen Elizabeth for English Plantations, the knave a cannibal for Caribee Islands. The king of diamonds is VanUe for China ; the queen Statira for Persia, the knave a janissary for Turkey in Asia. The king of hearts is Charles H. for the British Isles, the queen Rhea Silvia for Spain and Portugal, the knave a Greek for Turkey in Europe. The king of spades is Zaga Chris for Ethiopia, the queen Candace for Nubia, the knave is a Negro for " the country of the Negros or Blacks." The ace of clubs is the first piece of the series, and has on it a table of the divisions and subdivisions of Septentrional and jMeridional America. Above the table is marked Lot. N. 80, below Lat. S. 54, Long. W. 235, Long. E. 350. This sequence was known to Taylor, who notices it at page 195 (Bibl. 9.) He gives the following note in reference to the king of spades, Zaga Chris. " See ' Une Relation Veritable de Zaga-Christ, Prince d'Ethiope,' in a curiously illus- trated work called ' La Terre Sainte, 4to., Paris, 1 664.' " The medallion busts on the figure-cards are coloured. [si- X 2|- in.] [Backs plam.] E. 179. THIRD QUARTER OF SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. LITTLEBURY, ESSEX. (GrEOGBAPHIC, &C.) lORTY-ONE card-pieces from a series of fifty-two numerals of the usual suits. The ace, two, and ten of spades, the two, three, seven, and king of diamonds, the six, seven, and queen of clubs, and the ten of hearts are wanting. This set is intended to afford instruction in geography and ethnology. Each card-piece has a descriptive account of one of the states of the four quarters of the globe. On the upper part of the card is the symbol and value of it, or the name of the honour, supported by two figures representing the inhabitants of a particular portion of the world. Between these figures and as a background is a landscape or view of some town. The lower half of each piece is occupied with a general account of the place and persons represented above. The ace of hearts appears to have been intended as the first piece of the set, since it has the address of " H. Winstanley, at Littlebury, Fecit " on it, below the descriptive account of Ecbope, which is as foUows : " Europe is the least of the four parts of the world, and yet it is not much inferior to any at this present, for containing many nations, most polished and ingenious where arts and sciences flourish and are cherished, trading abounding and conversation without danger. Shee may boast her riches, fruitfulness, and stately towns and palaces, but above all in that the Christian religion is wholly professed in her bounds, whereas the rest of the world is for the most part ignorant of a true Deity, but what they learn of Christian colonies that have seated themselves amongst them, to force as it were a tribute of the best of all that Europe can be sayd to want ; of which nations the situation, the chief citys and habits, and religions, and fruitfulness, &c. see the following cards for all the world. Europe is distlnguLshed with roses, Asia with suns, Africa with moons, and America with stars." 238 ENGLISH. The king of hearts represents London and the English, and bears the duty stamp in red. On the kmg of spades are " Tangier and the Tingitanians," on the king of clubs " James Town and the Verginians," while on the knave of hearts are " Kome and the Italians," and on the knave of diamonds " Babylon and the Babylonians." These card-pieces are from neatly engraved copper-plates, and are vmcoloured. [3i X 2i in.] [Backs plain.] E. i8o. THIRD QUARTER OF OTNETBENTH CENTURY. SERIES of fifty-two card-pieces of the usual suits. A preliminary card of information accompanies the set, which is composed, we are informed, of " Instructive Playing-cards. The object of these cards is to convey instruction while seeking amusement. To play the game of stops, &o. The cards may also be used for any other game known." In the game of stops a pool with counters is necessary, and " whoever holds the ace of diamonds and plays it, wins the pool." Each card has its mark and value printed double and in reverse, as also an account of the object under description. Thus "Ace of diamonds" is printed in red at the upper part of the card, below which may be read : " Diamonds were formerly called adamant." On the same card in reverse are the words, " Ace of diamonds ; " diamonds are the most costly of gems." Below the nine of diamonds are the words " The nine of diamonds is called the ' Curse of Scotland ; ' " ' in reverse, " There are thirty-three counties in Scotland." On the seven of spades is printed "Side-saddles were first used in England in 1380," and in reverse, " Saltpetre was first made in England in 1625." On the three of hearts may be read "Hans Holbein, historical and portrait painter, died in 1554," in reverse, "Hogarth, the painter and engraver, died in 1764." It maybe observed that the information intended to be conveyed is of the most opposite and varied kind. The coate-cards are without designs, the titles king, queen, and Jack being used instead. The title of the wrapper accompanies the set, the following inscription being printed in black and red on a rose-coloured ground : " Moral and Instructive Playing-cards. Amusement and information combined. London : Dean and Son, Ludgate Hill." At each corner of the title is a mark of one of the four suits. [2|- X 2|- in.] [Backs plain.] E. 181. SECOND HALF OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. LONDON. lORTY-NINE card-pieces from a series of fifty-two numerals of the ordinary suits. The cards absent are the seven of diamonds, the king of spades, and the nine of clubs. At the upper part of each card is the mark of the suit, and the value iii Roman numbers of the particular piece. Below, and occupying generally more than half of the card, is a whole-length allegorical figure, with emblems in a cii-cle, followed by a description of the symbolical de- See Chatto, p. 266. EDUCATIONAL— INSTBUGTIVE. 239 sign. The honours are not otherwise distinguished than by having the words ting, queen, knave at the upper left-hand corner of the card. The ace of hearts has on it, within the circle, an emblematic figure of Religion ; below which is the following account : — " Religion. " A woman veiled, a Book in her right, and a flaming fire in her left hand. The Veil informs us that Religion has its mysteries. The Book expresses the Divine Law, and the flaming Fire the xatmost ardency of Devotion." On the knave of clubs is an emblem of Deceit, described as " a monstrous old man, with tails of serpents twining instead of legs ; three hooks in one hand, a bag of flowers with a snake issuing from it ; and behind him, a panther hiding his head, and shewing his beautiful back. "His Humane shape and Flowers denote his specious pretences; the Serpents' tails, the Hooks, and the Snake, his villanous intentions ; the Panther hiding his ugly head, his Subtelty." The figure designs are from engravings on wood ; some of those in the suits of hearts and diamonds being of a superior character. Both text and designs in these suits are printed in red. [3f >< 2|- in.] [Backs plain.] E. 182. EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. LONDON. PWO large sheets of card-pieces, each sheet containing twenty-six pieces. Of the latter there are fom: rows, of six in each row, and two in a middle row. The lower row in each sheet is appropriated to the honours, the other rows to the point numerals. There are not any marks of suits present. The impressions are from neatly engraved wood-blocks, scarcely more than in outline, and are uncoloured. The series is intended to serve the purposes of instruction, but the designer does not seem to have been overburdened himself with that which he desired to bestow on others : for example, on a three pip-card in the central row of sheet 1, is inscribed within an oval in the centre : " These cards was truely well designed To ground all Letters in youths minde." On the adjacent four pip-card may be read : " Both youth and age may learne hereby All sorts of Letters speedily." On an ace in the central row of sheet 2 is : " These cards are good, well understood ;'' while on the adjacent two we are told : " Her's Criscross Row for thee to know Thy Letters aU both greate and small." Below on a ten is : " These cards may be a Scoole to thee If you deseme what you may Lerne." 240 ENGLISH. The subjects intended to be taugbt are the letters of tbe alphabet, in their black-letter, Roman, and italic forms, a few words of one syllable, and some moral axioms worthy of remembrance by the card-player. Each point numeral has a large central oval, surrounded by ornamental work, generally of a floral character, but occasionally birds and butterflies are intro- duced. On the third row of the second sheet human figures, of a fanciful or poetic kind, may be seen. In the central ovoid spaces are upper and lower-case examples of the letters of the alphabet in three forms, viz. 3a, Aa, Aa. Above the oval is a sqiiare space, at the left-hand corner of which the value of the piece is indicated in Roman figures, room being reserved towards the right for the mark of the suit, here absent. On four pieces of the fourth row of sheet 1 are the words : Ab, eb, ib, ob, ub, and so on, there being five words of one syllable in each oval. The ovals on the honours contain moral axioms, like the following on sheet 2 : — Knave. — " A gamester that doth play for gaine. Is but a knave and that is plaine." King. — " Play faire Do not sweare. From Oaths forbeare." Queen. — " Cards may be used but not abused And they used well all games exell." Knave. — " Play not for Coine in these regards, Men loose and then they curs the Cai-ds." On a king on sheet l may be I'ead : " AVhen these cards are understood, You'l say that my design is good." In the lower rows, or coate-cards, the Roman numbers in the square spaces above the ovals are displaced by half-length figures of kmg, qvieen, and knave, the titles of which are given below. [3| X 2-i- in.] [Backs plain.] BIOGRAPHIC— HISTORIC. E. 183. FIRST QUARTER OF NINETEENTH CENTURY. LONDON. (Bakek's Eclectic Cards.) PACK of fifty-two numerals, having aa marks of suits swords (spata), hearts, glands (acorns), and diamonds. The figure -cards are king, queen, and knight, and represent historic personages in assumed costumes of their times, the marks of their suits being distinctly indicated at one of the upper corners of the cards. The marks of the suits are large and plain in all the pip-pieces, but particularly so in the aces and lower cards. The sword or spata is a broad, double-edged one. The heart is larger on its left than on its right side, which is under-cut towards the apex, and is pierced longitudinally by an arrow iu the ace. The diamond is a lozenge divided into BIOGBAPHIC—HISTOBIG. 241 four smaller lozenges, while the gland is an acorn) in the ace pedicled, and having diminutive acorns and oak-leaves bi-laterallj. All the pip-cards have the margins ornamented with floral designs, those on the right-hand side of the piece being emblematic of the country which the suit is intended to represent. On the suit of swords, which represents Wales, there is a leek on the right and mistletoe on the lower edge of the card. On diamonds, typifying Scotland, is a thistle. On hearts, implying Ireland, a shamrock ; and on glands (acorns), by which England is represented, there are oak-leaves and roses. On each ace are the letters " B. & C"." A supplementary card introduces the series. On it is inscribed — " Baker & Co''. Eclectic Cards. In England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Sold Wholesale and Retail at their Manufactory, No. 2. King Arthur or New Card Court, York Street, Black Friar's Road, London. N.B. To be had of all Respectable Stationers in the United Kingdom." Above this inscription is a whole-length figure of Sir John FalstafF, con- tained in an octangular frame, within the angles of which, at the upper and lower portions, are the marks of the four suits. Accompanying this series is a pamphlet of twelve pages, the title page of which bears the following : — " A short account of Baker and Co.'s Complete, Grand, Historical, Eclectic Cards, for England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, being a selection or an Eclectic Company of Twelve of the most eminent per- sonages that ever distinguished themselves in those respective Countries for Heroic Deeds, Wisdom, &c." ; and the other forty cards descriptive of the local and national emblems of the four nations. " Historian, Poet, Painter, all combine To charm the eye, the taste and mind refine ; Fancy and sentiment their aid impart To raise the genius and to mend the heart." " Price, third class, 1 Ss. ; second class, 1 "js. 6d. ; first class, 20s. London. Printed by Theodore Page, Blackfriars Road. 1 8 1 3." Then follows the dedication : — " With most humble submission to every re- spectable person in the British Empire." After which is the description of " Baker's and Co.'s complete, grand, Imperial, historical, eclectic cards for Eng- land, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, which are designed, drawn, engraved, and now finished at a very great expense by some of the most eminent artists in England, beino- copper-plate engravings, beautifully executed, and penoU-coloured, upon an entire new and elegant plan, especially intended for the circles of taste and fashion, and peculiarly calculated for the encouragement of youth to study the interesting history of their native country. " In the selection which we have made to form our set of court-cards, we have, as we before observed, chosen them from among those characters who have rendered themselves most conspicuous in the history of the United Kingdom. In this particular we have had recourse not only to historical truth, which we have rio-idly observed, but we have taken care to fix upon personages who lived at difi'erent periods, and which are calculated in colour, variety of dress, and characteristic features, to form an agreeable and elegant contrast, and to avoid that unpleasant monotony which must have taken place if they had all been se- lected from the same period of time, and it will be a peculiar gratification to us in our attempts to form a set of cards should we contribute in the smallest degree to augment the elegant and rational amusement of taste and fashion. " Nor have we been inattentive to minor objects in our anxiety to complete the plan. We believe it has never been attempted to be explained why the coarse and vultfar appellation of knave was originally given to the card next in degree to the queen. Perhaps the following demonstration is the most plausible way in B 242 ENGLISH. which it can be accounted for. It was usual with kings in ancient times to choose some ludicrous person, with whose ridiculous and comical tricks they might be diverted in their hours of relaxation from the cares and formalities of royalty. This person was generally chosen from among men of low condition, but not wholly destitute of talent, particularly in that species of low cunning and humour calculated to excite mirth and laughter, and the tricks of knavery (in which he was allowed free indulgence in the presence of the king) gave him the appellation of the king's fool or knave. " Whether this explanation be really the origin from whence the knave in the old cards is derived may still remain undetermined, but it appears to us the most rational way of accounting for it. Nor is it, indeed, essential to our present purpose. The name of knave, in our opinion, is vulgar, unmeaning, and incon- sistent, and being, moreover, absoliitely incompatible with the dignity of our characters and the uniformity of our plan, we have entirely rejected it and sub- stituted a knight lq its stead, this being a title of honour not only in immediate succession to that of king and queen, but is ever considered as an honourable appendage to royalty itself. "And as we have now restored that most ancient and most honourable order of the Knights of the Round Table, under its great patron and founder Prince Arthur of immortal memory, the great champion for chivalry, religion, and liberty, the Briton's king and emperor, we here insert a list of this our first installation, with a brief account of their history, and cause of selection. " Peeson.s;, oe the Eclectic Company or Knights. " For England. "King of clubs (glands) — Arthur, the great and victorious hero, king of Britain. " Queen of clubs — Elizabeth, the wise and virtuous queen of England. " Knight of clubs — Sir John Falstaflf, the facetious knight, and companion of Henry V., knight of England. " For Ireland. " King of hearts — Gathelus, the Grecian prince, king of Ireland. " Queen of hearts — Scotia, his wife, the Egyptian princess, queen of Ireland. " Knight of hearts — Ossian, the warrior and poet, son of Eingal, knight of Ireland. " For Scotland. " King of diamonds — Achajus, the fortunate contemporary and in alliance with Charlemagne, king of Scots. " Queen of diamonds — Mary Stuart, the unfortunate dowager-queen of France, and queen of Scots. "Knight of diamonds— Merlin, the magic prophet, cabinet counsellor to Vortigern, Am-elius Ambrosius, liter Pendragon, the father of King Arthur, and to King Arthur who was his pupU, knight of Scotland. "For Wales. " King of spaia — Camber, the third son of Brute, king of Cambria. " Queen of spata — Elfrida, the beautiful queen of Mona and of the moun- tains. "Knight of spata — Thaliesson, the Welsh bard and poet, dressed like a herald or king-at-arms of the divine and ancient Druids, as he sung to King Henry II. of the great deeds of Arthur, the justly-termed hero of the British Isle, knight of Cambria. "A description of these twelve plates and the history of them; also an account of the emblems and wreaths of the numerical cards, with our reasons for BIOOBAPniG—niSTOBIG. 243 appropriating the different suits to the different nations, and for altering the pip or numerical cards by substituting the acorn, which is the offspring and seed of our invulnerable oak, for the black mark denominated club in the old cards. Also for producing the true representation of the real spata, which is not a coal- heaver's spade, but a two-edged heavy sword without a point, as used by the ancient Britons to fight with, cut, hew, and slash down either enemy or tree. So says our ancient history. " The alterations in the hearts and diamonds are equally beautiful, both in form and colour. To the history is added a new and most interesting game, called ' Courtship and Wedding,' in which is shown the absurdity of many of the words and terms now used at cards which ought not to be heard in genteel company." Chatto had cognizance of this series, of which he observes (p. 261) : — • " These cards, which are considerably larger than those in common use, display considerable skill and fancy in the designs, and ai'e beautifully coloured." These card-pieces are of a very stiff and stout character. [4i X 2|. in.] [Backs plain.] POLITICO-HISTORICAL. E. 184. Manuscript Department, Harleian MSS. No. 5947 (51. P.) BAcroBD Collection. fHIS volume of the Harleian MSS., forming part of the "Bagford Collection," contains some curious and interesting " cuttings " and advertisements connected with playing-cards. Among the adver- tisements is one having immediate reference to the particular class of playing-cards to come under inunediate notice. On the verso of folio five is " An advertisement concerning a new Pack of Cards," which would seem to have appeared in more than one newspaper of the latter part of the year 1679. From which paper John Bagford's example was cut we do not know. Taylor refers (p. 168) to the first number of " Mercurius Domesticus " for December 19th, 1679, as containing a modified form of the advertisement. We have met with it, however — as wiU be shown presently — as early as October 2 1st, 1679, in the thirty-first number of the " Domestic Intelligence." Bagford's copy runs as follows : — " There is newly published a Pack of cards, containing a History of all the Popish Plots that have been in England, beginning with those in Queen Eliza- beth's time, and ending with this last damnable plot against his sacred majesty. King Charles the Second, whom God long preserve ; wherein are an exact account of the Spanish Invasion of 1 588, the manner* of theu: attempting Eng- land, and their being almost all burnt and taken by Sir Francis Drake. The conspiracy of Dr. Parry to kill Queen Elizabeth, his confessing the design upon his Tryal, and his Papist-like denying it at his Execution. The History of the horrid Gunpowder plot to blow up the King, Lords and Commons, when they were all sitting in the Parliament House ; the manner of its discovery by a letter 244 ENGLISS. sent to the Lord Monteagle, the Papists rebelling upon it, their being routed, and the Tryals and Executions of the several accomplices. And lastly, a- true account of this present hellish plot against the life of his Present Majesty, the murdering of Sur Edmondbury Godfrey, the several meetings, Tryals and Execu- tions of the Traytors, with all other material passages relating thereto. All of them so contrived that a child that can but read English will be acquainted with a chronicle for above 100 years past of all the bloody purposes and devilish designs of the Papists against the Protestant Keligion and the true Professors of it, aU excellently engraved on copper-plates, with very large descriptions under each card. The like not extant. " Some persons that care not what they say so they can get by it, lying being as essential to them as eating, for they can as soon live without the last as the first, have endeavoured to asperse this Pack by a malicious libel intimating that it did not answer what is proposed : the contrary is evident to any person that shall peruse them, there being not one material passage in any of the above mentioned plots, but is neatly engraven and exactly described in writing to the great satisfaction of aU who have seen them. But malice must shew itself most where the least reason, the aspersors of this Pack do plainly show themselves Popishly Affected in that they would not have the English World know that the Papists have been always as well as now ennemies to the Protestant Keligion. " They are to be Sold by Randal Taylor near Stationer's Hall and at the Harrow in Fleet Street, at the Three Bibles on London Bridge, at the Feathers at Pope's Head Alley, and in Cornhill at the Ship in S'. Pauls churchyard, at the Three Flower-de-Luces in Little Brittam and at the Bell in Duck Lane and by most other Booksellers. The price of each Pack is one Shilling." During the year 1679, there was published in London among other news- papers the " Domestick Intelligence or News both from City and Country. Pub- lished to prevent False Reports," and also " The True Domestick Intelligence or News both from City and Country. Published to prevent False Reports." In one or other, and sometimes in both of these papers, during the months of November and December, some advertisements connected with the subject of politico-historical cards occur, and which merit particular notice here. The first advertisement we have met with — as before remarked — is in No. 31 of the " Domestick Intelligence " for Tuesday, October 21st, 1679. This is frequently repeated, and does not need repetition here. In No. 35 of the " True Domestick Intelligence" for November 4th, 1679, is the following : — " The Horrid Popish Plot lively represented in a Pack of Cards Printed for Jonathan WUkins and Jacob Sampson." In No. 50 of the " True Domestick Intelligence" for December 26, 1679, occurs this advertisement : — " There is lately published a new Pack of Cards neatly cut in copper, in which are represented to the life the several consults for killing the King and extirpating the Protestant Religion, the manner of the murthering Sir Edmond- bury Godfrey, the Tryals and Executions of the Conspirators, and all other material designs relating to the contrivance and management of the said horrid Popish Plot, with their attempt to throw it on the Protestants. These have something more than the first have, and yet nothing left out that was in them nor any old impertinent things added. Printed and sold by Robert Walton at the Globe, on the north side of St. Paul's Churchyard, near the West end, where you may have a pack for eightpence of the very best, you may have them in sheets fit to adorn studies and houses. There is likewise a broadside with an almanack, and some of the aforesaid pictures about it, which may not unfitly be called the Christian Almanack fit for Shops, Houses and Studies. Sold as above said, the price Sixpence." This was repeated in No. 53 for January 6th, l58o: — P0LITI00-HI8T0BICAL. 245 Mr. Chatto, who was acquainted with the copy of the advertisement pre- served by Bagford, and before given, thus comments on it (p. 153) :— " In a ' puff collusive,' ' forming a kind of postscript to this announcement, approbation of these cards is thus indirectly made a test of staunch Pro- testantism. " Such a pack of cards as that announced in the advertisement referred to — containing an history of all the popish plots that have been in England, begin- ning with those in Queen Elizabeth's time — I have never seen, and from the objection which was made to it at the time, namely, 'that it did not answer what was proposed, I am inclined to think that it was the same pack as that which relates entirely to the pretended Popish Plot of 1678, and the murder of Sir Edmondbury Godfrey." Certainly the British Museum collection of playing-cards does not contain any single pack illustrating all the events and plots above mentioned, but it has several distinct series of cards referring to many of them. Thus, it has a pack relating to the Spanish Armada, one in connection with the " Popish Plot," and other sequences illustrative of the " Rye House Plot," the victories of Marl- borough, and events of the Reign of James II., with the arrival in England of the Prince of Orange. The Rebellion of 1698, and the story of Dr. Sacheverel are likewise portrayed. In order that those persons who may refer to these politico-historical cards in the national collection, may have at hand a ready key in the catalogue to their descriptions and devices, it has been deemed advisable to supply here a succinct account of the various events and plots which the series of cards in question illustrate. As Locke elegantly expresses it : " The pictures drawn in our minds are laid in fading colours, and if not sometimes refreshed, vanish and disappear." ("On Human Understanding," b. ii. ch. lO.) HISTORIC INTRODUCTION. tURINGr the Parliamentary Session of 1584-5 a stringent law was passed relative to CathoHcs. All Jesuits and secular priests were ordered to quit the kingdom within forty days ; those remaining after that time were to be held guilty of treason, and such as harboured or relieved them guilty of felony. All students at foreign Catholic seminaries were to return home within six months, or be considered treasonable if not doing so, and those who supplied them with money were to be liable to a prcemunire. This biU was strongly opposed by one "William Parry, a Doctor of Civil Law, who declared " the bill savoured of treason, was full of blood and danger, of despair and terror to the English subjects of this realm, and spoke with so much passion and vehemence that he was committed to custody." (Old- ' " The puff collusive is the newest of any, for it acts in the disguise of de- termined hostility. It is much used by bold booksellers and enterprising poets." " The Critic," act i. The "puff collusive" was not an invention of Sheridan's time, but merely the revival of an old trick. 246 ENGLISH. mixon, vol. i. p. 520.) Being commanded to give his reasons for what he said^ he obstinately refused, unless before the Privy Coun- cil. Upon his submission after a few days' time he was re-admitted to the House of Commons. Scarcely at liberty, however, than Ed- mund Nevil (who claimed the inheritance of the fugitive Barl of Westmoreland, lately dead in Flanders) accused him of conspiring against the Queen, and upon this he was committed to the Tower. Parry's confession was in substance as follows. We follow Keightley, " History of England," v. ii. p. 220. He was in the Queen's service from 1570 to 1580, when having attempted to kill a man to whom he was in debt, and having ob- tained a pardon, he went to Paris, where he was reconciled to the Church of Eome. At Venice, some time after, he hinted to a Jesuit named Palmio, that he had found a way to relieve the English Ca- tholics if the Pope, or any learned Divines, would justify it as law- ful. Palmio extolled the project (which was to kill the Queen) as a pious design, and recommended him to the Nuncio. Letters of safe conduct for Parry to go to Eome were sent by Cardinal Como. Parry returned, however, to Paris, and there conversing with his countryman Morgan, the agent of the Queen of Scots, he declared himself ready to kill the greatest subject in England in the cause of the Church. "Why not the Queen herself?" said Morgan. But of this Parry now had doubts, as Watts, an English priest, and Creighton, the Scottish Jesuit, had assured him it was not lawful. The Nuncio Raggazzoni, however, confirmed him in his design, and he received, after his return to England, a letter from Cardinal Como, in the Pope's name, recommending his project and giving him absolution. He had communicated this letter to some at Court, and though he had had several interviews with the Queen, he went on such occasions always unarmed, lest he might be tempted to injure her, for such was the force of his natural feelings. A book which had been written recently by Dr. Allen, however, had again confirmed him in his earlier resolution. He had hence communicated it to Neville, and they had arranged their plans, but Lord Westmoreland dying at the time, Neville, in hopes of obtaining the family estates, had betrayed him. Without stopping to inquire how far this confession was true or false, " we will only observe," writes Keightley, " that the world had just had a convincing proof that the Catholic party scrupled not at assassination. On the 10th of July, 1584, the Great Prince of Orange was shot by a man named Balthazar Gerard, who confessed that he had been kept for some time in the Jesuits' College at Treves by one of the brotherhood, who approved of his design and instructed him how to proceed. Philip II. had set a large reward P0LITIC0-EI8T0BICAL. 247 on the Prince's head, and his great general the Prince of Parma sullied his fame by personally examining the qualifications of the as- sassins who presented themselves." (Keightley, v. ii. p. 221.) Oldmixon teUs us that " Parry was condemned^ as a traitor, to be hanged, drawn, and quartered, and a gallows was put up in the Palace yard at Westminster, near the Parliament House, to which he was drawn through the City of London from the Tower, and there executed on the 2nd of March." Spanish Invasion in 1588. — The execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, in 1587, formed an excuse for the Catholic powers, ujider the pretence of avenging her treatment, to attempt the overthrow and destruction of Elizabeth and the Protestant faith. But it happened that Philip II. of Spain was the only Prince who could, at the time, venture openly to turn any true force against the Queen and her kingdom. That designs against the latter were being made by Spain was soon known, for, says Welwood, " Walsiugham had in- telligence from Madrid that Philip had told his council he had des- patched an express to Rome with a letter in his own hand to the Pope, acquainting him with the true design of his preparations, and asking his blessing upon it, which, for some reasons, he would not yet disclose to them till the return of the courier. The secret being thus lodged with the Pope, Walsingham, by means of a Venetian priest retained at Rome as his spy, got a copy of the original letter, which was stolen from the Pope's cabinet by a gentleman who took the keys out of the Pope's pocket while he slept." On this becoming known in England, Sir Francis Drake went out to Cadiz and other places and inflicted such damage on the Spaniards that they postponed their intended invasion for a year. Consequently, in 1588 was fitted out what was termed the "^ Invin- cible Armada." " This boasted fleet," writes Oldmixon (v. i. p. 584) , "consisted of 150 sail, great and small, containing near 60,000 tons of shipping, and had on board about 20,000 soldiers, 8,450 marines, 2,088 slaves, 2,630 great brass guns, &c. Farnese had ready to join them 13,000 foot, and 4,000 horse soldiers." Thus the Spanish army when united would have consisted of about 37,000 men, horse and foot. The Duke de Guise, to encourage the Spaniards, had brought 12,000 men to the coast of Normandy. These forces belonged to the League, who could very ill spare them out of France. The command of the Spanish fleet was designed for the Marquis of Santa Cruz, but he dying soon after he had been punished the previous year by Sir Francis Drake, the Duke of Medina Sidonia, a fresh- water admiral, was appointed in his place. Besides Philip's whimsical pretensions to the crown of England he made use of another thing not more rational and soHd than that, to support him in his undertaking. This was a Bull of Pope Sixtua 248 ENGLISH. v., wMch he thundered against Queen Elizabeth, absolving her subjects from their oaths of allegiance, and giving her kingdoms to the first who should seize them. The Bull of Pope Gregory XIII. was renewed also by William Allen, priest, to whom the Pope had given a cardinaPs cap, and sent him into Flanders to be nearer at hand to England, and to stir up the Catholics there to rebellion by his missionaries. Allen brought the Bull of Sixtus with him into the Netherlands, and wrote an admonition to the English to adhere to the Pope and the Spaniards. Upon York and Stanley's betraying their garrisons in the Low Countries to the Spaniards, Allen wrote a libel entitled, " Bpistolse de Daventrise Ditione," wherein he highly commended their treason, exciting others to do likewise, as they were not bound to serve or obey the Queen, she being under ex- communication. Allen despatched several priests to Rowland York, whose regiment of 13,000 men, English and Irish, needed them as chaplains and confessors. He published his admonition under the protection of Alexander Farnese, Prince of Parma, governor of the Spanish Netherlands. To the latter Queen Elizabeth sent Dr. Valentine Dale mildly to expostulate against the treasonable attempts of Allen. Farnese pretended that he knew nothing of them, dis- missing Dale without any satisfactory reply. Nevertheless, while all these preparations were going on, the Prince of Parma endeavoured to amuse and beguile Elizabeth with negotiations for an amicable settlement of all diflioulties between England and Spain. But neither England nor her sovereign were to be entrapped. At the beginning of November, 1587, orders had been given to prepare resistance. " All the men from sixteen to sixty were enrolled and trained by the Lords Lieutenant of counties, who were directed to appoint officers and provide arms. One army of 36,000 men under Lord Huntsdon was to be assembled for the guard of the royal person ; another of 30,000 men, under Leicester, was to be stationed at Tilbury to protect the city. The seaports were required to supply shipping according to their means. On this occasion the city of Lon- don set a noble example ; being called upon to furnish 5,000 men and fifteen ships, the citizens voluntarily pledged themselves to send double the number of each. The royal navy consisted of but thirty- four ships, but many noblemen fitted out vessels at their own expense, and the whole fleet numbered 181 ships of all kinds, manned by 17,472 seamen. The chief command was entrusted to Howard of Effingham, Lord High Admiral of England; the three distinguished seamen, Drake, Hawkins, and Frobisher, held com- mands under him. The main fleet was stationed at Plymouth ; a squadron of forty ships under Lord Henry Seymour lay off Dunkirk, to watch the motions of the Prince of Parma." (Keightley vol ii p. 24!.) FOLITIOO-HISTOBICAL. 249 After some hindrances to its progress, the Armada was seen on the 19th of July, 1588, off the Lizard Point at Cornwall, by one Fleming — a sort of Scottish pirate — who quickly conveyed the news to Plymouth. "The admiral got his fleet out to sea, though with great difiBculty, as the wind blew strong into the port. The instructions of the Spanish admiral were to avoid hostilities till he had seen the army of the Prince of Parma safely landed in England ; he therefore rejected the advice of his captains to attack the English fleet, and the Armada proceeded up the Channel in the form of a crescent, of which the horns were seven mUes asunder. The motion of the fleet, the greatest that had ever ploughed the ocean, was slow, though every sail was spread. "■ The winds,' says Camden, ' being as it were tired with carrying them, and the ocean groaning under their weight.' " The plan adopted by the English admiral was to follow the Armada and harass it, and cut ofl' stragglers. Daring six days, which it took the Spaniards to reach Calais, the annoyance was incessant, and several of their ships were taken or disabled, the superior sea- manship of the English, and the agility and low build of their ships giving them great advantage over the unwieldy galleons and galle- asses. At length (27th) the Armada cast anchor near Calais, and the admiral sent oS' to the Prince of Parma, requiring him to embark his troops without delay. But this it was not in his power now to do ; his stores were not yet prepared, his sailors had run away, and the Dutch blockaded the harbours of Dunkirk and I^ewport. The Armada itself narrowly escaped destruction. On the night of the 29th the EngHsh sent eight fire-ships into it; the Spaniards in terror cut their cables, the English fell on them in the morning when they were dispersed, and took two galleons, and the following day (3 1st), a storm came on and drove them among the shoals and sands of Zealand. Here, in a council of war, it was decided, as the navy was now in too shattered a condition to effect anything, to return to Spain without delay. But the passage down the Channel was so full of hazard that it was resolved in preference to sail round Scotland and Ireland, dangerous as that course appeared. The Armada set sail, the English pursued as far as Plamborough Head, where want of ammunition forced them to give over the chase. Storms assailed the Armada in its progress, several ships were cast away on the west and south coasts of Ireland, where the crews were butchered by the barbarous natives, or put to the sword by orders of the Lord Deputy. The total loss was thirty large ships and about 1 0,000 men." — "The Queen of England had shown throughout the spirit of a heroine. She visited the camp at Tilbury (Aug. 9) , rode along the lines on a white palfrey with a truncheon in her hand, and animated 250 ENGLISH. the soldiers by her inspiriting language. When the danger was over, she went in state to St. Paul's to return thanks to Heaven. She then granted pensions to the disabled seamen. She bestowed her favours on the admiral and his officers, and she had actually caused a warrant to be prepared, appointing Leicester to the office of Lord Lieutenant of England and Ireland, but the influence of Burleigh and Walsingham prevented her from signing it, and as Leicester was on his way to Kenilworth after disbanding his army he fell sick and died at Cornbury Park, in Oxfordshire (Sept. 4) . The Queen lamented him, but she caused his goods to be seized for payment of his debts to the Crown." {Op. cit. v. ii. p. 243.) The Gunpowder Plot. — In 1605, at the end of October, the Lords of the Council became suspicious of a plot, which on the 4th of November following was completely discovered by the Lord Chamberlain, Lord Monteagle, and others, on examining the cellars under the Parliament-house. These they found stuffed with billets, fagots, and coal, from under which was finally brought to light thirty- six barrels of gunpowder, and Guy, or Guido Fawkes was seized as he was slipping out at the door of the cellar with a dark lanthorn, tinder-box, and matches in his possession. By these and a slow match he was soon to have fired the mine, to have escaped by a small vessel then lying in the river, and have carried the news over to Flanders. Many of the conspirators in this plot, originally concocted by Robert Catesby, known to and agreeable to the Jesuit party, but not, it is probable, to the Catholics generally, nor to the secular priesthood, were convicted and condemned, and others were shot while being arrested. Fawkes avowed and gloried in the design contemplated, that, viz., of blowing up the Parliament-house with all assembled in it. The Great Plague and Fire in London. — In 1665 (5th year of the reign of Charles II.) , during a period of great and long summer heat, the plague ravaged London. About this time some " sham plots," as they have been termed, were supposed to have been discovered. They were thought to have for their object the overthrow of the Government in England, through means of the discontented Pres- byterians and Republicans exiled in the Dutch States, and of others secretly abiding at home. De Witt entered into correspondence with Ludlow, Sidney, and other exiles for this purpose. Lord Say and others forming a council at the Hague to correspond with their associates in England. The result was that when Parliament met at Oxford at the end of the year (1665) to grant supplies, an Act was passed for attainting all British subjects who should con- tinue in the service of the States. POLITIOO-HISTOBIOAL. 251 During the next year — 1666 — the "Great Fire" took place, destroying 13,000 houses, 89 churches, and necessitating 20,000 persons to lie in huts or in the open air in the fields between Islington and Highgate. " It is not to be supposed that the real simple cause would be assigned for this calamity. Incendiaries, it was averred, were seen firing the city in various parts. Some laid it on the French, some on the Republicans, but it was finally fixed on the general scapegoat, the Papists, and the beautiful column raised by authority on the spot where the fire commenced long ' Like a tall bully lifted its head and lied ' in the inscription which it bore." (Keightley, Oj>. cit. vol. iii. p. 125.) The Polish Plot. — In 1678, while the kingdom was at peace, what is known as the " Popish Plot " was discovered during the recess of Parliament. As King Charles II. was walking in the Park on the 12th of August, a person named Kirby, who was accustomed to assist the King in his laboratory, approached him, and said, " Sire, keep within the company, your enemies have a design upon your life ; you may be shot within this very walk." Kirby was placed under examination, the result being the arrest of Dr. Tonge, or Tongue, the Rector of St. Michael's, Wood-street, and the coming forward of Titus Oates, who had taken orders at Cambridge, been indicted for perjury, had been a chaplain in the Navy, charged with sodomy, and obliged to quit his ship. He was appointed, nevertheless, one of the chaplains of the Duke of Norfolk, became a real or pretended convert to the Catholic faith, went over to St. Omer, thence to Spain, and had returned to England just at this period. Previously to having Oates examined before the Council, he was sent before a magistrate (Sept. 6th) named Sir Edmond Berry (Edmondbury is wrong) Godfrey, when he made oath to the truth of a narrative extending to eighty-one articles. Before the Council, Oates (dressed in a clergyman's gown) deposed to the following effect : — "The Jesuits'" (we quote from Keightley) "had resolved by all means to re-establish the Catholic religion in the British dominions. They were organising a rebellion and massacre in Ireland ; in Scotland, disguised as Presbyterian miaisters, they were opposing episcopacy ; here they proposed to assassinate the King, and then to offer the crown to the duke, provided he would consent to hold it of the Pope, and aid in extirpating Protestantism ; if not, 'to pot James must go,' was their expression. They had abundant funds, having £100,000 in bank, £60,000 a-year in rents, &c. Father Leshee (La Chaise), the French king's confessor, had 252 ENGLISH. given them £10,000^ and they were promised an equal sum from Spain. " In March last, two men named Honest William (Grove) and Pickering (the last a lay-brother of the Order ), were often directed to shoot the King with silver bullets at Windsorj for which the former was to have £1,500, the latter 30,000 masses, and on their neglecting to do so William had been reprimanded, and Pickering had received twenty lashes on his bare back. " On the 24th of April there had been a great meeting of the Jesuits at the White Horse Tavern, by St. Clement's in the Strand, to deliberate on the assassination of the Eng and two Benedictines, named Coniers and Anderton, and four Irishmen, whose names he knew not, were added to the former two. £10,000, and afterwards £15,000, had been offered to Wakeman, the queen's physician, to poison the King, and he had reason to believe he had undertaken it. He had also learned since his return that the Jesuits had caused the fire in 1666, on which occasion they had expended 700 fire-balls ; and they would then have murdered the King, but they relented when they witnessed his zeal and humanity. They had secured amidst the conflagration diamonds to the value of £14,000; ten years afterwards they had made £2,000 by setting fire to Southwark ; and they had now a plan for burning Westminster, Wapping, and the shipping. Finally, the Pope had lately issued a BuU, appointing to all the dignities in the Church of England, as the Catholic religion was sure to triumph as soon as the King was taken out of the way." Oldmixon, in his "History of England during 'the Reigns of the Royal House of Stuart," observes, vol. i. p. 612 : — " The Pope, in a congregation de propaganda fide, consisting of about 300 persons, held about December, 1677, declared the King of England's dominions to be part of St. Peter's patrimony, as forfeited to the Holy See for heresy, and to be disposed of as he should think fit. Cardinal Howard, nominal Archbishop of Canterbury, was accordingly appointed Legate of England, to take possession of it in the Pope's name; he was also to have 40,000 crowns a year augmen- tation for the maintenance of his legatine authority. "Perrot was made Archbishop of York; Corker,Bishop of London; Whitebread, Bishop of Winchester ; Strange, Bishop of Durham ; Godden, Bishop of Salisbury ; Napper, Bishop of Norwich ; Lord Arundel of Warder, Lord Chancellor of England; Lord Powis, Lord Treasurer; Sir William Godolphin, Lord Privy Seal; Edward Coleman, Esq., Secretary of State ; Lord BeUasis, General of the Army; John Lambert, Esq., Adjutant-General; Richard Langhorne, Advocate-General. " The lay officers had all commissions sent them ready sealed by POLITICO-EISTOBIOAL. 253 Joannes Paulas de Oliva, Father-General of the Jesuits' Society, residing at Rome, who was to give directions to the Provincial of the Jesuits residing at London how to proceed in this affair. Pedro de Jeronimo de Corduba, Provincial of the Jesuits in Spain, was to assist with counsel and money, and misrepresent the actions of his Britannic majesty to the Spanish court, which likewise was to be done by a Jesuit confessor to the Emperor in relation to England and that court. The correspondence for Prance was carried on between Coleman and Father Terriers firstj and afterwards Father La Chaise, confessor to the French king.'" To revert to Keightley's history, it may be remarked that, though Gates by his own account had feigned to be a convert, with the sole purpose of discovering the secrets of the Jesuits, and betraying them, though, as he said, he was so highly in their confidence that numerous documents had been in his hands, he had not retained a single one of them, and there was nothing but his bare assertion for the truth of the almost incredible circumstances which he related. His only chance, therefore, was that something of a confirmatory character might be found among the papers of those persons who were committed on his information. And here fortune stood his friend. Notwithstanding that little trust can be attached to Gates' assertions, the following passage in Burnet (vol. ii. p. 159) is worthy of attention : — " TiUotson told me that Langhorn's wife, who was stiU as zealous a Protestant as he was a Papist, came off to him, and gave him notice of everything she could discover among them, though she continued a faithful and dutiful wife to the last minute of her husband's life. Upon the first breaking out of the plot, before Gates had spoken a word of commissions, or had accused Langhorn, she engaged her son in some discourse upon those matters, who was a hot, indiscreet Papist. He said their designs were so well laid that it was impos- sible they should miscarry, and that his father would be one of the greatest men in England, for he had seen a commission from the Pope constituting him Advocate-General. This he told me in Stillingfleet's hearing." Among the persons accused by Gates was Coleman, the Duchess of York's secretary. Though the son of a Protestant clergyman, he had become a Catholic, and exerted himself greatly for the propaga- tion of his faith. In connection with this endeavour he was in correspondence with La Chaise, and his successor in office, St. Ger- main. Hearing of the danger which threatened him from the state- ments of Gates, he hid his papers, but forgot a drawer which contained some correspondence carried on during 1674 and the following two years. In one of the letters therein deposited he had written, " We have here a mighty work upon our hands, no less than the conversion 2S4 ENGLISH. of three kingdoms, and by that, perhaps, the utter subduing of a per- sistent heresy which has a long time domineered over a great part of this northern world. There were never such hopes of success since the days of our Queen Mary as now in our days," &c. In other correspondence Coleman alluded to the interests of the crown of England being inseparable from those of France and the Catholic religion, and describes the king as inclined to favour the Catholics, but at the same time as being thoroughly venial. As Keightley observes, when we consider the language of Coleman, and add to it the other evidence we possess, we may venture to say that the following assertion of Hallam is probably correct : " There was really and truly a popish plot in being, though not that which Titus Gates and his associates pretended to reveal ; but one alert, enter- prising, effective, in direct operation against the established Protes- tant religion in England. In this plot the King, the Duke of Tork, and the King of France were chief conspirators ; the Eomish priests, and especially the Jesuits, were eager co-operators.''' (" Constitu- tional History," vol. ii. p. 570.) It has been stated that Titus Gates made his first averments before the magistrate. Sir Edmond Berry Godfrey. Though the latter was a zealous Protestant he kept on good terms with the Catholics, and warned Coleman of his danger. Nevertheless, he appears to have become impressed with the belief that some trouble would befall him on account of the matter in hand, telling Dr. Lloyd (the rector of his parish) and Dr. Burnet that he had been informed he would "be knocked on the head." To a person who inquired of him if he had had any hand in taking the informations concerning the plot, he re- plied in the affirmative, adding, " I know not what will be the con- sequence of them, but I believe I shall be the first martyr." Gn the 12th of October — a Saturday morning — not a month after the interview with Gates, Sir E. Godfrey left his home, going to various parts of the town. He was met in St. Martin's Lane by persons of whom he inquired the way to Paddington Woods, and was seen by others in Marylebone Fields and Soho. At one o'clock he was seen in the Strand, was afterwards recognised in Lincoln's Inn Fields, and a person supposed to be he was seen in Eed Lion Fields on the way to Primrose Hill, and finally in a field near the latter eminence. He continued absent from home, however, which " caused great uneasiness to his family and friends, and various conjectures were made to account for it. Some thought he was gone out of the way from his creditors, others gave out that he was married, and 'that not very decently,' or that he was run away with a harlot, but the more prevalent report was that he was murdered by the papists. For some days no account could be got of him, but on Thursday evening (the 17th), as two men were POLITICO-EISTOBICAL. 255 going towards the "White House at Primrose Hill, they saw a cane and a pair of gloves lying on a bank by a ditch, and on searching further they found in the ditch the dead body of a man, with a sword run through him. His rings were on his fingers, and his money was in his pocket. There was a double crease round his neck, which was so limber that the face might be turned round to the shoulder. The body was at once recognised to be that of the missing Justice. A coroner's jury, swayed by the opinions of two ignorant surgeons, brought in a verdict that he had been strangled, and it was supposed that the assassins had run his own sword through him that he might be supposed to have killed himself. That the papists had done the deed was a point about which few had any doubt, and those who had, thought it most prudent to con- fine their suspicions to their own bosoms." (Keightley, Op. cit. vol. iii. p. 170.) According to Oldmixon (vol. ii. p. 614), the body was seen by Drs. Lloyd and Burnet, the late Bishops of Salisbury and Worcester, and their evidence tended to more than a suspicion that priests were concerned in the murder, for ''there were many drops of white wax-lights on his breeches, which he never used in his house, and since only persons of quality or priests use these lights, this made all people conclude in whose hands he must have been. 'Twas visible he was first strangled and then carried to that place." A reward of £500 having been offered for the arrest of the murderer of Sir E. Godfrey, a letter dated from Newbury was re- ceived by the Secretary of State the day after the funeral, request- ing that the writer of it — "William Bedloe — might be arrested at Bristol and conveyed to London. This was accordingly done, and Bedloe examined on November the 7th in the presence of the King. Bedloe said that he had seen the body of Godfrey at Somerset House (the residence of the Queen) , where he had been smothered between pillows by two Jesuits, and that he had been offered two thousand guineas to help remove it. At a subsequent examination he said that Godfrey had been inveigled into Somerset House about five in the evening, and there strangled with a linen cravat. But it happened that at that very hour the Bang was visiting the Queen, that the place was fuH of guards, and the room in which he said he saw the body was one appropriated to the Queen's footmen, who were always in it. At first, too, he knew nothing of the plot, but having read Gates' narrative, his memory brightened, and he called to mind many circumstances learned from English regulars and other religious persons he had met on the Continent. The fact is, Bedloe was, if possible, a greater liar than Gates. Originally a servant of Lord Bellasis, he had travelled chiefly as a courier over much of the Continent, had been guilty of many acts of 256 ENGLISH. robbery and swindling, had been often the inmate of a prison, and had but recently come out of Newgate. " The plain truth, however, appears to be that in this instance the unfortunate Papists were perfectly innocent, and that Godfrey died by his own hand. There was an hereditary melancholy in hia family, and for some days before his disappearance a strangeness in his manner and behaviour had been observed. The apprehension of being brought into some trouble on account of having taken the deposition of Gates, probably led to the catastrophe. As by the law the property of a felo de se was forfeit to the Crown, it was the interest of his brothers to have it believed that he had been murdered. The report, laying the guilt on the Papists, was traced to them ; they kept back important evidence, and they dealt with the coroner and the surgeons." However, the result was that Lord Danby was impeached, Cole- man, Grove, Pickering, and Ireland a Jesuit, were brought to trial along with Hill, Green, and Berry, and all, with the exception of Lord Danby, were condemned upon the evidence of Gates, Bedloe, Prance, and Carstairs, and executed, though protesting their inno- cence, whether in the general plot or Godfrey's murder, to the last. Some time after, five Jesuits, Whitebread (Provincial) , Fenwick,Gavan, Turner, and Harcourt were condemned and executed ; then followed Langhorne to share their fate. Sir George Wakeman, Croker, Marshall, and three Benedictine monks were next tried, but were acquitted by the jury, when the two chief and now baffled informers. Gates and Bedloe, had the audacity to declare " that they would never more give evidence in a Court where Scroggs presided,^' and actually exhibited articles against him to the Council (Keightley, Op. cit.) The writer here referred to observes with justice that when we consider how universal and strong was the belief in the plot, and how artful the modes adopted by some profligate politicians to exaggerate its activity, we shall find here as in the civil war grounds for admiring the freedom from, bloodthirsty characteristics of the English people. Respecting the execution of the Catholic priests, for instance. Sir William Temple has informed us that " upon this point Lord Halifax and I had so sharp a debate that he told me if I would not concurin points that were so necessary for the people's satis- faction he would tell every body I was a Papist, affirming that the plot must be handled as if it were true, whether it were so or no." On the accession of James II. (1685) the tide turned completely against Gates. He was indicted for perjury, thrown into prison, convicted, sentenced to stand in the pillory five times a year during his life, and to be whipped from Aldgate to Newgate, and thence to Tyburn. Though he suffered considerably from the latter part of his punishment, which was severely carried out, he recovered, re- POLITIOO-EISTOBIGAL. 257 gained his libertyj and found confiderSj if not in Ms veracity, at least in his services to faction, who procured him in the reign of Wniiam III. a pension of £400 a-year for his life. T. Gates died in 1705. Meal-Tub Plot. — Bangerfield and Madame Gellier. — 1679-1680. — While the various political intrigues connected with the Popish plot and Titus Oates's affairs were going on, a man named Dangerfield and a Madame Cellier, a midwife, started the idea of fabricating a plot of the Presbyterians against the Government. Madame CeUier iutroduced Dangerfield to Lady Powis, who pro- cured him interviews with Lord Peterborough, and finally obtained him communication with the Duke of York. The latter gave Dan- gerfield twenty guineas, and secured for him an interview with King Charles, from whom Dangerfield received forty guineas for the information he had offered. Dangerfield advised that revenue officers should be sent to the lodgings of a certain Colonel Mansel, the intended quarter-master of the future Presbyterian army, to search for smuggled lace. On search being made treasonable documents were found concealed behind his bed. But these turning out to have been only forgeries, Dangerfield was committed to Newgate. While in prison he averred that he had been bribed by the Catholics to invent the plot to assassinate the King and Lord Shaftesbury. To confirm the truth of his statements Dangerfield requested that Madame Collier's rooms should be searched, where in a meal-tub might be found documents which would prove the truth of his story. In such a place were discovered papers seemingly confirmatory of Dangerfield' s state- ments. Nevertheless, on the trials both of Madame CeUier and of Lord Castlemain the juries declined to give credit to his assertions. " The whole affair is as usual involved in mystery ; the Catholics may have endeavoured to get up a counterplot, the Monmouth party may have sought by means of a sham plot to cast odium on the Duke of York. All parties at this time, in their anxiety about ends, were but too indifferent as to means." (Keightley, vol.' iii. p. 191.) The Bye House Plot, 1683. — After the dissolution by King Charles of the Parliament which had met at Oxford in 1681, the leaders of the popular party began to confer seriously among themselves as to what should be done in opposing the Government, should it appear to aim at a despotic authority. Shaftesbury was impetuous, and advised instant action, but this was deemed inadvisable by the rest of the party, which resolved to proceed with caution, and only after further deliberation. Shaftesbury dying at the Hague in 1683, his old associates felt now at liberty to proceed from words to action. A council, composed of the Lords Monmouth, Essex, and Russell, of Howard, Algernon Sydney, and John Hampden (grandson of the " great Hampden"), 258 ENGLISH. was formed, for the purpose of arranging matters for a general rising. But it would seem after all, that when the plot was discovered in the summer of 1683, not anything very determinate or practical had been consummated. The discovery of this .conspiracy, known as the " Rye House Plot," was made as follows : — " Rumsey, West, and other satellites of Shaftesbury used to hold meetings of their own, in which there was frequent talk of ' lopping the two sparks,^ as West expressed it, that is, killing the King and Duke. West spoke of doing it as they were going to or from the play-house, then he said ' they would die in their calling.' There was one Rumbold, an old officer of Cromwell's army, who had married a maltster's widow, and thus become master of a house called the Rye, near Hoddesden in Herts, close by which the King used to pass on his way to Newmarket. He happened to say how easy it would be for a man to shoot the King at that place. West caught at the idea, and hence the plot was named the ' Rye-house plot.' " In this case, also, although there was a real conspiracy, nothing would seem to have been actually determined on, and things re- mained in this state tiU the month of June, when on the very day (12th) that judgment was given against the city, one Josiah Keeling, a sinking merchant, who was one of the confederates, resolved to turn informer. He went to Legge (now Lord Dartmouth), who sent him to secretary Jenkins, and on the information which he gave, rewards were offered for nine of the conspirators, but they had been forewarned by KeeHng's brother, and had concealed themselves. Two days after West and Rumsey came in and surrendered, and on their information, together with that of one Shephard, a wine mer- chant, Russell and Sidney were arrested and sent to the tower. Lord Grey was arrested, but he contrived to escape from the mes- sengers, the Duke of Monmouth also escaped, but Howard was taken concealed in a chimney in his own house. To save his life he discovered all that he said he knew, and on his information Lord Essex and Hampden were arrested." (Keightley, op. cit. vol. iii. p. 209.) Essex committed suicide, Russell suffered decapitation, as did Sidney. Monmouth was pardoned on condition that he ac- knowledged in a letter to the King the truth of the conspiracy. King Charles II. died on February the 6th, 1684-85. The Committal of the Seven Bishops, 1685-1688. — On the death of Charles II. his brother James ascended the throne without oppo- sition; but, soon after his accession, the Duke of Monmouth (na- tural son of Charles by Lucy Waters) who had been banished the kingdom on account of his connection with the Rye-house plot, landed in England with 100 men, had himself proclaimed king at Taunton, and set a price on the head of King James. He was soon POLITIOO-EISTOEIOAL. 259 defeated at the battle of Sedgemoor, when finding himself abandoned he knelt to the King for mercy, but in vain. He was beheaded a few days after on Tower-hill. James having caused his " Declaration for liberty of conscience " to be republished with additions, he, by the advice, it is said, of Father Petrie, made an order in council (May 4th) , that it should be read out in the churches during the time of Divine Service, and the bishops were required to distribute it for that purpose. The Archbishop of Canterbury (Dr. Bancroft) and the bishops of Asaph, Ely, Bath and Wells, Peterborough, Chichester, and Bristol declined to carry out this order, affirming, writes Burnett, that " they could not in prudence, honour, and conscience make them- selves so far parties to it as the publication once and again in God's house and in the time of Divine Service must amount, to." The bishops were at length cited to appear before the council, and were afterwards committed to the tower for their contumacy. " A week after their commitment they were brought upon a habeas corpus to the King's Bench, where their counsel offered to make it appear to be an illegal commitment, but the court allowed it in good law. They were required to enter into bonds for small sums to answer to the information that day fortnight. When the day fixed for their trial came on, there was a vast concourse — the trial _did last long, above ten hours — the court sat again next day, and the jury came in with their verdict (acquittal) , upon which there were such shoutings, so long continued, and as it were echoed in the city, that all people were struck with it, every man seemed transported with joy." (Burnet's " History of his own Times," vol. iii. p. 225.) As the result of this trial, which was considered all over Europe, according to Burnet, to determine whether the King or the Church were more likely to prevail, the King was defeated. The birth of a son, however, might appear to have been a sufii- cient consolation under his disappointment ; but here, too, the King's usual misfortune attended him, for both his own paternity and the origin of the child were among certain parties equally disputed. Yet if ever there was a prince about whose birth there should seem to have been not a shadow of doubt, it was this particular Prince of Wales. The Warming-pan Plot, 1688. — King James was twice married, his first wife was the daughter of the Earl of Clarendon, and died in 1671. His second wife was Mary Beatrice, Princess of Modena, daughter of the Duke Alphonse d'Este. Mary of Modena had several children, but they died soon after birth. In 1687 it was reported that the Queen was again pregnant ; this was news much astonishing the people. Extraordinary surmises were slowly mooted 26o ENGLISH. aboutj but which led generally to the opinion that the Catholic party, prompted by the Jesuits, was determined to have by some means or other an heir to the throne, trained up in their own doc- trines. On the birth of the child, James Francis Edward Stuart (June 10, 1688), it was asserted by some that he was really the son of a miller's wife, the child having been procured by Father Petre, who had him brought to the Queen's bed in a warming-pan, and then passed off as an actual child of King James and Mary of Modena. According to a ballad of the time {" Roxburghe Ballads," vol. iii. p. 724— B. M. C 20 f) :— " A NEW SONG BNTITULED, THE WAKMING-PAN— ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ since it was determined an heir must be got, No matter fi-om Kettle from Pan or from Pot, In mettles fertile the old Jesuit's clan Produced a brave boy from a brass Warming-pan. Derry-down," &c. &c. ***** Another party had not any hesitation in awarding the Church a still more direct hand in the production of the young prince, whom they called the " spawn of a Fryer," describing his origin in a series of obscene and blasphemous jokes, inexcusable even in an age of free thought and very open expression. Father Petre, whose name so frequently recurs in connection with the Warming-pan Plot, was a Jesuit of noble family, and had been long in the confidence of the king. Shortly before the preg- nancy of the Queen he had been made a privy-councillor. The following is from Burnet's " History of his own Times," vol. iii. pp. 236-246 ; Clarendon Press edition. " The Queen had been for six or seven years in such an ill state of health, that every winter brought her very near death. Those about her seemed well assured that she who had buried all her children soon after they were born, and had now for several years ceased bearing, would have no more children. Her own priests apprehended it, and seemed to wish for her death." " In September (1687) the queen went to Bath, where as was already told, the king came and saw her, and stayed a few days with her ; it was said that at the time of her coming to the King her mother the Duchess of Modena, made a vow to the Lady Loretto that her daughter might by her means have a son, and it went current that the Queen believed herself to be with child in that very instant in which her mother made her vow. A conception said to be thus begun looked suspicious. It was soon observed that all things F0LITI00-EI8T0BI0AL. 26i about her person were managed with a mysterious secrecy^ into wHch none were admitted but a few Papists. She waa not dressed nor undressed with the usual ceremony. The thing upon this began to be suspected, and some libels were writ treating the whole as an imposture. Those about the Queen did all of the sudden change her reckoning, and began it from the King's being with her at Bath. It was given out by all her train that she was going to be delivered. Some said it would be next morning, and the priests said very confidently it would be a boy. The next morning, about nine o'clock, she sent word to the King that she was in labour. The queen-dowager was next sent to ; but no ladies were sent for, so that no women were in the room but two dressers and one under-dresser, and the midwife. The King brought over with him from Whitehall a great many peers and privy- councillors, and of these eighteen were let into the bed-chamber, but they stood at the furthest end of the room. The ladies stood within the alcove. The curtains of the bed were drawn close, and none came within them but the midwife and an under-dresser. The Queen lay all the while a-bed, and in order to the warming one side of it a warming- pan was brought. But it was not opened that it might be seen that there was fire and nothing else in it. So there was matter for suspicion with which all people were filled. A little before ten the Queen cried out as in a strong pain, and immediately after the mid- wife said, aloud, she was happily brought to bed. . . No cries were heard from the child, nor was it shown to those in the room ; it was not known whether the child was alive or dead, it looked like the giving time for some mismanagement; all that concerned the mUk or the Queen's purgations was managed still in the dark. This made all people inclined more and more that there was a base imposture now put on the nation." [It was soon reported that the infant prince was dead,] "and it looked as if all was ordered to be kept shut up close till another child was found. One that saw the child two days after, said to me that he looked strong, and not like a child so newly born. It was said that the child was strongly revived of a sudden. Some of the physicians told Lloyd, Bishop of St. Asaph, that it was not possible for them to think it was the same child. They looked on one another, but durst not speak what they thought. What truth soever may be in these [reports], this is certain, that the method in which this matter was conducted from the first to last was very unaccountable, if an imposture had been intended it could not have been otherwise managed." (Op. A) The note in the Clarendon Press edition referring to the preced- ing account is in part as follows : — " So here are three children " [Swift], " first the Queen is surmised not to have been with child ; 262 ENGLISH. secondly, to have miscarried ; thirdly, a ctild in a -warming-pan is supposed to have been conveyed into the bed-chamber; fourthly, perhaps no child to have been carried into the next room ; fifthly, the chUd seen by all in the room to have died ; sixthly, a substituted child to have died. Thus, as Swift observes, we have three children, the new-born infant, seen by all, the substituted child, and the Prince of Wales. It is lamentable that such a man as Burnet should have disgraced himself by the recital of these stupid and inconsistent falsehoods." {Op. cit. p. 245.) Descriptions of several satirical prints referring to the " Warm- ing-pan Plot " may be found in the first volume of the " Catalogue of Prints of Political and Personal Satires," Nos. 1156-1166, and 1177, 1211, page 710 et seq. Marlborough. The Flight of James. The Prince of Orange. — On the accession of King James II. (1685), Lieutenant-Colonel Churchill had been sent to France to announce the occurrence.- On his re- turn from this duty he was raised to the English Peerage, with the title of Baron Churchill of Sundridge. By his vigilance and skill he contributed greatly to the suppression of the insurrection of Monmouth, which occurred shortly. As the behaviour of the King, on the suggestions of the Earl of Sunderland, and of others of the Catholic party, had soon rendered James unpopular with the Protestants, overtures were made by in- fluential members of the latter to William Prince of Orange, that he should rid them of a sovereign so inclined towards Rome, and if all went satisfactorily, take the vacant ofiB.ce on himself. The Dutch fleet, with the prince on board, anchored at Torbay on the 5th of Novem- ber, 1688. On landing, the prince and his retinue proceeded to- wards London. The success of the Dutch invasion was such as to lead King James to mistrust the fidelity of his army, to fly from England, and seek an asylum at St. Germain from the King of France. The Prince of Orange then issued writs for the election of mem- bers to a national convention, and on the 13th of February, 1689, he, along with the Princess of Orange, received the two Houses of Parliament at Whitehall, by which was made, through Lord Halifax, a solemn tender of the Crown of England. The same day the prince and princess were proclaimed as King William III. and Queen Mary II. During the revolution of 1688, which banished James and secured the Prince of Orange, Churchill behaved towards the former with a duplicity and treachery deserving severe condemnation. While professing to support James he entered the service of his rival. On the coronation of the latter, Churchill assisted at the cere- mony, and was created afterwards Earl of Marlborough and a Privy POLITICO. HISTOBICAL. 263 Councillor. In 1689 he received the command of the English forces in the Netherlands. He next served in Ireland, but was re- called to Flanders. Being suspected of a traitorous correspondence with the exiled King (James II.), he was deprived of his command and imprisoned in the Tower. He was soon released, however, but did not regain the favour of William until 1697. On the outbreak of the war connected with the Spanish succes- sion, Marlborough received the chief command of the forces of the United Provinces, and was named Ambassador to France. He be- came master of several places in the Netherlands by 1702, gained (under Prince Eugene) the battle of Blenheim in 1704, defeated Villeroy at Eamillies in 1706, was victorious at Oudenard in 1708, and at Malplaquet in 1709. By 1712 Marlborough's fortune had changed, and he was dismissed from all his offices at the beginning of this year. To escape the charges of having prolonged the war, of peculation, and the disquietudes of home, he went abroad with the duchess, who also had been displaced at Court. In 1714, Marlborough re- turned to England, and was restored by King George I. to office; but an attack of apoplexy soon compelled him to retire once more, and he died at Windsor Lodge in 1722. " The character of Marlborough presents a perplexing combina- tion of noble and base qualities, which have served as the ground- work of extravagant eulogy and fierce invective. His rare ability as a general, his skill and success as a diplomatist, are unquestion- able. No less so are his vast ambition, his avarice, and his treachery.'' (" Dictionary of General Biography," Coates.) Dr. Bacheverell, 1709-1710. — Henry Sacheverell, an English divine, was educated at Oxford, where in 1708 he obtained the degree of Doctor of Divinity. In 1709 he was appointed preacher at St. Saviour's, Southwark. On the 5th of November of that year, having become a willing tool of the party then opposing the adminis- tration of Marlborough and Godolphin, he preached a violent sermon at St. Paul's before the lord mayor and aldermen, on " The Perils of false Brethren both in Church and State," and " Perfidious Prelates and false Sons of the Church." He assailed the Government, declaring it tended both in ecclesiastical and civil affairs to the destruction of the constitution ; called Godolphin Volpone, asserted that the toleration grantedbylaw to the Protestant dissenters was both unreasonable and unwarrantable, maintained the doctrine of "passive obedience," and called on the people to stand firm in the defence of principles which the crown and its advisers tended to overthrow and destroy. Forty thousand copies of the printed sermon are stated to have been circulated by the political party of its author. Godolphin resolved on Sacheverell's impeachment, and the Ser- 264 ENGLISH. jeant of the House of Commons delivered him to the custody of the Deputy Usher of the Black Rod on the ensuing January 14thj 1710. Sacheverell was admitted to bail. On the 27th of February he was brought to trial at Westminster Hall, Queen Anne being then and every day of the trial present — incognita. As she approached the hall in her sedan chair the people crowded around it, exclaiming, " God bless your Majesty and the Church, we hope your Majesty is for Dr. Sacheverell." As the latter descended from the coach in which he was brought daily from the Temple, the persons near him tried to kiss his hands. The trial continued for three weeks, being prosecuted by Sir Joseph Jekyl, General Stanhope, Walpole, King, and others. Sacheverell waa defended by Sir Simon Harcourt and Phipps, assisted by Drs. Atterbury, Smallbridge and Friend. He was declared guilty by sixty- nine lords against fifty-two, who pronounced him not guilty. " Accordingly sentence passed upon him — that Henry Sacheverell, Doctor in Divinity, shall be and is hereby enjoined not to preach during the term of three years next ensuing. That Dr. Henry SachevereU's two printed sermons, referred to by the impeachment of the House of Commons, shall be burnt before the Royal Exchange in London, between the hours of twelve and one on Monday, the 27th of this instant March by the hands of the common hangman, in the presence of the lord mayor of the city of London, and the two sheriffs of London and Middlesex.'" (Oldmixon, vol. iii. p. 438.) " This gentle sentence," writes Keightley, " was regarded by the Tory party as a triumph, and such in fact it was. Bonfires and illuminations in London and all over the kingdom testified to their joy, and addresses in favour of non-resistance poured in from all quarters. But the other side was greatly annoyed." " ^TwiU be astonishing to posterity," writes Oldmixon, " that so many noblemen and gentlemen should countenance such an insigni- ficant tool in his seditious and insolent behaviour, or endeavour to screen him from punishment — the merciful sentence past upon him for which the Whigs have paid dearly from that time to this." (Op. cit. vol. iii. p. 442.) POLITICO-HISTORICAL. 265 E. 185. LAST QUARTER OF SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. LONDON. (Spanish Armada.) PACK of fifty-two numerals of the ordinary suits and honours. This series illustrates the chief events connected with the history of the Spanish Armada, of the English Fleet engaged in its overthrow, of the Acts and Progi-esses of Queen Elizabeth, of the Earls of Oxford, Northumberland, and Cumberland, of the Lord High Admiral Howard, and of others. The greater portion of each card-piece is occupied by a design illustrating some of the events mentioned. Above the pictorial composition a broad margin is left clear, at the right-hand corner of which is the mark of the suit, and at the left-hand is indicated in Roman numbers the value of the particular number of the series. The coate-cards or honours have busts in circles at the left-hand upper comers in place of the Roman numerals. The title of the honour is engraved between the bust and the mark of the suit. Below the design is a de- scription of the events therein represented. The events are not recorded in the perfectly systematic order of their actual occurrence, but are variously placed through the different suits. On the knave of hearts is shown "the Pope consulting with his Cardinalls, and contributing a million of gold towards the charge of the Armada." The Holy Father is seated with four cardinals at a table on which are several bags of money. An attendant is approaching with more bags. A mitred bishop forms the bust in the medallion above. On the nine of hearts are represented " the twelve Spanish Shipps caled the 1 2 Apostles." The ten of hearts exhibits " The Spanish Armada consisting of 1 30 Shipps where of 72 were Galleasses and Galeons, in wh"^*" were 19290 soulders 8359 marriners, 2080 gaUy slaves, and 2630 great ordinance, y' Navy was 3 whole yeares preparing." On the eight of hearts may be seen " The Spanish Fleete weighing Ancor from the River Tagus the 20* of May, 1^88." The king of clubs presents us with " The English Fleet whereof the L'' Charles Howard was L* Admirall and Sir Fran. Drake vice-admiraU." The five of clubs represents " The Earle of Oxford, Northumberland, Cum- berland, with many more of the nobility and gentry going to visit the English Fleet." On the queen of hearts is shown " Queen Eliz : visiting her Camp at Tilbury, being mounted on Horseback with a truncheon of an ordinary Captain in her hand." The queen of clubs represents " Queen Eliz : walking up and downe y^ Camp at Tilbury, and encouraging the Captaines and Souldiers." In both these compositions the queen wears her crown. On the ace of clubs we see how " The Admirall y= L' Sheffield S Tho : Howard and others joyn with Drake and Fenez ag' y^ Spanish Fleet & worst them." On the three of clubs are shown the " 8 Fireships sent by y' English Admirall towards y' Spanish Fleet in y' middle of y" night under the conduct of Young and Prowse." The two of clubs exhibits " The Spaniards on right of the Fireships weighing Ancors, cutting cables, and betakeing themselves to flight with a hideouse noise, & in great confusion." On the eight of clubs is represented "The third fight between y" Eng'' and Spanish Fleetes, being the 25"' of June, 1588, where in the English had again y^ better." 266 ENGLISH. The ten of spades describes " The Spaniards consulting and at last resolving to return into Spain by the North Ocean, many of their Ships being disabled." On the eight of spades are shown " The Spanish Ships lost on the coast of Scotland, and 700 souldiers and marriners cast ashore." The seven of spades shows the " Spanish ships castaway on the Irish Shoare with marriners and seamen." The nine of spades exhibits the " Spanish Commanders taken prisoners and brought into England." The knave of diamonds tells how " The Spanish fleet that remained returned home disabled or with much dishonour." A monk forms the bust in the medaUion above. On the two of spades we have " The Spaniards bewailing y* misfortune of their friends." The scene now changes on the three of spades, for here is " Queene Eliz : with Nobles and Gentry and a great number of people giving God humble thanks in S'. Pauls church and having set upp the Ensignes taken from the Spaniards." On the four of spades is " Queene Eliz : Riding in Triumph through London in a chariot drawn by two Horses, and all y" companies attending her with their Baners." The sequence of events may be said to conclude on the knave of spades, on which are exhibited " Several! Jesuits hang'd for Treason against the Queene, and for having a hand in the Invasion." The bust of the knave in the medaUion is that of a Jesuit. According to Taylor (p. 409) these cards were issued as " quiet reproofs to the mendicant priests who haunted England previous to the abdication of the King, to whom his brother, himself a King of England, said, ' Never mind York, they wiU never shoot me to make a way for you.' When said York was perhaps anxious to make an illicit way to the throne, please the Pope, satisfy the Presbyters and otherwise cool "down the Nonconformists to a reasonably tepid point. No, no. Vagabond Charles was perhaps not the most moral, but incon- futably the best of the later Stuarts, and he saw through York's ' diminutive game.' " It has been stated that this series of cards was formerly exhibited by Sir Joseph Banks before the Society of Antiquaries. These card-pieces are from neatly engraved copper-plates, and are un- coloured. The backs are marked by an hexagonal network in pale black ink, a St. Andrew's cross within a circle forming the centre of the several hexagonal meshes. In connection with the Spanish Armada Series, the prints and medals num- bered from forty-one to fifty-four inclusive, described in the first volume of the Catalogue of Prints relating to 'Political and Personal Satires,' may be consulted with advantage. \.Zk X 2|- LQ.J [Backs decorated.] E. 186. LAST QUARTER OF SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. LONDON (1679?). (Popish Plot, &c.) PACK of fifty-two numerals of the ordinary suits. This series illustrates the events which took place, or were assumed to have taken place, in connection with what are known as the Popish Plot, the Titus Oates and Sir Edmond Berry Godfrey's Afiairs. Each card-piece is occupied in its greater portion by a design illustrating an occurrence of the before-mentioned narratives. Above it, in a reserved and broad margin, ai-e the mark of the suit at the left-hand corner, and the value of the piece POLITICO -HISTORICAL. 267 in Roman numerals at the right-hand corner. In the " honours " a title displaces the numerical Talne. Below the pictorial design is engraved a description of it. The ace of hearts may be said to begin the drama, and represents " The plot first hatcht at Rome by the Pope and Cardinalls, &c." The holy father, three cardinals, and a bishop, are seated at a, table, beneath which the devil is crouching and griraiing. On the nine of clubs a monk is declaiming from a pulpit to a mixed audience ; from his mouth proceeds a scroll on which is inscribed " Extirpate Heriticks root and branch." Below the composition may be read, " Father Connyers preaching against y^ Oathes of Alejance and Supremacy." On the five of hearts, " Dr. Oates receives letters from y" Fathers to carry beyound Sea." Two Jesuits and two conspirators are shown, the latter handing despatches to Oates, while the Jesuit fathers look on. On the eight of clubs may be seen " The conspirators Signeing ye Resolve for Killing the King." The knave of diamonds shows how " Pickerin attempts to kiU y^ K. in S' James Park." Pickering is crouching gun in hand behind a tree while the king passes with his attendants. His majesty has on his hat, the attendants wear large wigs. The three of this suit teUs how " Ashly received instructions of White- bread for the Society to oifer Sir George Wakemau iElOOOo" [to poison the King-] A Jesuit is seated at a table listening to the arguments of Ashby and point- ing his finger at a document. On the king of hearts, " Dr. Oates discovereth y^ Plot to ye King and Cown- cell," while the two of this suit represents " Sr E B Godfree takeing D'. Oates his depositions." The queen of spades exhibits " The Club at y' Plow Ale house for the murther of S. E B Godfree" ; and the nine of the same suit represents " Sir E B Godfree strangled — Girald going to Stab him." On the three of spades may be seen " The execution of the Murtherers of Sir E B Godfree." The criminals are hanging on the gallows, and the cart in which they are standing is in the act of being drawn away. The ace of clubs exhibits " The Consult of Benedictine Monks and Fryers in the Savoy." On the six, " Capt' Berry and Alderman Brooks are offered ^00 £ to cast the Plot on the Protestants." On the nine of hearts we have, " The seizing severall conspirators." On the four of the clubs comes " The tryall of Sir G Wakeman and 3 Benedictine Monks." And on the five of clubs is " The Execution of the 5 Jesuitts." On the six of hearts is " Coleman drawn to his Execution." On the two of diamonds may be seen " Ireland and Grove drawn to their execution." And on the knave of clubs is " Reddin standing in y' Pillory." The six of diamonds exhibits " Pickerin Executed." His body is on the ground and about to be " quartered " by the executioner. The events now change to the Great Fire of London. On the three of clubs is shown that " Gifibrd and Stubbs give money to a made to fire her master's house," while on the two of the same suit, London is re- presented in flames, beneath which design is inscribed — " London remember ) ^^^ „ The 2"^ of September,) 268 ENGLISH. This interesting series has been noticed more or less in detail by^ various writers, and the cards have been exhibited before several antiquarian societies. Mr. Chatto refers, at p. l54 (Bibl. 4), and Mr. Taylor at p. 169 (Bibl. 9), to the present sequence. In the first volume of the " Catalogue of Prints relating to Political and Personal Satires," descriptions of several prints and broadsides relative to the events illustrated by these cards may be found, from Nos. 1,057- 1,068, 1,073-1,078, 1,135-1,142, pp. 601-702. A detailed list of the various subjects treated of in the order of the suits, be- ginning with the ace of hearts and ending with the king of spades, together with copies of eight of the cards, may be found in the " Gentleman's Magazine " for September, 1849, vol. xxxii. New Series, p. 265. In this article reference is made to a pocket volume published in 1681, bearing the title, "The Plot in a, Dream ; or, the Discoverer in Masquerade, in a succinct discourse, and narra- tive of the late and present designs of the Papists against the King and Govern- ment. By Philo-patris." In the course of this work are several copper-plate engravings, the designs of which, in some cases, closely follow those of the present series of cards, though on the whole, they are much inferior to them. The writer in the " Gentleman's Magazine " instances the " attempted assassination of the Kmg in St. James's Park ; the carrying of Sir E. B. Godfrey's body to Prim- rose Hill ; Reading's standing in the Pillory ; and the Papists hiring servants to fire houses," as examples of such imitation. In the " Catalogue of a Collection of Printed Broadsides in the Possession of the Society of Antiquai-ies of London" (Printed Books Department, B. M. 1,190, 2. h. [academies]), are the following records :■ — " 1679, June. 581. — A true Narrative of the Horrid Hellish Popish-plot. To the Tune of Packington's Pound. The second part. " Describing in Verse, and in a series of twelve coloured engravings, the prin- cipal points of the Jesuits' or Oates's Plot. Thomas Whitbread, the Provincial of the Jesuits in England, and four others of that order were executed at Tyburn on the 20"" June, 1679. " 582. — Specimens of a part of a series of Historical cards, some of the sub- jects and costumes being evidently taken from the above broadside. They were published in the ' Gentleman's Magazine ' in 1 849, and are inserted in this collec- tion in illustration of the preceding article. The idea of making playing-cards a vehicle of amusement, instruction, or political satire, has been a favourite one at all times. In 1812 the late Queen Charlotte, for her own amusement, had a private printing press at Frogmore Lodge, and one of its productions was a series of five sets of historical and chronological cards." {Op. cit. p. 134.) Mr. S. A. Hankey exhibited a pack of these cards before the Royal ArchEeolo- gical Institute in March, 1873. In the paper read in connection with it, the author drew attention to the " very singular (and possibly unique) example of the display of popular feeling as stamped upon the ordinary appendages to mere play or amusement. And the publication of a series of plates so intensely partizan in their character, affords a remarkable testimony to the agitated state of the public mind while under the influence of the stirring revelations of Titus Oates, Bedloe, and the other informers. This pack was published in the year 1679 or 1680, when the excitement and apprehension of the alleged Popish plot was at its highest, and it contains the history of all the imputed conspiracies ' excellently engraved,' as the advertisement runs, ' on copper-plates, with very large descrip- tions under each card.' " This class of cards will be found to be the offspring of periods of extraor- dinary political or party excitement. They were the caricatures of the day, and it may be doubted if their publication had any other object than the expression of popular feeling m a form which, if convenient for general circulation, must have been objectionable to players, as likely to distract their attention from the game. " I have vainly essayed to discover a connection between the sequence of the POLITICO-HISTORICAL. 269 cards under their respective suits and tlie order of the events which the several plates record. For the personal history of the informers is so intermingled with the story of the plot, that it is difficult even to set out the cards in their historical order, and, except in the account of Sir Edmondbury Godfrey, such an effort at arrangement only brings about a hopeless confusion in suits and numbers. God- frey's prominence in these events is, however, well sustained, for his tragic history occupies nearly the whole of the suit of spades, the description of which section may serve as a fair sample of the entire series. " Beginning with the queen, and following in order downward to the two of spades, we find pictorial representations described as follows : — " 1. The Club at the Plow Alehouse for the murther of Sir E. B. Godfi-ee. " 2. He is dogg'd by S' Clement's Church. " 3. He is persuaded to goe down Sommerset house yard. " 4. He is strangled. Girald going to stab him. " .1;. The eight of spades missing. [Sir E B Godfree carrying up into a Roome.] " 6. The body is shewed to Capt. Bedlow and M' Prance. " 7. The dead body conveyed out of Sommerset house in a Sedan. " 8. The body carry'd to Primrose Hill on a horse. " 9. The Murtherers are diverting themselves at Bow after the ilurther. "10. Xext, but out of its historical place, comes the three of spades, showing the execution of the murtherers. "11. (And after that) The FuneraU of S"' E B Godfi-ee. " The two of hearts actually opens this story, the description at the foot being, ' Sir E. B. Godfree takeing Dr. Gates his depositions,' while the king of spades, which in the natural order should have commenced the history, only repre- sents an after event, viz. ' Mr. Prance discovering the Murther to the King and Council.' 'Sot less than six of the cards represent capital executions, and the spirit of the whole series may be observed in the ace, or one of hearts, which represents ' The plot first hatcht at Rome by the Pope and Cardinalls, &c., in which his Holiness appears sitting key in hand, with three Cardinals and a Bishop, while the Devil is seen crouching under the Council table.' " Besides this there are depicted several ' Consults,' or minor plots, among Jesuits and others, in various localities. In one plate Father Conyers occupies the pulpit, preaching disloyalty, and in several others bribes are being offered or money distributed to forward the designs of the conspiracy. Coleman, White- bread, Langhome, and Dugdale have each their respective histories, while two of the cards bring into the plot the guilt of the Fire of London, one of these repre- senting ' Giffard and Stubbs bribing a made to set fire to her Master's House,' and the other shewing London in flames, with the inscription at the foot — " London remember The second September (date) 2 September, 1666.' " The Archaological Journal for 1873, vol. xxx. p. 185. The designs and mscriptions on these card-pieces are from engraved copper- plates. The cards ai-e uncoloured. [34. X 2i in.] [Backs plam.] 270 ENGLISH. E. 187. LAST QUARTER OF SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. LONDON. (Popish Plot, &c.) SERIES of fifty-one card-pieces ft-om a numeral set of fifty-two. The card wanting is the four of diamonds. This is a duplicate of the series last described (E. 1 86) relating to the Popish Plot and the murder of Sir Edmond Berry Godfrey. 34- X 2-1- in. [Backs plain.] E. 188. (Printed Books Department, 1754' "■) LAST QUARTER OF SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. LONDON. (Popish Plot, &c.) SERIES of fifty-two numerals of the usual suits, but having the ace of spades, the ace of clubs, the queen of hearts, and the knave of clubs belonging to a different set. The present is another sequence of the cards px-eviously described relating to the Popish Plot and the murder of Sir Edmond Berry Godfrey. E. 186. E. 187. The exceptional pieces, the two aces, the queen and the knave before men- tioned, belong to a series to be presently described, illustrating the " Rye House Plot." These cards are contained in a folio volume (1754- c.), in which are several prints and broadsides relating to persons and subjects of the time. There are two titles in MS. to the volume, which run thus : — " A Pack of cards of the reign of Charles 2"'', Engraved by Faithome, Illustrating the Great Fire of London, the horrid Popish Plot, Executions, Murder of Sir Edmondbury Godfrey. London: 1684." Facing the first title is a portrait bust of Charles II. in a large oval. He looks towards the left. He wears a large wig, breastplate, slashed sleeves, collar and tassels. Below are the royal arms with the inscription, " Carolua secundus Dei Gratia Magnae Britanite Franciaj et Hiberniee Rex." The print has been cut down, so that both painter's and engraver's names — if they existed — ^have been removed. Following the first title is " England's Mournful Elegy for the Dissolving the Parliament ; " it consists of eighty-two lines, beginning with — " Are all our hopes thus on a sudden dashed ? Our trust confounded and rejoicings quashed." POLITICO-HISTORICAL. 271 And ends with — " Good counsel she doth on her sons bestow, Bids them be bold but not with rage to swell ; Petition, pray and aU their griefs to tell To Heaven and their liing, but not rebel. London : printed for S. N." On the following page are two woodcuts. One represents the execution of Thomas Venner (the religious enthusiast) and his disciples, in January, 1660- 1661 (Grainger, voL vL p. 9), the other an attack by armed horsemen on the coach of Charles 11. On the opposite page is an impression from a copper-plate engraving of four card players sitting at table. Clubs are being played, the ace and four of the suit are out, and the five is shown in the hand of one of the party. A person is looking on, another is dancing and holding up a bag of money in his lefb hand, while a third person is sitting in a pensive mood at a side-table on which is a decanter and wineglass. Below is the couplet — " Who has the better Game still Fears the end. Who has the worst still Hopes his game wiU mend." On the page opposite the folio containing the eight, nine, ten, &c., of spades, is a broadside entitled " Merlin revived ; or an old prophecy, lately found in a manuscript in Pontefract Castle in Yorkshire." The prophetic verses are divided into five sections, one section relating to A. D. 1650, another to 1660, a third to 1666, a fourth to 1680, and a fifth to 1682. The verses commence — " When M D C shall jom with L, In England things wiU not go welL A body shall without an head, Make all the neighbouring Nationes dread. The Lyon's whelps shall banished be. And seek their prey beyond the Sea ; " and end thus — " A triple league shall then be made And Rome of England be afraid ; And he who lives till eighty three. All this to come to pass shall see." On tie verso of the folio last-mentioned is a printed sheet having the title, " A new Ignoramus, being the second new Song to the same old Tune, Law lyes a Bleeding." There are eight stanzas, of twelve lines each stanza, beginning — " Since Popish plotters Joined with Bogg- Trotters,' Sham-plots are made as fast as pots are formed by potters," and concluding — " They sham us and flam us, They ram us and damn us. When, according to the Law, we find Ignoramus. London : printed for Charles Leigh, 1681." On the verso of the next folio is " A Dialogue betwixt H. B.'s Ghost and his Dear Author R. L. S." The Ghost enters with — " Be not afraid, its kindness brings me here. And makes me leave a while the lower sphere. That I in time may warn thee of the wrong Done by thy scribbling pen and Lying tongiae." 272 ENGLISH. The conclusion is by R. S. in the following words : — " So he's gon ; I hope he'l now be quiet : This is, I think, the nine and thirtieth warning I have had and to as little purpose as all the rest, and so I'le let 'um know in my next pam- phlet, which shall out as soon as I can agree with a Bookseller. 'Tis good to be true to one's principles. " Let ghosts talk what they will of Hell and Pain, Prom real pleasure they shan't me restrain The itch of scribbling and the sweet of Gain. Finis. London : printed for J. M." The volume concludes with another copy of the broadside, " Merlin revived ; or, an old prophecy Lately found in a manuscript in Pontefract Castle in York- shire." To this copy are added in MS. the names of the persons alluded to and satirized under fictitious titles in the prophetic verses. Thus — ■ " A man of cole shall plots design," is Coleman. " When Janock and the Truckle- Couch" may be read. Dr. Gates and Bedloe. " And when the Valley of the Breast," implies Dugdale. " The son of Jane shall first relate," is Jannison. " An oflicer to tell his tale Li wooden house shall hither sail," implies Serjeant who came from Flanders. " Through Loop-hole shall a Lawyer look. And Vulcaris son shall write a book ; A Willow to a Field shall change. And shew things dangerous and strange ; Then shall a Price be strongly prest To buy the Valley of the Breast, And Mother-Midnight shall declare She for religion wOl make war." The names to be supplied are Reading, Smith, Willoughby alias Dangerfield, Mrs. Price, who would suborn Dugdale, and Mrs. Celair, a midwife. To the following : " Janock shall go nigh to be slain, And Knockt down in a Dirty Lane ; But Janock shall escape at last And see the dangers he had past." the comment is, " Dr. Gates was accused of Sodomy by one Knox and Lane.'' " Superstition shall have a fall. Its trinkets hung out on a Wall. The Whore of Babylon's attire Shall hy the Wall be burnt ith' Fire," refers to Sir William Waller, who "burnt Papist garments." In connection with — " Then from three there shall arise A flaming Meteor in the Skies, Which shall to England threat much Woe, And down the Miter overthrow," is the gloss, " The biggest Comett yt ever was seen on Dec : 1680. All the MS. annotations present refer to the lines which include the year "MDCLXXX.— 1680." In connection with Titus Gates, reference should be made to the followino' prints and to the comments upon them in the first volume of the " Cataloo-ue of prints relating to Political and Personal Satires," p. 615 et seq. Nos. 1073, 1078, 1134-1 139, and 1 142. [Cards 3i X 2!- in. J [Backs plain.] POLITICO-HISTOIUCAI.. 273 E. 189. LAST QUARTER OF SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. LONDON. (Rye House Plot.) SERIES of fifty-two numerals of tlie ordinary suits. It illustrates tlie conspiracy known as the " Rye House Plot." Each card- piece is occupied by a design connected with the history of the plot, and has below the requisite description. At the upper right-hand comer, in most instances, is the mark of the suit ; sometimes the latter is placed at the left- hand corner. At the opposite upper corner is the value of the card in Roman numbers. The illustrative designs extend to the upper edge of the card-pieces ; hence the marks and numbers are printed on the faces of the former. In the honom-s the titles are given in place of the Roman numbers. Allusion is made to this series by Chatto, who observes : " Another pack of historical cards, apparently published in the same reign, but of inferior execution to the former (E. 1 86), appears to have related to the Rye House Plot. As these cards are even of greater rarity than those relating to the Popish Plot, the follow- ing description of four of them is here given as a stimulus to collectors." (p. 155.) On account of the rareness of this sequence, a list of all the subjects illustrated in the order of the suits will be given here, premising that a consecutive historic order in the occurrence of the events has not been followed by the designer. Diamonds. — Ace. Lord Shaftsbury going for Holland. Ferguson taking leaye. 2. Walcot coming from Ireland. 3. Walcot and Ferguson coming from Holland. 4. The Counsell of Six sitting. 5. Colliford standing in the Pillory. 6. Rump Officers ready to take command on them. 7. Blunderbusses sent downe to Rumbold's House. 8. Walcot, Hone, and Rouse executed. 9. Walcot and other conspu-ators ready to charge y^ King's Guards. 1 0. The designe of shooting the K' Postilian. Knave. Rumbold the Malster [who is exclaiming, " They shall dye "]. Queen. The designe of shooting into the K* Coach. King. The places mentioned for killing y' King [one conspirator names " Bed- ford Wall," a second " from Newmarket," a third " bull feast," and a fourth " downe y° river "]. Hearts. — Ace. The King's declaration read in churches, 9* of Sept'"'. 2. Goodenough and Nelthrop flying away in disguise. 3. Conspirators viewing the city and deviding it into 20 pr ' [one of the per- sons exclaims, " Wapping, &c., is ours "]. 4. Dr. Smith sent into Scotland to invite comissinors [he exclaims, " I question not a Scott "]. 5. Mon, Arms, and Grey viewing the Guards [one of them observes, " They may be seized"]. 6. Lord Russell beheaded in Lincolne Inn Fields. 7. Hone and Rouse going to be executed. 8. Walcot going to be executed. 9. Rumbolds Houss. T 274 ENGLISH. lO. Conspirators waiting for y= K. coming by Rumbole* House [one con- spirator says to the otlier, " Fails not"]. Knave. ISTelthrop [who exclaims, "here's a modell"]. Queen. Thompson, one of y** Conspirators, taken at Hamersmith. King. E. of Essex cutting his throat in y' Tower. Clues. — Ace. Keeling troubled in mind [he utters, " King killing is Dam- nable "]. 2. West going downe to White hall. 3. Keeling going to the L** Dart. 4. Keeling examined by S"' L. Jenkins. 5. C. Eumsey delivering himself [he exclaims, "I beg the King's mercy "]. 6. Rumsey examined by the King and Councell. 7. West writing a Letter to S'' G. J. [he mutters, "I must discover all"]. 8. Lord Grey apprehended. 9. Lord Grey making his escape. 10. Lord Grey sent Prisoner to the Tower. Knave. Ferguson, the Independent Parson [who declaims, " Fight the Laird's battel"]. Queen. A conspirator overturning a cart to stop the King's coach. King. The Lord Shaftsbury [he says, " Assist me freind "]. Spadbs. — Ace. Hone taken prisoner at Cambridge. 2. Hone and Rouse sent Prisoners to Newgate. 3. The fire at New-Market. 4. Waloot taken in Southwarke. 5. Walcot sending a letter to S' L. I. 6. Rumsey sent by Shaftsbury to the Consult at Sheaphard. 7. Lord Russell apprehended. 8. L'' Howard Writing an account of the Plot. 9. Walcot and Hone tryed at the Old Bayly. 1 0. Lord RusseU tried at the Old Bayly. Knave. Goodenough [he exclaims, " The Jury is ours"]. Queen. West bying of Armes. King. Ferguson paying West £100. The designs and technical execution of these cards are inferior in all respects to those of both E. 185 and E. l86. The impressions are from engraved metal plates, and are uncoloured. The ace of spades, ace of clubs, queen of hearts, and knave of clubs of this set may be found making up deficiencies in the previous sequence of the Popish Plot, E. 188 (P. B. Dep. 1754 c.) Reference may be made to No. 1 1 29, in the first vol. of the " Catalogue of Prints relating to Political and Personal Satires." [3i X 2\ in.] [Backs plain.] E. 190. LAST QUARTER OF SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. LONDON. (Reign of James IL) [WENTY-EIGHT cards from a numeral series of fifty-two of the ordinary suits. The two and three of clubs, four, eight, nine, ten, and king of hearts, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, and knave of spades, and the two, three, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, and king of diamonds are wanting, POLITICO-HISTORICAL. 275 This sequence is intended to illustrate events during the reign of King James II. (1685-1688). Each piece is occupied for the greater portion by an illustrative design, be- neath which is its description. Above in a broad margin is the mark of the suit at the right-hand cornei-, and at the left the value of the piece is indicated in Roman numbers. The suit marks in hearts and diamonds are in simple outline, on the coate-cai-ds the titles in large letters displace the Roman numbers. The twenty-eight pieces here preserved relate to the following circum- stances : — Clubs. — Ace. A new comishond Court for the inquier into the Ecclesias- tical! Afairs. 4. About 200 ministers suspended in y^ countey of Duram for not reading the Kings Declaration. 5. The Ai-chbishop of Canterberey with 6 more Bishops Deliver a petishon to the King. 6. The Bishops are sent to the Tower by Watter. 7. The Bishops are cleared at their triaU 2 of y" judges, were after displaced they giving for the Bishops. 8. The Keys of the Tower sent to the Lord Major. 9. Judg Harbex't writing a book in Defence of the King's dispensing Power. 1 0. Oxford and Winchester Declared to be Desolved from being a bodey politik. Knave. The French wayting an apertunity to Land in England, but are prevented by the Dutch. Queen. The F. King and y^ K. of Spain with other Princes ingaging to root out y^ Northern herisey. King. Comishoners sent into y^ cuntry to perswade y"' people to choose such men as shall take of y* pen' Laws. Heakts. — Ace. The King leaving London about three a clock in the morn- ing in his barge. 2. The King and with 2 more are stoped by rude Seamen being in an hoy by the Isle of Shipey. 3. The Chancellor taken in Wapping in Disguise. 5. The Chancellor going to the Tower, and is followed by many more of y" Brethren. 6. The Prince of Orange going into Exeter. 7. The Prince of Orange coming to St. Jameses, is received with great Joy. Knave. The Queen and child and father Peters going away in the night. Queen. A fight at Reding, wherein the Irish souldiers suffred most, the people firing out at wuidow on them. Spades. — Ace. 500 thousand pounds sent from France yearly to Charls the 2 to keep the sitting of the Parliament of. 2. Severall persons sent to Newgate for murdering the E' of Essex. 3. The Duches of Modena Presenting a wedge of gold to the Lady of Loreta that y* Q. might conceive a Son. Queen. Severall firebauls found on severall persons in Southwark yet sum were cleared. King. Strikt watch kept by the Inhabitants of London. Diamonds. — ^Ace. Many witnesses sworn before a great body of j" Peers that j" child was a LawfuU Prince of Wales. 4. The Dutch flett put out to Sea, and are driven back by a Tempest. Knave. The King coming from Salisbury, the Armie following m hast, the Enemy not being near. Queen. The King going to Sahsbury. These card-pieces are poor in design, and are coarsely executed. They are from copper-plates, and are uncoloured. -The orthography is very bad. [3i; X 2 1- in.] [Backs plain.] 276 ENGLISH. E. 191. FIRST Q,UARTER OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY ? LONDON. (Rbign of James II. Rebellion, &c.) llFTY-TWO card-pieces of a numeral series of the usual suits. This series illustrates events of the reign of James II., more parti- cularly such as relate to the attempts to restore Catholicism in England, and to the Rebellion which followed. Each card is occupied in greater part by a design commemorating the events in question. Below is a description of the design, and above the latter in a broad margin is the mark of the suit at the left-hand corner, and the value of the piece at the right-hand corner in Roman numbers. In the coate-cards titles displace the value numbers at the right-hand corners. At the centre of the upper margin each card is marked with an Arabic numeral — the number going from one to fifty-two — indicating its place in the sequence of events. The series begins with the knave of clubs — which represents the L'' Chancellor condeming Protestants in West. Clues. — Ace (2). The Eai-le of Essex's throat out. Two (3). The inscription taken out of y' monument. Three (4). Oates whipt fi-om Algate to Tyburn. Four (5). Drinkmg the King's Health in the West, L' Ch=", &c. Five (6). Hanging Protestants in y" West. Six (7). Two BP" and Judge Jenner speake rudely to D' Huff [one of the Bishops exclaims, "I'le hviff y^ D' Huff for all your huff"] Seven (9). The Tryal of the Seaven Bishops. Eight (8). Magdalen Colledge Scholars turned out. Nine (10). The Seaven Bishops going to the Tower. Ten (12). Refuseing to assist at y* Entrance of y"^ Pope's Nuncio. King (1 1). The Earle of Castlemain sent Embassador to y' Pope. Queen (13). The Midwife cutting her Husband to pieces. Spades. Ace (14). The Popish midwife putting his quarters in y'' Privy. Two (15). The Popish midwife burning. Three (16). Whiping Heresy out of Windsor chaple. Four (17). The Procession of y" Host through S' James's Park. Five (18). Doing of Penance up a high hill with Peas in his Shoos. Six (19). A Lady going to S Winifrids well for Penance. Seven (22). Praying to y" Lady of Loretto for a Prince of Wales to be born. Eight (23). From Rome a consecrated smock. Nine (25). Prince of Wales dressing by y" Fire. Ten (26). P. of Wales baptizd y'= Nuncio stands Godfather, for y= Pope. Knave (20). A Jesuit preaching against our Bible [one of the audience exclaims, " You lie "]. Queen (21). Madam W — ks at Confession. King (24). My Lord Chancellor at the Beds feet. Diamonds. — Ace (39). T. Ellis in Grocers Ally entertaining his Friends [the host raising a glass in his right hand exclaims " to y' P. of Orange."] Two (38). Lime Street Chaple pulling down and burnt. Three (37). Burning y= Popish Chaple in Lincoln's Inn Fields. Four (35). Bucklers Berry Popish Chaple burnt in the Stocks Market. POLITICO-HISTORICAL. 277 Five (34)- The Prince of Orange coming to London. Six (33). Father Peters burning his papers. Seven (36). The Fight at Redding. Eight (29). Mortar peices put upon the Tower. Nine (30). The Prince of Orange Landing. Ten (28). The Mass house at St. Jones's pulling it down, &c. [one of the destroyers calls out, " Capt. Tom "]. Knave (31). Singing of Mass thinking that the French had landed. Queen (32). The Queen and Prince of Wales making their escape. King (27). Prince of Wales giving audience. Hearts. — Ace (52). My Lord Chancellor in the Tower. Two (51). L. P. taken in disguise going to Sea. Three {So). A Papist of quallity taken at Wapping. Four (49). A papist in disguise taken at y" Tower. Five (47). A preist marching off with bag and baggage. Six (46). A preist hard very hard at Work. Seven (45). A preist selling of Kelioks by auction [he exclaims, " Thos. a Becket's old stockins 5«. once"]. Eight (42). Singing of LiUy bullero. Nine (41). Cry y' Prince of Orange's third Declaration. Ten (40). The Army going over to y*^ Prince of Orange. Knave (48). Tyrconel arming y^ Papists in Ireland. Queen (43). Singing O brave popery, delicate Popery, oh. King (44). My L'' Mayor & Sheriffs wait on y' Prince at Windsor. The designs on these card-pieces are in general good, as is also their technical execution. The orthography is better as a rule than in the previous series. The impressions are fi'om engraved metal plates, and are uncoloured. [3i- X 2-|- in.] [Backs plain.] E. 192. FIRST QUARTER OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. LONDON. (MaEI/BOEOUGH AMD HIS TlME.) SET of fifty-two numerals of the ordinary character. These cards illustrate the victories of Marlborough, and the political events of his time. Satirical designs relating to the contem- porary history of France and Germany are also included. Each piece is chiefly occupied by an illustration, having its description below. The suit mark is above at the right-hand corner, and the value of the piece is shown by Roman numbers at the left-hand upper corner. The marks and values have been engraved on the field of the compositions, not any separate margin having been retained for them. Some of the compositions are of a very cuiious character, perhaps more being attempted to be conveyed in them than in the designs of any of the other politico- historical cards. The following pieces may be cited as worthy of particular notice : — Ace of Spades. — The French King (Louis XIV.) is in bed, three large cats are on the floor of the chamber. Below is the following inscription : " The French King's Dream. The fat cat denotes the Partisans fatten'd with 278 ENGLISH, y^ substance of y' nation, y^ lean cat y' People of France exhausted by heavy Im- positions, aud y' blind cat y^ IC Couucel who are at their witts end." Queen of Spades. — Represents the French King and Madame de Maintenon driving turkeys. From the King's mouth, " How do you sell your Turkeys now " ? and from Madame de Maintenon, " To ye old trade again." Below the composition may be read — " At first dishonest when I Tm-keys fed. Little I thought t' enjoy a Monarchs bed. But now y"^ dotard's glutted with a baddy reign I may to Turkey keeping go again." Two of Clubs. — Represents the siege of Dendermond, below which is: " Sept' y= ^, 1 706, Dendermond surrenders to General Churchill his Grace y^ Prince and D. of Marlboros Brother." Three of Clubs. — " The French abandon Ghent at the approach of Marlb'ro, June 2, 1706." Eight of Clubs. — " The Duke of Marlboro obliges Limburg to surrender at discretion, Sept. 28, 1705." Ten of Diamonds. — Here is represented " The Battle of Ramillies, where y" D. of Marlborough, &c. took 26 standai-ds and 63 ensigns, the French loosing 20,000 men, all their Baggage, Ammunition, &c." Eight of Diamonds. — " The Burgomasters and Magistrates of Brussells present the D. of Marlborough with y" Keys of y* City in a Gold Bason, Oct. 27, 1706." Ace of Hearts. — Exhibits Queen Anne in a triumphal chariot, the horses of which are trampling on the arms, crown, and insignia of the King of France and the Pope. Below are the lines — " As y'' bright chariot of the quickening Sun Dos over noisome Clouds and Vapours run. So mighty Anne on Victory dos ride, And tramples down y' Pope's and tyrant's Pride." On the ace of clubs is an equestrian portrait of " Joseph, Emperour of Germany, bom July 16, 1678." On the ten of clubs is a portrait bust of " Prince Eugene of Savoy, born October 18, 1663." The queen of clubs presents a large portrait bust of " Anne by y" Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, Queen Defender of y" Faith." On the king of clubs is the companion portrait of " Charles III. Kino- of Spain, born October 1', 1685." While the queen of diamonds presents us with "The Princess Roy' of Prussia." The last cards of the sequence are the king and queen of hearts. On the first piece is a portrait bust of " His Royal Highness, George, Prince of Denmark," born 1653. On the second, one of "The most Illustrious Anna Sophia of Hannover, born 1630." The impressions are from engraved metal plates, the technic of which, is laboured, and hea^7, and but of mediocre character. The cards are nncoloured. [3t X 2| in.] [Backs plain.] POLITICO. HISTORICAL. 279 E. 193. FIRST QUARTER OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. LONDON. (Marlborough and his Time.) SERIES of fifty-two numerals of the usual suits. These cards illus- trate the victories of Marlborough, and the events— both domestic and foreign — of his time. This set is a duplicate of that last described (E. 192). [31- X 2|. in.] [Backs plain.] E. 194. {Prints relating to Political and Personal Satires, No. 1 546.) FIRST QUARTER OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. LONDON, 1710. SERIES of twenty-six card-pieces of the suits of hearts and diamonds, engraved on a single sheet, 1 7|- ia wide by 1 4 in. high. The greater portion of each piece is occupied by a design illus- trating some event in the career of Dr. SacheverelL Below is a couplet referring to the design above. At the upper right-hand comer of each piece is the representation of a diminutive playing-card of the ordinary kind. On the two of diamonds Dr. Sacheverell is shown in his coach, attended by a crowd which cheers him ; below is the verse — " Others would swell with pride if thus cares'd. But he bears humble thoughts within his breast." The ace of hearts exhibits Dr. Sacheverell walking towards a pulpit, and below the lines — " From hence the Church's restoration rose, And made Discovery of her secret Foes." The knave of hearts represents Mr. Dolben, son of a former Archbishop of York, presenting the Articles of Impeachment against Dr. Sacheverell to the House of Lords. Below may be read — " Here an Archbishop's son y^ Church impeaches, Whose sire, if living, would abhor such speeches." A detailed account of each of these twenty-six card-pieces may be found in the second volume of the " Catalogue of Prints relating to Political and Personal Satires," p. 332, No. 1546. The impressions are from copper-plates. The designs and technic are of mediocre character. The card-pieces are uncoloured. [3|- X 2|- in.] [Backs plain.] 2?o ENGLISH E. 195. SECOND HALF OF SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. LONDON ? HOLLAND ? (Rump Paeliament.) SET of photographs from a numeral series of fifty-two card-pieces of the ordinary cliaracter. The rare originals from which these photographs were taken were presented by Thaddeus Hyatt, Esq., of Gloucester Gardens, Hyde Park, to the late Hon. Charles Sumner, of Boston, U.S., in the possession of whose executors these cards now are, it is believed. Before they left England these photographs were allowed to be executed, as records for the National Col- lection by permission of Mr. T. Hyatt. A pack of the original cards was exhibited before the Archsological Associa- tion by Mr. S. L. Tucker in 1 854, on which a paper was read by Mr. Pettigi-ew, to be found in the " Joiurnal of the British Archseologieal Association," vol. ix. pp. 1 2 1 , 308, 1 854. Mr. Pettigrew remarked on the originals before the Association, that " These cards are to be considered as belonging to a political game, and are es- pecially illustrative of the Rump Parliament and the private actions and conduct of several of the individuals most conspicuous during the Commonwealth. The nature of the subject clearly fixes the period to which they belong. They must be assigned to the time of Charles H., and it may be presumed that they were executed in Holland, and that they formed a source of amusement to the royalists at the Plague during that sovereign's residence in that comitry, on the captivity and execution of his father. The history of them, as far as I have been able to obtain it, is but meagre. They were purchased by the late — Prest, Esq., of Connaught Place. He obtained them at the Hague, for the sum of thirty-five guineas, of a oentleman who stated that they had descended in his family from the time of their fabrication, and they have been in Mr. Prest's family for upwards of thirty years. It is not a little singular that no other copy is known, and that hitherto no notice of such a pack has appeared. As an addition, therefore, to the materials of the history of playing-cards, a description of these, illustrated by historical notes and references, may not be inappropriate in the pages of our Journal, and useful to future labourers in this branch of inquiry. " The pack consists of fifty-two cards, measuring 34- in. in length by 2 in. in breadth. They are engraved on copper, and their execution exhibits no deficiency of talent on the part of the artists employed. The suits are marked, and the number of the suit on the upper corners of the cards, and the description of the subject occupying the body of the card is engraved at the bottom." Mr. Pettigrew's paper is accompanied by copies of eight of the original cards. On the first sheet is given the eight of diamonds, which represents " Don Haselrig K' of y* coddled braine ;" the nine of diamonds, showing how " Lenthall runs away with his Mace to the Army ; " the queen of diamonds illustrating " the takeing of the Holy League and Covenant ; " and the five of hearts, portraying " The E. of Pem. in y° li. of Com. thanks y"^ Speaker for his admission." On the second sheet are the seven of hearts, representing " Nathaniel Fines, whereby hangs a tale ; " the eight of hearts, having a full-length figure of " Lam- bert, K' of y^ Golden Tulip ; " the knave of the same suit, wliereon " Hugh Peters shews the bodkins and thimbles given by the wives of Wappin for the good old cause ; " and the five of spades, where stand figured " Nye and Godwin, Oliver's Confessors." [31 X 2 in.J [Backs plain ?] POLITICO-HISTORICAL. 281 E. 196. LAST QUARTER OP EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. LONDON. SMALL sheet, 8^ x 9f in. wide, having engraved on it a knave and a king, between which is an ordinary figure in Oriental costume, kneeling on one leg, and holdmg a diamond (card suit mark) up in each hand towards the figure on each side of him. The king is in profile and in the usual conventional card-costume of the time, but the face is intended to be a portrait of George III. The knave has a three- quarter face — a portrait of Lord Chancellor Thurlow— looking towards the king and the diamond held by the central figure. The knave wears a large wig and broad hat. Below the coate-card, the king, is engraved " Geo. III.," below the knave, " Thm-low," while beneath the central figure may be read " Hastings." At the base of the sheet is the inscription, " Court cards the best to deal with." At the right-hand comer is the address, " Botne. Price 3". the P'. coP." The impressions are from aquatinta plates, and are strongly marked and coloured. On the verso of the sheet is written in MS. "Pub''. Feb. 8"'. 1788, for S. Doughty and Co. No. 19 Holbom, London." See Taylor Bibl. g, pp. 433, 520. [3f X 2I in.] [Backs plain.] SATIRICAL. E. 197. FIRST QUARTER OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. LONDON. l^ilri/. SERIES of thirty-four cards from a numeral set of fifty-two pieces of the usual character. The cards wanting are the four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, knave, queen, and king of spades, and the ace, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and eight of diamonds. This se- quence is of a satirical character. Each of its members is occupied by a figure subject, having its explanation in verse below the design. Above at the left- hand corner is a representation of a small playing card of the ordinary kind. The small coate-cards are of the conventional forms. On the nine of diamonds five ladies are represented in a saloon seated at a card-table. Two cards are displayed, one is an ace. Below is the couplet — " Whilst fields of blood y Heroes do delight, The Fair at Oumber wast y"' tedious night." On the ten of diamonds the interior of a shop is exhibited ; articles of plate are on the shelves, and a dice-box and dice are on the counter, by which stand two ladies and a gentleman. Below may be read — " At Epsom oft these Rafilings I have seen But assignation's w' they cheifly moan." 282 ENGLISH. On the knave of the same suit a quack, standing on a platform, is exhibitmg and praising his nostrum before a crowd. The accompanying lines are — " Give me the gold cryes quack heres my Pills, Yon think for cure, no, to increase your Ills." On the four of clubs a, ruined gambler is returning in despair from a club- house. He has thrown down on the ground cards, dice-box, and dice. A jeering companion is holding a money-bag towards him and exclaiming — ■ " You seem to be craisy at y" loss of your coin, If you want money take some of mine." On the king of clubs are shown a man and his wife dancing together ; a fiddler is playing to them ; on u, table is an overturned empty wine-jug, by which stands a large glass. Below is the couplet — ■ " A well matched pair they'l never freet. For a pound of greif woint pay an ounce Debt." On the four of hearts is a lady petting a parrot, and the lines — " Phillis thy lovers I'm affraid have left you, That PoU's so much in favour to divert thee.'' On the five of hearts is a widow being visited by a female friend ; they are taking a glass of cordials together, while the latter exclaims — " No more w"" deep Concern y^ dead lament, A living Husband's w' we Ladys want." The ten of hearts shows us Jupiter descending on an eagle towards a seated woman ; below is the verse — " Jove for a mistres down to Earth does come. And like a londou Rake leaves his poor wife alone." On the three of spades may be seen four billiard-players engaged at their amusement ; the accompanying lines are — • " Think not a lossing gamester will be fair Who at y^ best ne're play'd upon the square." Mr. Chatto alludes to these satirical pieces, observing — " A pack of satirical cards, belonging to W. H. Diamond, Esq. Frith Street, Soho, appears to have been executed about the same time (Reigns of Queen Anne and King George I.) All the subjects are coarsely engraved, though some of them display points of character very much in the style of Hogarth. " In the ten of spades a Moorfields Quack is seen pointing to his sign, with the inscription — ' To famed Moorfields I dayly do repair, KiU worms, cure itch, and make y" ladies fair.' " In the ace of diamonds a lady is seen showing her palm to a fortune-teller, with the inscription — ' How can you hope this Gipsey di-abb should know The Fates' decrees and who was made for you.' ^ " In the four of diamonds a lady is seen exchanging some of her clothes for china ware with an itinerant dealer. The inscription is — " Your pockets madam surely are wondrous bare. To sell your very clothes for china ware.' (p. 158.) In the pack alluded to by Mr. Chatto there was a red duty stamp on the ace of spades ; it is not present here. [3f X 2|. in.] [Backs plain.] SATIRICAL. 283 E. 198. {Prints of Political and Personal Satires, vol. i. No. 81.) FIRST QUARTER OF SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. LONDON. SATIRICAL print representing James I., Henry IV. of France, Prince Maurice (Stadtholder) , and Christian IV. of Denmark, playing at cards and backgammon against the Pope and his ecclesiastical brethren. King Heniy is playing a trump card — the ace of hearts ; his antagonist, a monk, having the knave only. A five of hearts is displayed upon the table as mark of the trump suit. This priat bears at its upper margin the title of " The Revells of Christen- dome." At the lower right-hand corner is " T. Cocksonus Sculp." The lower portion of the sheet is occupied by forty-eight lines of verse, in four columns of twelve Knes each. Below these is the address, " Sould by Mary Oliver in Westminster Hall." Thomas Cockson, the engraver of this print, flourished circa 1 620 ; his better works, at least, are dated 1 620- 1 630. " He worked exclusively with the graver in a neat, finished, stiflfmanner, and engraved a great variety .of portraits, among them of James I. sitting in Parlia- ment, his daughter, the Princess Elizabeth, Charles I. in ParHament, Louis XIH., Mary de Medicis, also the ' Revels of Christendom,' and some pieces with shipping." (Redgrave "Dictionary of Artists of the English School," p. 87.) The " Revels of Christendome" was probably " of German origin, and pub- lished in 1609, when England and France were negotiating the peace between the United Provinces and Spain. This peace was a severe blow to the Pope, and Maurice was watching the game which promised so much benefit to his country. See 'Royal and Ecclesiastical Gamesters,' No. lOl, 1626, which was imitated from this print." (Catalogue of Prints, &c., relating to " Pohtical and Personal Satires," vol. i. p. 42, No. 81, where this piece is described in detail.) [131- X 8±in.] E. 198. 2. SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. REDUCED copy with several alterations of the piece just described. Four verses in Dutch displace all other inscriptions. The technic is of an inferior character to that of E. 198. [I0|- X 7T'n-] 284 ENGLISH. E. 199. (Prints of Political and Personal Satires, vol. i. No. lOl.) SECOND QUAKTER OF SEYENTEENTH CENTURY. LONDON (1626). SATIRICAL print, imitated and reversed from E. I98. This version is made to refer to the support given to the principles of the Reformation by resistance to the Catholic powers. The trump card exposed on the table is here the ten of hearts. There is an article on this print in the " Gentleman's Magazine " for July, 1 853- The print is also fuUy described in the fii-st volume of the " Catalogue of Prints relating to Political and Personal Satires," page 61, No. 101. [144 X lOf-in.] E. 200. {Prints of Political and Personal Satires, vol. i. No. 1033.) THIRD QUARTER OP EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. LONDON. PRINT executed ui aqua tinta, representing " Hans Buling, a mounte- bank of great notoriety, who frequently exhibited in Covent Garden." The design is copied from a Delft dinner-plate, on the back of which are the initials "B. S. 1750." The centre of the plate is occupied by Buling with a monkey, &c. Coming towards him, as he enters from the left, is a harlequin grotesquely draped. On the broad edge of the plate are four groups of playing-cards, two groups containmg four cards each group, and two having five cards. Immediately below the inferior margin of the plate is the address : " I. R. Cruickshank fecit." This piece is described in the first volume of the " Catalogue of Prints re- lating to Political and Personal Satires," p. 584, No. 1033. [10 X 8| in.] E. 201. {Prints of Political and Personal Satires, vol. ii. No. 1407.) FIRST QUARTER OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. LONDON. LARGE woodcut with letterpress, coloured in red, crimson, and blue, representing ''A prodigal sifted and found out in his several De- baucheries. With a lively representation of the many inconveniences and trains of Evils attending Idleness, Tipling, Gaming, and Drun- kenness, &c." SATIRICAL. 285 The composition represents a room, on the walls of which hang pictures of the evil events in the life of the prodigal. Among these, gambling is portrayed on the fourth design from the left. The prodigal is beuig held on a large sieve by his father and mother, through the meshes of which his actions are being sifted. As the latter fall, cards and dice, among other symbols of prodigality, may be ob- served. The ace of hearts and the three of clubs are displayed. The kneeling and repentant prodigal is supposed to exclaim — " Pardon, dear Parents, and PU tell the truth. What I have done in my debauched Youth." The print is stated to have been " Published in Love to those concerned, and recommended to them as a tender caution to avoid the same excess. London : Sold in Aldermary Church yard." This piece is described in the second volume of the " Catalogue of Prints relating to Political and Personal Satires," p. 153, No. 1407. [17^ X 12|-in.] E. 202. SECOND HALF OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. LONDON. SHEET of eight card-pieces, representing caricatured figures of well- known personages. Two figures in the lower row are designed as knaves ; the first, directed towards the left hand, is entitled " Mens'' le Dupe," the other, turned to the right, is "Mons' Sure Card," the name ' being at the upper right-hand corner, and the knave's face fox-like in cha- Above these knaves are caricature representations of Fox and Welbore Fox is exclaiming, as he marches to the left, " Military Government — no Militia," while he holds in his left hand papers marked " Irish Reversions," " Peer- ages," " 1400 in Agent." Welbore Ellis, with a drum, cries out, " No, no Militia, by Gad." A figure of S. Anson foUows ; he remarks, " Deep play this, or nothing." Winchelsea succeeds, muttering, " I'll walk on over to Germany." In the lower row are a statue of " Cumberland " beneath an architectural canopy, and a figure of an armed man standing on a prostrate skeleton, which points at him a dart. A bag, fi-om which money has escaped, lies in the foreground of the latter compo- sition. Thefleurs-de-lys on the ground of the two knaves are noteworthy. The impres- sions are from etched plates of a soft metallic character, and are uncoloured. [Knaves, Zi X 2f in.] [Backs plain.] 286 ENGLISH. AMUSING. E. 203. LATTER PART OP SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. LONDON. PACK of fifty-two numerals of the usual suits, the honours having on them full-length costume figures. The suit mai-ks are placed upon the cards in the ordinary positions, those of spades and clubs _ being engraved, those of hearts and diamonds being stamped in red colour. On the general face of the card various animals with landscape back- grounds are represented. Accompanying the series are two supplementary pieces, on which is engraved the following inscription : " The Use. These cards of all sorts of Birds and Beasts are very ingeniously contrived, and very diverting to young Gentlemen and Ladys who are Lovers of ingenuity. The suites of Harts and Diamonds con- tain all sorts of Birds. The Clubbs and Spades all sorts of Beasts. Sold by John Lenthall, stationer, at j" Talbot, ag" S'- Dunstan's church in Fleet Street, London. Where are sold the severall Fine Sorts of Pictured Cards following, viz : The Whole World described, each card being a compleat map, neatly engraved and corrected by y* best Geographers, &c." A few of these card-pieces are of a somewhat amusing character, e. g. the ten of spades has on it a " cat a, fidling and mice a dancing." On the four of spades is represented " Orpheus playing to the Wild Beasts.'" On the two of clubs is an unicorn, while on other pieces bulls are fighting, bears are being hunted, &c. Lenthall, the publisher of these cards, carried on business at the before- mentioned address from 1665 to 1685. He professed to be related to William Lenthall, speaker of the House of Commons during the Long Parliament (1641- 1653), which opposed Charles L at the beginning of 1642. This, however, did not prevent him, as Taylor remarks, fi-om figuring "one-eyed Hewson" as the knave of clubs, accoutred in a leather apron, in allusion to his original trade of a cobbler, the subject of many a satire in the songs of the Cavaliers. " And here are old Noll's brewing vessels, And here are his dray and his slings, Here are Hewson's awl and his bristles. With diverse other odd things." (" The Sale of Rebellious Household Stuff," Percy's Reliques, ii. b. iii. 14.) See Taylor, Bibl. 9, p. 209, and " Journal of the Archaeological Association," vol. ix. p. 316, concerning " Huson the Cobbler." The duty stamp in red is placed on the ace of spades, above the head of the lion thereon represented. Taylor has a note to the following effect : " After the nth of June, 1711, for thirty-two years, the Act directs there shall be a duty on each pack of cards made of sixpence, and one of the cards stamped on the spotted side, as the commissioner of stamp duties shall direct, under a penalty of £5. Lenthall's cards, however, which were certainly before 1685, bear a red stamp with a crown, and that sum stamped over the design on the ace of spades, as do also more than one other pack of that period mentioned in the course of this AMUSING. 287 history." (Op. cU. p. 225.) Though the crown can be made out on the present ace of spades, the inscription above it is not apparent. The designs on these cards are bad, and the execution of them is of a very inferior character. The impressions are from metal plates, and are coloured occasionally in a most absurd manner. Around each piece is an ornamental frame-like border. The names of the animals delineated are placed above the latter, often a very necessary procedure for their due recognition. [at X 2f in.] [Backs plain.] E. 204. LAST QUARTER OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. PACK of fifty-two numerals of the usual kind. Each card has the suit mark stamped at the upper right-hand corner, of a size mucli larger than the design traced out by the engraver. The value of the piece is indicated by Roman numbers at the left-hand upper corner. On the honours the titles are engraved at the tops of the pieces in the centre. The greater portion of each card is occupied by an engraved design, mostly of a laughable or grotesque character, intended to illustrate some humorous proverb which is inscribed below. For example, on the five of clubs a woman has rushed into a house in search of her daughter, whom she discovers in a cup- board bed-place. In the room are a man's hat and cloak on a stool. Below the design is the following proverb : " The old woman had never lookd in the oven for her Daughter had she not been there herselfe." The five of spades illustrates the saying : " Every one as they like, said the old woman when she kissed her cow." On the nine of spades is a party drinking, fiddling, and dancing, to the proverb : " An ounce of mirth is worth a pound of sorrow." On the eight of diamonds are portrayed women and geese quarrelling, below may be read : " Where there are women and geese there wants noe noise." The king of diamonds exhibits three persons in doctors' robes at a table, above which are books on a shelf, below are the words : " If you'l avoid old Charon, the iferry man, con- sult Dr. Dyett, Dr. Quiett, and Dr. Merryman." The design on the five of diamonds shows the devil sitting by a cauldron over a fire, from which he has taken a bowl of soup, and with which he regales himself. Cautiously approaching the bowl on the devil's knees is a man with a long-handled spoon, by which he trusts to obtain a mouthful of the savoury potage ; below is the proverb : " A good stomach is the Best Sawce." This has not appeared to some former possessor of the cards to be sufiiciently to the point so he has written the following around the foregoing motto : " There's need of a long spoon to eat with the devil." The proverb illustrated on the eight of hearts is the following : " He y' Letts his wife go to every wake, and his Horse drinke at every Lake, shall never be without a Jilt and a Jade." One or two of the compositions are of a gross and repulsive kind. All are uncoloured, and mostly poor in design and technical execution. [St X 2|- in.] [Backs plain.] 288 ENGLISH. E. 205. FIRST QUARTER OF NINETEENTH CENTURY. LONDON. SERIES of fifty -two numerals of the usual suits. The card-pieces composing this sequence are of artistic as well as of amusing character. Each member of it exhibits one or more figures and accessories with good architectural backgrounds. The subjects illustrated are of very varied and opposite kinds. Egyptian, classic, Gothic themes occur ; events in ancient and medieval history, of the modern stage, and panto- mimes. The full-length figures on the coate-cards are careftiUy coloured, the kings having a crown above the mark of the suit, which is placed at the upper right- hand corner. The designs, composition, drawing, and engraving on these card- pieces have been well studied and carefully executed. The technic is chiefly in the stippled, dotted, or Bartolozzi manner. This set is alluded to by Chatto, Borteau D'Ambly, and Taylor. The latter gives two illustrations from it, accompanied by the following remarks : — " Specimens of pictorial cards designed by a Viennese artist, and published four at a time in the 'Repository of Arts' for 181 8- 19, and as a pack afterwards, two editions of which are in the Paris library. We should need the entire set to be engraved to give a full idea of the variety of the very original and fantastic de- signs on these cards — knights in armour, Eastern warriors, figures of the classic mythology, scenes from modem tales and dramas, costumes of every age and clime, well drawn, and displaying great versatility of talent, but with no apparent order or object, and crowded with accessories of every conceivable kind, in which the marks of the suits are introduced in the most ingenious manner possible. The descriptions in the original work are by the late J. B. Papworth, Esq., architect,' from which we extract the one explanatory of Plate xxxii. "The six of diamonds represents the characters of a pantomime, and the several personages of the scene will be easily recognised. The emaciated and decrepit debauchee is still assuming the gallant, and mixing the habiliments of the soldier with the airs and manners of a youthful petit maitre. He is gazing on a distant lady, while she whom he vainly fancies he possesses in perfect security, is bestow-, ing her favours on the first idiot that solicits them. The female is wantonly attii-ed, and holding in her right hand a mask, the emblem of her duplicity, and from the other arm suspends a ridicule, the type of her condescensions. The diamond forms an ornament to a fan, ridicules and the furniture of the apartment. The descriptions of the two succeeding contain no more than the prints themselves will suggest. Only the marks of suits are coloured, and even this hardly redeems them from the charge of being too indistinct for use." (Bibl. 9, p. 181.) These card-pieces are of very limp texture, large in size, and undecorated backs. [3|. X 2iin.] [Backs plain.] * John Buonarotti Papworth, who, on the establishment of the Government School of Design in 1837, was appointed director. He fitted up and arranged the schools. (" A Dictionary of Artists of the English School," &c., by Samuel Redgrave. London : 1874.) A2I USING. 289 E. 206. SECOND QUARTER OP EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. LONDON. SERffiS of forty-eight cards from a set of fifty-two of the ordinary suits. The pieces here absent are the ten of spades, the four and eight of diamonds, and the four of clubs. This sequence is composed of musical cards. Most of the pieces have on them four lines of music, commencing at the top ; following these is a verse of a song, to which succeeds two more liaes of music, for accompaniment by the flute. Between the upper lines of music are words of the song, of which the verse in the centre of the card is a continuation. A few of the cards have eight lines of music with aecompanving words, in place of six lines, and verse in the centre. The lower lines are of flute accom- paniment. At the upper left-hand comer of each piece is the representation in miniature of an ordinary playing card. The designs on the honours are of the conventional character, and are uncoloured. The whole designs, music and words, are from neatly engraved copper-plates. The orthography is often very bad. The duty stamp of " vi Pence " has been impressed in red on the ace of spades, immediately on the small card design at the upper left-hand comer. The king of spades commences the series, to the music and words of " The First King :" " When Adam was the King of Spades, And Eve his wife did sew ; Then delving was the best of Trades, No pride no Fraud they knew." The queen of the same suit follows to the tune, &c., of " The Fair Jade," and the knave to that of the " ISIiser." The other cards of the suit produce the " Fair Ingrate," "Little Jeny," " Dis- pairing Lover," "Lovers' Resolution," " All Must Love," " Pritty Cloe," "Dj-ing Lover," " Advice to Celia," and " Vain Pursuit." In the suit of diamonds, the king appears under the aspect of " True Lover," assuring his beloved that " Not aU the Diamonds, all the gold That all the Mines on Earth can hold. Should tempt me to resign my right To the my Diamond, my Delight." The queen represents " The Lover's Treasure ;" and from the knave, who is Jack Shepherd, we learn that " The People lament, alack and alack, 'Twas pity to hang up their Favourite Jack ; For Britains hate thinking, and all would be dumb, But for Shepherd and Faux, Faustus, Wild, and Tom Thumb." U 290 ENGLISH. The pip-cards of the suit of diamonds have on them " The Fool's Thought," "The Fickle Lover," "A Merry Song," "The Critical Minute," " Damon and Phillis," " Bright Cloe," " Coy Celia," and " The Jovial Soul." The king of clubs appears as Sir Oliver Rant, and — " Sir Oliver Rant is a Terrible fellow. He drives all before him when'er he is Mellow ; He Scowers the Watch, and he ranges the Town, And all that resist him he strait knocks 'em down. " The Baliffs and Marshalls men dare not come nigh him, Free masons and Mollies and Schemers all fly him ; The Bullies he kicks and their Harlots he drubs, And all round ye Hundreds he's cal'd King of Clubs." The queen is the " Bewitching Charmer," and the knave all " Contradiction." Then follow "No Fault in Lovmg," "Cupid's Snare," "Jovial Toper," " Drmkmg Song," " Faithful Love," " Sally's Dart," " Love for Love," " Lover's Wish," "Brisk Joan." In hearts, the king shows Cupid's dart useless ; but the queen supplies the refrain of a " Broken Heart :" " Oh what Heart but needs must yield, When like Pallas you advance. With a Thimble for your shield, And a Needle for your Lance. Fairest of the Stitching Train, Ease my Passion by thy Art ; And in pity to my Pain, Mend the hole that's in my Heart." The " Sly Knave '' succeeds, followed by " The Faithful Lover," " The Un- constant Lover," " Tender Heart," " The Happy Swain," " Young Damon," "Beauteous Celia," "Dejected Cloe," "Charming Cloe," "Sly Cloe," and the " True Lover," who wisely concludes the general lament, " I'U hast to some far distant shore. And never, never, never, never thuik of Woman more." [3 J- X 2|- in. without margin.] [Backs plain.] E. 207. FIRST QUARTER OF NINETEENTH CENTURY. LONDON. SERIES of fifty-one cards from a numeral set of fifty-two of the ordinary suits. The ace of spades is here absent. The designs are of a humorous character. The mai-ks of the suits of clubs and spades are in white, on a deep blue ground. Within each mark a grotesque face is etched in imitation of a pen-and-ink drawing. The diamonds and hearts are on a light madder-coloured ground, and treated in a similar manner. The coate-cards are the king, queen, and knave of conventional cha- racter, with laughable expressions in their faces. A printed title-card accom- 0ABD8 PUBELY FANCIFUL. 291 ponies this set, which is described as composed of "Imperial Eoyal Playing- Cards," and as being of a serious and Historic character ! The discrepancy which exists between the description of the cards and their actual character, can only be explained by assuming that a wrong supplemen- tary descriptive card has become accidentally attached to the series. The latter was published by " S and J. Fuller, at the Temple of Fancy, No. 34, Rathbone Place." The cards are stiff, and marked on the backs with large stars, made up of dull red spots. On the whole they form a very poor effort, whether as relates to design or execution. [3|- X 2j in.] [Backs decorated.] CARDS PURELY FANCIFUL. E. 208. LAST QUARTER OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. LONDON. vWELVE card-pieces of emblematic character. In the centre of each piece on a large shield, the emblematic object is represented. Above the shield is the crest of the Prince of Wales ; a motto scroll, curtain-like drapery and pahu branches are other accessories. On the lower part of each card is a verse of four lines, referring to the emblem above. The designs and inscriptions are from engraved copper-plates, the former being coloured. Each card has a yellow border between engraved lines. A wrapper, with engraved ornamental title, accompanies the set. It bears the following inscription within a large oval, surmounted by the crest of the Prince of Wales : — " Wallis's Emblematical Cards for the Amusement of Youth. London. Published Sept. 15"", 1788, by J. Wallis, No. 16, Ludgate Street, J. Binny, Leeds, and L. Bull, Bath. Price one Shilling, neatly coloured." Card No. I has on it a crown for the emblem. Below is the verse : — " Crowns are ambitious gilded toys. As blessings never meant. Know that the greatest Joys on Earth, Are plenty and Content." On No. 2 is a clock ; below which is : — " The Clock a daily monitor. Points to each passing Hour, And bids you well employ the time Which now is in your pow'r." No. 3 has a ship. No. 4 an anchor, No. 5 a cannon, No. 6 a basket of flowers. No. 7 a horn, No. 8 a guitar. No. 9 a harlequin, No. 10 a rocking horse. No. 1 1 a kite, and No. 12 a boy with a whipping-top. Below each emblem are appropriate lines. Though devoid of any artistic merit, the designs have been neatly and care- fiiUy engraved. fai X 2- in.] [Backs plain.] 292 ENGLISH. E. 209. THIRD QUARTER OF NINETEENTH CENTURY. LONDON. SERIES of forty-five card-pieces, nine of which have text alone on them, the rest have fiill-length figures of historical personages. A descriptive pamphlet accompanies the sequence, which is en- titled " The Royal Historical Game of Cards, invented by Miss Jane Roberts. London. Robert Hardwicke, 26, Duke Street, Piccadilly, and all Booksellers." After " Directions for playing the Game," " the inventor hopes that this Simple Division of the thirty-five reigns, or thirty-six periods of English History, between the nine centuries which have elapsed since the Conquest, will enable the players with a little practice to remember the exact line of succession to the British Throne." The figures are in the assumed costume of their times ; the designs and pro- portions of the former are often of very inferior character. Printed with bronze powder. The backs of these cards were marked by deep blue and light red lines, forming bands running across the card diagonally. [4 X 2i in.] [Backs decorated.] E. 210. SECOND QUARTER OF NINETEENTH CENTURY. ROMSEY. SERIES of fifty pieces, having historical problems in printed text on them, which have to be solved by the players. Two supplementary cards accompany the set, having on them "Rules for playing the Game," and the " Key" to the historical problems. These card-pieces are here arranged as a bound volume, bearing the follow- ing inscription : — " Darvall. Historical, Biographical, and Geographical Cards. Romsey. 1 830." Not any pictorial designs nor marks are present. [Sir X H in.] [Backs plain.] E. 211. SECOND HALF OF NINETEENTH CENTURY. LONDON. 5IFTY-TW0 card-pieces, of which fifty-one have on them printed ' problems connected with literature, which have to be solved by the players. One card-piece is occupied by the " Rules and Regulations." The title of the wi-apper accompanies the set, and bears the m- scnption, " Price 2s. M. An Evening Game of Cards on a Novel and In- terestmg Plan. Poetry and Literature. London : Hamilton, Adams, and Co., and all Booksellers." It has here " been an object to prepare such questions as shaU be full of interest and freshness to those who enjoy and appreciate English Poetry and Literature." Not any pictorial designs nor marks are present. f3i X 2| in.] [B^^]^^ pj^j^^ CABDS PURELY FANCIFUL. 293 E. 212. SECOXD HALF OF OTNETEENTH CENTURY. MANCHESTER. SEQUENCE of thirty card- pieces, of which fifteen have riddle ques- tions derived firom Shakespeare on them, and fifteen have their answers. Ten other and larger pieces are present, entitled " Key to the Riddles." A supplementary card of directions accompanies the set, as likewise a title bearing the following inscription, " [Entered at Stationer's Hall.] Shak- sperian Playing-Cards. Shakespere's Riddles. Selected and arranged by John B. Marsh. Examiner and Times Office, Manchester. One Shilling. Manchester : John Heywood, 143, Deansgate. London: Simpkin, Marshall, and Co. and sold by all Booksellers." Not any pictorial designs nor marks are present. [3 X If in.] [Backs plain.] E. 213. SECOND HALF OF NINETEENTH CENTURY. MANCHESTER. SEQUENCE of thirty card-pieces, the latter having love letters printed on them. A " Card of Directions " accompanies the set, as does likewise a title bearing the following inscription : " [Entered at Stationer's HalL] Shakesperian Playing Cards, No. II. Shakespere's Love Letters. Selected and arranged by John B. Marsh. Manchester, One Shilling. Manchester: John Heywood, 143, Deansgate. London : Simpkin, Marshall, and Co. and sold by all Booksellers." Not any pictorial designs nor marks are present. [31- X 2f in.] [Backs plain.] E. 214. SECOND HALF OF NINETEENTH CENTURY. LONDON. SERIES of thirty-six card-pieces, eighteen of which have a question in the form of two lines of poetry on each of them, and eighteen have the answers in four or more lines. The ornamental title of a wrapper accompanies the set, and bears the following inscription : — " Shuffle and cut, question as you will. Yet every answer shall prove fitting still. " Comic Conversation Cards, by Joyce Jocund, Esq. 294 ENGLISH. " Most Packs are in full cry when game they're after, This Comic Pack now try, — whose game is laughter. "London : Published by Reynolds and Son, Playing Card Manufacturers By appointment to his Majesty, 29 and 30, Vere Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields. Ent. at Stat. Hall. Price 1'. 6''." The only pictorial design is on the title of the wrapper. It represents two knaves in attendance upon two Kings and two Queens seated at table. [3| X 2| in.] [Backs plain.] E. 215. LAST QUARTER OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. LONDON. SEQUENCE of thirty-two card-pieces, having on them emblematic designs of various character, and below moral apophthegms to which the designs have reference. Each piece has a number at the upper left- hand corner, answering to certain explanatory and descriptive tables given in a book of directions, which here accompanies the cards. The title-page of this book of 31 pages bears the following inscription : — " Les Amusemens des AUemands, or the Diversions of The Court of Vienna, in which the Mystery of Fortune-Telling from the Grounds of the Coflfee-Cup is unravelled, and Three pleasant Games, viz. :— " 1. Fortune- telling from the Groimds of the Coffee-Cup. 2. Fortune-telling by laying out the cards. 3. The new Imperial Game of numbers are invented. Admirably calculated to promote Useful reflections and Innocent Festivity, By the means of Extempore Composition. The whole illustrated with a Pack of Thirty-Two Emblematical Cards. " Here fertile fancy may amuse the mind. With moral truths and sprightly wit combined." London : Printed for Champante and Whiti-ow, Jewry-Street, Aldgate, And may be had at every Booksellers and Toy Shop in the Kingdom, 1 796. Entered at Stationer's Hall." According to an advertisement on the back of the title-page, " these enter- taining games first made their appearance at Vienna in 1794, where they still are the favourite amusement of the Empi'css of Germany and the Imperial Court. They have since been diffused through all the fashionable circles in that country. The Editor therefore has to hope that in a country where the liberality and curious discernment of its inhabitants is so conspicuous as that of Britain, they will not be held in less estimation." Designs and text are from engraved copper-plates ; the former are uncoloured and of mediocre character. [3t X H- '1-] [Backs plain.] CABDS rUBELY FANCIFUL. 295 E. 216. NINETEENTH CENTURY. LONDON. SERIES of thirty unseparated card-pieces. The latter are here contained in six sheets of three rows of two pieces each sheet. Below the cards is the inscription on each sheet : " March's Conjuring Cards. No. 1. Price one Halfpenny. Directions — Cut them apart through the lines, then with a pin bore holes where dotted, tye a thread in each end and twirl the card quickly round, when the goat wiU have a monkey on his back, the gridiron 3 mackerel, and so on with the others. J. March, Publisher, 1 2, Webber Street, New-Cut." The back of each card-piece has on it a design in reverse to that which is on the front. The design on the latter is uncoloured, that on the back is coloured. [l|- X l|- in.] [Backs with designs on them.] MISCELLANEA. E. 217. SECOND QUARTER OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. LONDON. Prints of the English School. Works of and after Francis Hayman. B. 17 08 — ^D. ITJS. \ HIS piece represents one of a series of paintings executed by Hayman for VauxhaU Gardens, and by which chiefly he is celebrated. The design of the present work appears to have been suggested by a composition of Gravelot, of which Hayman fully availed himself. In the print before us, a young lady and gentleman appear seated at a, round table " Building Houses with Cards," at another and small side-table are two little girls following a like amusement. Four persons are looking on. The card- house of the first group is tumbling down. The gentleman holds the five of hearts in his right hand, and towards which the attention of the lady is directed. Below the composition are the following lines : — " Whilst innocently youth their hours beguile. And joy to raise with cards the wondrous pile, A breath, a start, makes the whole fabric vain, And all lies flat to be began again. Ambition thus erects in riper years. Wild schemes of power, and wealth, and endless cares. Some change takes place, the labour'd plan retards, All drops — Illusion all — an House of Cards." 296 ENOLISH. Immediately below the engraving are the inscription and addresses : " Building Houses with Cards. H. Gravelot, Invenit ; F. Hayman, Pinx. ; L. Truchy, Sculp. From the original Painting in Vaux-hall Garden. Published according to Act of Parliament, 4"' April, 1 743." [Uf X isfin.] E. 218. SECOND QUARTER OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. LONDON. Prints of the English School. Works of and after Francis Hayman. B. 1708 — D. 1776. f HE composition represents a lady and two gentlemen seated at a card- table playing Quadrille. Two ladies and a gentleman are looking on. A female servant and a negro page are at a side-table engaged with tea-things. The two gentlemen who are playing are showing their cards to the ladies seated near them ; the cards are of the suit of hearts. The ace of spades (?) is on the table, together with other cards and counters. The inscription and addresses at the lower margin are as follows : " Quadrille. Engraved from the original Painting in Vaux Plall Garden. F. Hayman, pinx'" C. Grignion, Sculp'' Printed for John Bowles, at the Black Horse in Cornhil, and Carington Bowles, in St. Pauls Churchyard, London." In reference to the game of Quadrille as here played by three persons, the following extract from Singer (p. 266) is worthy of attention. " Quadrille, which is only another species of Ombre, appears to have superseded it, and to have been very popular in England until whist began to be played upon scientific principles. Although this game has a Spanish name, it is supposed to be an invention of the French nation, and appears to have been a great favourite with the ladies, as requiring much less attention than Ombre ; there was also a modification of it which might be played by three persons, but it is generally considered far inferior to the game by four, and was only played when a fourth player could not be had." [9|- X 1 3-|- in., without margin.] E. 219. SECOND QUARTER OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. LONDON. SMALL engraving from a copper-plate representing two ladies and two gentlemen seated at a table playing cards. Below is the inscrip- tion, " The Quadrille Party." This appears to be after a design of Gravelot, otherwise Henri D'Anville and Hubert Francois Bourguignon. He came to England in 1733, and for a time kept a drawing school in the Strand. He was largely employed by the London booksellers, and his assistance was likewise sought by various artists. " He attempted small compositions and conversation-pieces, and is said to have been a designer by choice, an engraver by necessity." " He was born in Paris, March 26, 1699, died in Paris 1773. (Redgrave's "Dictionary of Artists of the English School.") [5-ff X 3^ in., without margin.] MI30ELLANEA. 297 E. 220. Drolls 'published by Bohert Sayer, Laurie, and Wldttle, 1792-1803, No. 168. LONDON, PRINT representing two ladies and three gentlemen playing at loo. One of tlie latter is scratching liis head in desperation, another and one of the ladies are regarding with vexatious astonishment the cards ■ — (a flush of diamonds) — which their successful antagonist displays in her hands. Her opposite neighbour smiles with complacency as he shows the knave of clubs. Below, in the margin, may be read " Loo. Pam saves me. A Flush. Pub- lished 20*^ Feb"'., 1 796, by Lawrie and Whittle, S3, I^eet Street, London." On the table are cards and counters or money. Loo or lanterloo was at one period a very fashionable game, but began to go out soon after the time when whist began to be played on scientific principles. " If you are acquainted with my Lady Barrymore," writes H. Walpole to his friend Montagu, " pray tell her that in less than two hours t'other night, the Duke of Cumberland lost four hundred and fifty pounds at loo ; Miss Pelham won three hundred, and I the rest. However, in general loo is extremely gone to decay. I am to play at Princess Emily's to-morrow for the first time this winter, and it is with difficulty she has made a party." This was in December, 1761. In 1759 Walpole wrote: "Loo is mounted to the zenith. The parties last till one and two in the morning. We played at Lady Hertford's last week, the last night of her lying-in, till deep into Sunday morning, after she and her lord were retired. It is now adjourned to Mrs. Fitzroy's, whose child the Town calls ' Pam-ela.' " At certain games the knave of cliibs is caEed Pam. In the " Toast," a satirical poem, written about 1730, by Dr. William King, Principal of St. Mary's Hall, Oxford, Dr. Hort, Archbishop of Tuam, is called " Lord Pam." He is also called Pam by Swift. " A few years ago the name was applied to the celebrated public character, whom Byron is supposed to have designated as ' a moral chimney-sweep ' in one of the cantos of Don Juan." (Chatto, p. 269.) [6J X 9|- in. without margin.] E. 221'. SECOND HALF OF SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. LONDON. BROADSIDE sheet of politico-satirical verses, headed by three lines of music, and entitled " A New Game at Cards.'.' The words within the lines of music are as follows : — - " Ye merry hearts that love to play at Cards, See who hath won the day ; 298 ENGLISH. You that once did sadly sing The Knave of Clubs hath won the King ; But now more happy times we have, The King hath overcome the Knave, The King hath overcome the Knave." Then follow eight verses of seven lines, each verse in two columns. The verses refer to Cromwell and the Rump Parliament. The second verse runs thus : — " Old Noll, he was the Knave o' th' Clubs, And dad of such as Preach in Tubs ; Bradshaw, Ireton, and Pride, Where three other Knaves beside. And they Plaid with half the Pack, Throwing out all Cards but Black." The last of the sequence is : — " After this Game was done, I think The Standers by had cause to drink, And the Loyal Subjects sing Farewell Knaves, and welcome King, For till we saw the King returned We wish'd the Cards had all been Bum'd, We wish'd the Cards had all been Burn'd." The whole of the music and typography of this broadside is from an engraved copper-plate. [12|- X 7^ in. without margin.] E. 222. Manuseript Department. Harleian MSS. No. 5947 (51 F.) 1 HIS volume of " Bagford's Collection," previously alluded to (E 1 84) as containing the advertisement relating to the " Popish Plot " cards, has, in addition, the following " cuttings " : — • On folio 4, a wrapper or introductory title to a pack of cards as follows: " The Scientiall Cards, or a new and ingenious knowledge, gramaticaUy epitomised, both for the plea ure and profit of Schollers and such as delight to recollect (without any labour) the Rudiments of so necessary an art as Grammer is with- out hindring them from their more necessary and grave studies : Oifering them as a second course unto you which in all points and suites doe represent your vulgar or common cards : So that the perfection of the Grammer principles may hereby be easily attained unto both with much delight and profit, Together with a Key shewing the redy use of them. Written by a Lover of ingenuity and Learning. And are to be sold by Baptist Pendleton, Cardmaker, at his House neere S'. Dunston's Church in the East, or by John Holden, at the Anchor in the New Exchange. 1651." Referring to this advertisement, Mr. Chatto remarks (p. 1 40) :-^" Of those cards or of the key showing how they are to be used, I know nothing beyond what is contained in the title above given. I, however, greatly suspect that the ' lover of learning and ingenuity ' who devised them was specially employed for the MISCELLANEA. 299 purpose by the maker, Mr. Baptist Pendleton, who, sensible of the decline of his regu- lar business, and noting the signs of the times, might think it both for his interest and credit to manufacture cards which might serve indifferently for the purposes of instruction, but equally as well for play as ' your vulgar or common cards,' which were then in very bad repute. The Scientiall cards would appear to have been well adapted for the use of persons who wished to save appearances with the Puritans, and yet had no objection to play a quiet game with the profane." Secondly follows the envelope of a pack printed in blue ink, bearing in the centre the inscription, " trieUes [?] des fines de Jacques Legras faites k Morlais." On the upper border in reverse is " k bon jeu bon argent," and on a plain margin at the left hand is the mark of the suit piques in the centre. Thirdly. The title of a wrapper, printed in black ink, from a coarsely en- graved wood-block, having as a device Diana seated, an unicorn standing and gazing at her with much expression of admiration and curiosity. Below is the couplet : " The Unicom tho deafe to Subtle Charmes, A Virgin's Smiles allayes his Furious Stormes." Then follows " Fine cards made by John Savage." On folio 4 comes the titled cover of a pack of cards, printed in black ink, from a carefully engraved metal plate. The chief part is occupied by a medallion portrait of Edward VI., below which is the following inscription : " These super- fine cards are sold by Richard Fountaine only, at the Golden Lion, in S'. Law- rens Lane, London." Below this are the marks of the suits of hearts and spades, having between them the letters " R. * F." as ornamental capitals. The whole is enclosed in a frame-like border. The next cutting is the ornamental title of a wrapper, printed from a neatly, but rather stiffly engraved copper-plate. In the upper portion are the royal arms of England, with supporters and mottoes, while the lower part bears the follow- ing inscription, within an ornamental shield with scrolled edge, viz. : " Cards containing the arms of the King, and aU the Lords Spiritual! and Temporall of England. This may be printed. Norfolke and Marshall." In the "Herald and Genealogist," vol. iii. p. 358, 1861, may be found an elaborate paper on the cards referred to in the present title : — " It is supposed that these cards, which thus appeared with the imprimatur of the Earl Marshal, were edited by Gregory King, then Somerset Herald, as ' A Pack of Cards containing the arms of the English nobility. Loud. 1684,' is attributed to him in Watt's ' Bibhotheca Britannia.' " These cards, known as " Gregory King's Peerage Cards," are fnUy described (loco cit.), from a pack in the possession of Evelyn Philip Shu-ley, Esq., F.S.A., and the remark is made that they " are now so exceedingly scarce as to be almost unknown." At page 79 of this volume of the "Herald and Genealogist" is the following statement : — "In the ' Observator,' !N'o. 239, for Feb'. 12, 1 686-7, ^.re advertised cards containing the arms of the King and aU the Lords Spiritual and Temporal of England. Printed for John Nicholson, and sold by E. Evets, at the Green Dragon and St. Paul's Church Yard." (See Chatto, p. 152.) On the verso of folio 4 is an ornamental title of a wrapper, with a device from an engraving on a copper-plate. It represents a black man standing with his rio-lit arm extended, in a tropical landscape. Above the figure on a scroU is the title " Prince Giolo." Below the device is the inscription : " These principal superfine large cards are made by me, Andrew Layton." Then follow the marks of the suits of diamonds and clubs, having between them the ornamental capital letters "A * L." Adjacent is the mutilated cover of a pack of cards, having on it a device 300 ENGLISH. from a coarsely engraved metal plate. The device is a man in a jockey-cap on horseback, with a hnnting-whip in his hand. The horse is at full gallop. The hind-quarters of the horse are torn away. At the left margin, towards which the figure is directed, appears a hand in the sky holding a large double-handled vase or tankard towards the rider, near whose head is the inscription : " The Joe — " (The rest is torn away.) On another piece of paper, which apparently formed part of this envelope, are the words: "Of London — Master Card-maker of England. E. I." Between these latter capitals is a horseman in a gallop towards the right hand. On folio 5 is the title of a wrapper, printed from a wood-block bearing a crown, having below and within a motto-garter the device of a falcon seizing another bird. Beneath is the inscription : " Superfine cards made by Nicholas Faulcon." The motto on the garter seems to be " The Faulcon playing — Takes me Flying." At one of the margins of the cover are the capital letters N". F., with the marks of the suits of diamonds and clubs. On the verso of folio $ is tlie " Advertisement concerning a new pack of cards," previously alluded to. [E. 184.] On folio 5 is the engraved title to " Tuttle's Mathematical Cards." This is inscribed on a shield surrounded with figures and designs symbolical of mathe- matio forms and instruments. At the lower margin of the plate are the ad- dresses : " Boitard Delin. J. Savage Sculp." It may be here noticed that on folio 33 is the following intimation : " John Savage, Engraver, who bought Mr. Isaac Beckett's mezzo-tinto plates and prints, and lived at his House at the Golden Head iu tbe Old Bayly, is removed to y' Golden Head in S'. Paul's Churchyard, where you may be furnished with all sorts of Mezzotints, Prints, Frames, Glasses, &c." John Savage resided in London about 1680, and was noted for engraving the portraits of malefactors. (See Walpole's " Anecdotes," and Bryan's " Dic- tionary.") Following the title to Tuttle's cards on folio 6 is the following " Advertise- ment" : — " There is now published a pack of Proverb Cards with Figures on each card, lively representing the Proverbs. A Design, altogether new and very diverting to the Fancy of all Lovers of ingenuity, the whole curiously engraved on copper- plates. Price Is. 6(f. per pack. Where you may Ukewise have Frost-fair, or an exact and lively Mapp or Representation of Booths, and all the Variety of Shows and Humours upon the Ice on the River of Thames by London, during that memorable Frost in King Charles the Second's Reign, curiously engraven on a copper-plate, with an Alpha- betical Explanation of the most remarkable figures. Price 1*. Both of which are to be sold by W. Warter, Stationer, at the Sign of the Talbot, under the Mytre Tavern in Fleet Street, Loudon." MISCELLANEA. 301 JOHN BAGFORD. !^OHN BAGFOED, to whose collection among the Harleian MSS. we are indebted for the preceding and other fragmenta^ was born in London about 1675, and died at Islington in 1716. He was buried in the cemetery of the Charterhouse. Originally a shoemaker, he began in early life to interest himself about antiquarian subjects, particu- larly such as related to printing and old English literature. He travelled in Holland and elsewhere in search of literary curiosities, which he managed to pick up at low prices, and re-sold them honestly at moderate profits. With many of these he enriched the library of Dr. John Moore, Bishop of Ely, through whose influence Bagford was admitted a Carthusian. " Most of the very many [literary curiosities] in the British Museum under the general title of ' Bagford's Collectanea ' con- sist of printed title-pages, advertisements, hand-bills, fugitive papers of all kinds, vignettes, prints, &c., pasted into paper books, sometimes with MS. notes interspersed, but oftener without any. Bagford's MSS., properly so called, are comparatively few, inter- mixed with the numerous volumes above-mentioned, and pro- miscuously arranged and deposited along with them in the depart- ment of MSS. Besides these there are very many MSS. in the same rich repository that have printed papers and tracts bound up with them.'' — (Nicholl's " Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century," vol. ii. p. 462.) A portrait of Bagford may be seen in Dibdin'a " Bibliographical Decameron," vol. iii. p. 28, and much about him in a note on that page where he is styled the " faithful book jackal of Lord Oxford." In his " Bibliomania " also, first edition. Dr. Dibdin is not sparing of his animadversions. Among them is the following : — " A modern collector and lover of perfect copies will witness with shuddering among Bagford's immense collection of title-pages in the Museum the frontispiece of the ' Complutensian Polyglot ' and Chauncy's ' History of Hertfordshire ' torn out to illustrate a history of printing." Dr.Dibdin admits, nevertheless, that Bagford's " enthusiasm, how- ever, carried him through a great deal of laborious toil, and he supplied in some measure by this qualification the want of other attainments. His whole mind was devoted to book-hunting, and his integrity and diligence probably made his employers overlook his many failings." In the third edition of the "Bibliomania" (1842), (note to p. 326),, John Bagford is again discussed at some length, and, on the 302 ENGLISH. whole, with rather more favour, as based chiefly on the accounts of Thomas Heame. Bagford described himself as " Dr. John Bagford, patron of print- rag." Howard painted his portrait and Vertue engraved it,^ while one of his friends found a coat of arms for him in this wise : " For my Lovinge friend Mr. Jno. Bagford — you having shewed me so many rebuses, as I was returning home I thought of one for you— a bagge, and below that a fourd or passable water." (Harl. MSS. No. 5910.) In the Sloane collection of MSS. vol. 1044, folio l,i3 the following in Bagford's handwriting, which well indicates both the ambitious character and extensive scope of the author's intentions : — "Proposals for the Printing an Essay for the Famous Art of Typography & Calcography from y^ first Invention of it by Coster at Harlem, with Blocks or Molds of Wood collected from the most approved Authors and the Observation of y' books themselves first printed therewith, with a discourse of the several ways of printing by the Antient Chinese. " An Ace" of the Invention of Matrices of Single Types at Mentz by Joh: Fust & Peter Sceffer & not by Guttenburg as shall be made plainly appear. " Also a Catalogue of what books were printed from y* year 1450 to 1500 in several parts of y'' World, viz. Germany, Italy, Holland, Flanders, France, Spain, Portugal, Denmark, Swedland, Switzer- land, Bast and West Indies, Turkey, and Eussia. " Some observations on the Antiquity of Paper made with rags. When Invented where made & y° Places most famous for making the same with the Maker's marks, " An Acco" of the bringing printing into England first to Oxford by Mcolas Corselis, & St. Albans, Westminster, London, South- wark, Greenwich, York, Canterbury, Worcester, Ipswich, Tavis- tock, Cambridge, Chester, Bristol, Exeter, &c. " Scotland at Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen. " Ireland at Dublin, &c. ''The Lives and Efiigies of our most celebrated Printers. "The whole Interwoven with a description of the manner of making books, first MSS. and the several materials they certainly wrote on, as vellum. Parchment, Paper, &c. "The Instruments used in writing, viz.. Styles, Pens, Reeds, &c. " The Ink used by the Antients both in Writing and Printing with an account of Book Binding in all its Parts. " To which shall be added a catalogue of such books as early appear by John Bagford." 1 Brit. Mus. Coll. " English Portraits.'' (Bromley, vol. i. p. 232.) MISCELLANEA. 303 E. 223. Newspapers. Printed Boohs Department. Public Advertiser, Saturday, December 1, 1759. No. 7812. " Advertisement. rillS day is published Price js plain each pastime improved by a new pack of cards called Beau Monde, or the Bath, Tunbridge, and Scar- borough portraits engraved from particular persons and their like- nesses to Beasts and Birds by Figures, and have Pips like common cards ; likewise new and curious. Pack of regimental cards with the words of command under each card containing portraits of the Pretty Smarts belonging to the Army and the Militia ; Stampt for George Bickham in Mays Buildings Covent Garden." The George Bickham here mentioned must have been G. Bickham, Junior, it is presumed. He was one of our earlier caricaturists, and engraved the humorous pieces published by the Messrs. Bowles, and analogous subjects. It is true that this advertisement appeared in 1759j and George Bickham died in 1758, but a pack of cards having humorous subjects, portraits, &c., on its pieces would take some time to prepare. "Pdblic Advebtisee, Monday, December 17th, 1759, No. 7816. " Advertisement. " This day is published price 5*- each. Three packs of diverting cards curiously engraved. On one comer of which is the court-card and pips, painted so striking that they may be played with as ready as common cards, which renders them liable to a duty of a 1«. a pack. On one pack the various passions of Love are emphatically represented with a title and four bnes ia verse entirely new and explanatory of the design. Another the cries and Humours of London, finely copied after nature with their proper mottos, the other .^Isops fables, exactly copied after Barlow, the Fables and Morals in Verse. " To be had of the proprietor I Kirk, at the Grotto Toy Shop in St. Paul's Churchyard, and at I Kirk's Toy shop in St. James' Street. Also the impenetrable secret or the Proverb Cards, price Is. to be had as above. " Of all the passions that possess mankind Love is the noblest when with Virtue joined To guard the Fair, the Lover swiftly flies And all the danger that surrounds defies. " Love cards.'' A small woodcut design of the nine of clubs heads the above advertisement. Public Advertiser, Wednesday, December 26th, 1759) No. 7823. " Advertisement. " This day is published and sold in May's Buildings, Covent Garden, Price ^s. each Pack. Some of them coloured. " 1. Knowledge improved by County-cards describing the Cities and Towns. 304 ENGLISH. " 2. Drollery improved by a New Pack of Picture cards from Erasmus' Polly. " 3. Pastime improved by a curious pack of cards called the Beau Monde. " 4. Militia Cards or the Pretty Smarts of the Army and Militia with Regi- mentals." A diminutive representation of the nine of clubs heads this advertisement. E. 224. (Printed Boohs Department, 505, f. 4-) LAST QUARTER OF FIFTEENTH CENTURY. LONDON. yHE volume here referred to is that of the "Nova Statuta," printed by William of Mechlin, or Maehliuia, as he is generally called, about the years 1482-3. It is a folio volume of Statutes, without date, place, or name of printer. According to Dibdin (" Bibliotheca Spenceriana," vol. iv. No. 896), " This is the most elaborate production of the press of Machlinia, and must be considered no mean acquisition to the library of the legal antiquary. The type is exactly similar to that of the Tenures described in the preceding page, and leaves no doubt of the printer by whom this vohime was executed. The ink and the paper merit more commendation than the type, indeed the paper is of no ordinary excellence." In this work the first printed allusion to playing-cards occurs in relation to England. It may be found " Anno tercio Regis Edwardi IV., Cap. iiij." The statute here quoted is one of the year 1463, prohibiting the importation of playing-cards. Since an act was passed in the eleventh year of the i-eign of Henry IV., 1409, A.D. directing the penalties to be inflicted upon persons oifending against a statute of 12 Richard II. cap. 6, anno 1388, forbidding certain games, as "coytes, dyces, gettre de pere, keyles, and aultres tielx jeues importunes," and not any mention is made of cards, it may be assumed that the latter were not in use in England in 1409. It must have been some time between this date and I463 that playing-cards found their way into this country. The Statute of the 3rd of Edward IV. allows it to be presumed, however, that the prohibited article was known some years before its importation was made illegal. The extract from the Statute of Edward IV. relating to cards is given here from the following work. E, 225. {Printed Boohs Department, 50$, h. 11.) LAST QUARTER OP FIFTEENTH CENTURY. LONDON. ^ HIS is a reprint by Richard Pynson of the " Nova Statuta '' of Machlinia previously referred to. It is a folio of statutes, commencing with the first year of the reicm of Edward III., and concluding with the twelfth of Hein-y VII. There is not any title-page to the volume, nor is any date given in the colophon, which runs thus on sig. Q-. 2. i. : MISCELLANEA. 305 On the verso is the device, No. 5 of Johnson's " Typographia," having on it a shield bearing as a monogram R. P., and below, in stout Gothic letters, " Ei'cliacti p^nCon " There are running titles and signatures, but neither catch-words nor numerals. The book commences with a blank leaf, which is followed by a fuU alphabetical table on sig. a. ii. The statutes are generally in Xorman-French, but some are in Latin, e.g., " Anno xxxiii Henrici Sexti," " Anno xxxix Henrici Sexti," while from the first of Henry VII. to the end of the volume the statutes are in English. This work is supposed to have been the first statute-book printed by Pynson. That portion of the statute of the third year of Edward IV. relating to the prohibition of the importation of playing-cards is as follows: — C anno tzttio. (EDtoatrUi it'ij. ******* "iRottce tceCrcIioute Couecapn fetffnour k troj leg premfffejS confitierant s bofllant i en ceo ca0 puruotc lie remeDpe tiel aUups affent $ auctociie fm'^Dfte^ ati ortieigne enacte i ettabli'e que nul maccfjant nees Cubjet He noftce Ceigneour le ro? tiein= jein nettcange ne alcun. autre pecCone apcejs le ifeCe Ire fe^nt appcljell 'larcl)aunffel profcliem aucfgnir amefne mantie ne conuoie ne cauCe Uarmenec mauntiec ne conuopec en meCme ceft ropalme aDentyletecce f feietgnourpe tic (Bale0 aCcunes tie cettej cliaffaces toacejs ou cljoCe? tiefoub? eCccipte? Cttt affauofc afcuncg ijonetteg! laun? aCcuns tirapg laun? Iace0 cocfe^ rpbang frenp0 lie fote / $ tie file lacegi tie file fope en fiUe / fope en afcune manci: enbcautics lace0 Dor i;ire0 tie fope ou tior feelle^ eftriuen0 ou afcune ^erneiTe regartiaunt ajs Siellerg (ECperonsJ nioleingf pur freme0 auntu'ren^ gretiirnesf afcunes inanerjf ferucesf marten^ bulgarcment nommesf tiamerS pjnConsf fire= tonp£( tireppng;panne0 Difej tengs bailee popntcgf lace0 burCe? ffrauntj ceinte? i)arneis pur cemtte0 tie ferre 2De laton tiaffer Deftai'n ou tie alfeempne cl)0c ouec tiaCc quirre 'QTaVoe afcune maner pellure tatoe IjuCeoug folersf galoffes ou corfee0 cotel;r tiaffsergJ toonknpegf botfejns ^^nes pur 'ZlEafUours Cifour© IBtaCourg S^eteiS Cartiegi a 31uec (Efpinffeg i^atinjs ^gule^ pur »iab6es tiulffarement nommer pafenetielgj afcune maner cjaffare ou toare Depepnte iFoi^cer0, CaCfeetlesf*" Mr. K. P. Cruden, referring (in a letter to the late Mr. Singer) to this statute making it illegal to import cards, remarks, " I should like extremely to' know the result of an inquiry into the manner of making playing-cards in England imme- diately after the year 1 463, when they were no longer to be obtained from abroad. That they wei-e used is not to be doiibted. The Act afterwards restraining the use of them did not pass tiU the 33 Henry VIII. cap. 8, anno 1541." " It is a cm-ious fact that a tax was first levied upon cards anno 1 63 1 , in the reign of Charles I. ; it was one of the impositions complained of as arbitraiy and illegal, being levied without consent of Parliament, and which complaints ter- X 3o6 ENGLISH. minated in the sacrifice of the monarch and his minister (Strafford)." (Singer, Bibl. 8, p. 365, appendix.) The last statement is erroneous, as to the first imposition of a tax on playmg- cards, as the following records under E. 226 will show, a tax being levied in 161 5, though not by parliamentary statute, which was first done during the reign of Queen Anne, session 1 7 1 1 . The Company of Card-makers was incorporated by letters patent of Charles I. the 22nd of October, 1629, under the title of "the Master, Wardens, and Com- monalty of the Mistery of the Makers of Playing-cards of the City of London." — Eec. Roll, Pat. 4, Car. i. p. 22, No. 6. (See Singer, p. 226, Note.) E. 226. (Printed Books Department, 2076. 6.) FIRST QUARTER OF SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. LONDON. SINGER, in his researches, observes (p. 223) that towards the close of Elizabeth's reign patents were so frequently granted by favour, that the House of Commons deemed it necessary to make some inquiries respecting them. At this period a patent was granted to one Edward D'Arcy for cards. " On the mention of the monopoly of cards Sir Walter Raleigh blushed. Upon reading the patents, Mr. Hakewell of Lincoln's-inn stood up, and asked thus, ' Is not bread there ? ' ' Bread !' quoth one. ' Bread !' quoth another. 'This voice seems strange,' quoth another. ' No,' quoth Mr. Hacket, ' if order be not taken herein, bread wiU be there before the next Parliament.' " (Singer, p. 223.) The volume refei-red to under the present head, E. 226, is the " Calendar of State Papers," Domestic Series, James I. a.d. 16ii-i6i8, from which the following minutes are selected: — "1615. July 20, Westminster. — (19.) Letters Patent granting to Sir Richard Coningsby, for a rent of £200 per annum, the imposition of 5«. per gross on playing-cards, and the office of Inspector of all playing-cards imported in recompense of £l,8oo due to him from the king, and of his patent for the sole export of Tin granted by the late queen." — Warrant ibr the above granted July 19. (Sign. Man., vol. v. No. 41.) — (Page 296.) "1615. July 21. — (19) Proclamation of the Patent gi-anting to Sir Rich. Coningsby the right of searching and sealing all playing cards made in England or imported printed." (Proc. Coll., No. 44 A.) — (Page 297.) "1616. (124.) Reasons against the Suit of the Card-makers who remon- strate against the exercise of Sir Richard Coningsby's patent for importation of playing-cards." — (Page 420.) "1617. Dec. 21.— (75.) Petition of Sh- Thos. Smythe and the merchants trading t'o France to the Council to renew then- order to the Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench to stay a suit commenced against them by Radnor, an informer, for importing playing-cards, and to permit the importation of the same on payment of the usual duties." — (Page 504.) Among the valuable series of proclamations preserved in the Library of the Society of Antiquaries is that alluded to previously (July 20, 1615), as granting the right to Sir R. Coningsby of imposing a duty of 5s. per gross on playing- cards : — MISCELLANEA. 307 " aoitjict) from anti after t^e 'H'tomtitt^ Da? of 3ulj tten nwt commg CljoulD happen to be brougl^t from anp of t!)e part0 beponli t!je feagf into our realme of (EtiglanU 2Dommion of aaiales or |Bort anli 'QTotone of 23ertoicfee b? an? #ecfon or iSerfoniS (EnffUlJjmen lienfjen0 or »>tranpr0 to ttie eno to be utterelr folti or put to fale ag b? tlje fame our I.etter0 more at large ft Dotl) and map appeare." Following this proclamation is " The Copie of the Lord Treasourers Letter. " After my heartie commendations, whereby it hath pleased his Majestie to direct a Privy Seal to me, touching the imposition of five shillings upon every grosse of Playing Cards that shall be Imported into this Kingdome or the Dominions thereof by vertue of his Majesties Letters Patents granted to Sir Kichard Coningsby knight under the Greate Seale of England. In regard whereof These are to wil and require you to take notice thereof and not to suiTer any merchant to make any entry of Playing-Cards until the same impositions be payed according to the said Letters patents. Provided that the Patentees give caution for maintayning the Custome and Import according to a Medium thereof to be made as in such cases is used ; And so having signified his Majesties pleasure to you in that behalfe I bid you heartily farewell. " Your Louing Friend, " ThO : SUPFOLKE. " From Northampton House the 29th of October, 1615." Numerous other references to the subject of playing-cards may be found in the " Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series," particularly in the volimies relating to the latter part of Queen Elizabeth's reign. The details connected therewith, however, falling beyond the scope of the present work, further allusion here to the records of the " Calendar " would be out of place. E. 227. {Printed Boohs Department, Tracts relating to Trade, vol. 12, 816. m. 12/72.) SECOND QUARTER OF SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. (King Chaeles I.) LONDON. N this volume of " NotabiHa " may be seen, as above indicated, thB Proclamation referred to by Chatto, p. 137. It is as follows : — "BY THE KING. " A Proclamation concerning playing-Cards and Dice. " Whereas the kings Majeftie having lately fettled a tourfe for tfic tonftant toeefel? bupmg anD tafefng from t§e CarD 3o8 ENGLISH. mafeers anli aDi'cemafeerg, Cut!) of tljem as ace W natucall born rubjetts, tteic manufactured of Carti0 anti 2Dice, bp ^10 pi:oclama= tfon publtfi)e& tjje fifteent!) liap of apap in tt)e ttiineent^ ?ear of ^19 Eeign (Votieceb? t^e? mtg^t be enabled to Woe of ttjeic tcatie0) nib tteuefoce require anti commanti tt)at all CarOS anti 3Dice malie l)ere or otjertoife importeU from foreign parts lijoulD be broustit to l)i0 ^aj'efties officer in London, appointed for t^e fearct)in5 anti fealing; of fuel) as (Ijoulti be founD poti anU merchantable before tl)e fame CarDS or 2Dice fljouia be folti or liifpoCei) of: 2But l)i0 Sl^ajeCie noto finUinff tl)at funbrp toajes of beceipt tabe been anb ace bailp prattifeb as toell bp tlje mafeers of CarbS anb 2Dtce as bj tl)ofe tl)at import t;&e fame, is pleafeb to ratifiie anb conficme ^i& faib pcoclamation anb again to beclace tis fuctl)ec Eopall pleafuce tl)ecein anb botlj tl)ecefoce ttcaitlj cljacffe anb commanb tt)at no pecfon or perfons tol)atfo= eber (otfter ttian tjiS Slpaiefties faib officer) lljaU hereafter pre= fume to feal or marfe an? l&lagin0;=CacbS or 3Dice or to fix tljereon an? feals or pcinteb papers noto ufeb or toljicl) t)ereafter Itiall be ufeb bp tl)e faib flDfficer ; anb tljat none but fuel) aS t)e liall appoint, bo engrabe, cut, or print an? of t^e faib feals for t^e fealing: of Carbs or 3Dice or bo imitate or counterfeit tl)e fame; Slnb tl)at no foreign CarbS or 2Dice importeb or to be imported fljall be from l)encefortl) lanbeb in an? ot^er of ^iS Sl^aiefties ^orts in England or Wales, t^eu in t^e Port of London onlp» anb tl)at upon tlje lanbing tljereof in t^e fame Port or toit^in ttoo bapes after notice be tljereof giben bp tl)e Importers or SDtoners to W apajeities faib iSDfficer of tlje full quantities tljereof, anb t^at none of tlje C^fficers in an? otl)er of l)is S^aj'efties Ports (unbec pain of lotfe of tl)eir office) tt)aU fuffer anp CarbS or SDice to be importeb or lanneb contrary to ti'S apajefties commanb but tttall feije tl)e fame anb gibe notice of fuc^ feijure toitl)tn conbenient time after. "anb furtt)er tjisa^ajettie botl) ttraigljtl)? charge anb com= manb, tEljat no Sl^ercljant Sl^aCer or ^toner of »)l)ip3 Sl^ariners or ott)ers i^jall hereafter import or fuffer to be importeb an? foreign Carbs or 3Dice to an)) ot^er Port t|)an tlje Port of London onlp anb thereof bulj to gibe fenotolebge as aforefaib. anb for t^e better biCcoberp of beceipts tecein W 9l?ajetlie bot|) Jecebp ttcaigljtlp cljacge anb commanb, 'cEljat all foreign CarbS aftec 9^ict)aelmas nert Itjall be bcougljt to tl)e office in London for dealing of CacbS toljece tljep JTjall be put into CEngliJT) Binbecs, or neVo bounb b? W S^aj'efties faib €)ffi'cec oc W 2Deputie, befoce tlje fame Ojatl be folb; anb tl)at no pecfon oc MI80ELLANEA. 309 pecfons of tofiat tonUition or quali'tie roetcc after 9l^ftf)aelma0 mxt (|)all buj fell ufe utter feeep or litfpofe of anp Caros* to5atro= eber, tljat be or lljaU be put fit foreign ©tntierg before tl)e fame fijall be neto bounti, or put in Cufflilt) Binliers, anD be fealeti bp i)i£( a^aj'ettie^ €)ffi[cer or tii3 3Deputfe upon pain of tfie forfeiture tlieccof. anu to t^efe W a^ajediesf lOlopall commanDsf Ije requir= et5 all Due conformitie anD obeDience of all to^om it fljall con-- cern upon pain of tl)e loffe anO forfeiture of all fuc^ Cartusf or 2Dice m fljjall be StealeD Sl^arfeeti Counterfeiteli 3ImporteO or otljertoiCe bougtit fold or difpofeU of contrary to t)i0 apai'etties pleafure herein declareD and upon fuc^ furtl)er penalties and punif^ments a0 bj t^e iLatoe0 or Statutes of tlie lR,ealm or otjertoife map be inttitted for tfteir contempt or neglett ijerein. " Given at our court at Greenwich the eighteenth day of June, in ^ the fourteenth yeer of our Reign. " God Save the King. " Imprinted at London by Robert Barker, Printer to the Kings moft Excellent Majeftie : and by the Affignes of John Bill. 1638." {2 si X 10| in.] E. 228. (Printed Boohs Department, Single Sheets, vol. 3, 66g.f. 7/28.) SECOND QUARTER OF SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. (Charles I.) LONDON. HE following order of Parliament is contained as above indicated: — " Die Martis 1 1 Julii 1643. " Committee appointed by Parliament for the Navy and Customes. " Upon the Humble Complaints of several! Poore Cardmakers of London, who having beene bred up in their Trades of making Playing-Cards are likely to perish with their families by reason of Divers Merchants secretly bring- ing in Playing-Cards into this Kingdome, contrary to the Lawes and Statutes of this Realme ; It is this day ordered by this Committee, That the Officers of the Custome House of the Port of London and likewise of the Out Ports within the Kingdome of England and Dominion of Wales and aU other Officers whom it doth conceme respectively do seize and put into safe custody aU sorts of Playing-Cards of Forraigne making which are or hereafter shall be brought into this Kingdom or Dominion of Wales. And that they doe thereupon proceed against the parties so offending according to the Lawes and Statutes in that case provided. " And it is further ordered That the Copy hereof be sent unto the Custome House of the Port of London and unto all other the Outports within the King- dome of England and Wales, that the Officers may take notice thereof accordingly, " Treasury Chamber, Westminster. " Giles Orene. " London, Printed by F. R. for Joseph Himscott. July 1 2, 1 643." [14 X 9iin.] 310 ENGLISH.. E. 229. (Printed Boohs Department, Tracts relating to Trade, vol. 12, 816. m. 1 2/73.) LAST QUARTER OF SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. (King Charles II.) LONDON. HE following proclamation succeeds in the px-esent volume the previous one of King Charles L of the year 1638 (B. 227): — "BY THE KING. " A Proclamation Prohibiting the Importation of Foreign Playing-Cards and for feizing fuch as are or fliall be IMPORTED. " Charles R, " afllftereasf bp tl)e Hatog anU fetatutesf of tW our Bealm, all foceiffti piaptnfl; Cards (amonffC tiibeciS otijec foretell manufatturc0) ace profjibftea to lie importeli, untiec penalty of forfeiture; get nottoltpanuinff, ajs toe are silizn to unOerttanO b^ tlje Stimble petition of tbe Spatter, (lfllarDeti0, anO aCBttantS of ttie Company of CardmafeecsJ of London, liters of Cur fe)ubject0 and others, are fo IjarOp, to bring; into tl)i0 l&ingDom great quantities of foreign plaping^CarDS anU publicfelp to e^pofe tl)e fame to fale fn contempt of us ana our itatoS anD to tlje great impobriflbntent of t^e poor artificers of tt)e fain com-- pang ano of^er our fubj'etts implopeU in malting t^e fai'D manu= fatturc; aaie tafeing tlje fame into our ferious conCOeration anO being oefirous in tftis particular, as toe altoajs l)itljerto tabe been in tlje tobole coucfe of our CBobernment, to encourage manufactures toit^in tl)is JPur HingDom, tolierebp our fubjetts are maintaineb in goob eftate, anb 'QTrabe increafeb, are gra* ciouOp pleafeb toit^ tbe abbice of our pribp council b? t^iS i3Dur IRojai ^proclamation to cominanb anb birett; 'CCtjat all latos noto in force protifaiting tlie importation of an? iforeign pia?ing--CarbS be buelp put in e;cecution b? all our T 16th •)•) G. 161. 4th )» 15th )» I. 3 4th 5' 16th ») F. 47. 4th )> 15th »J F. 42 4th 51 16th J» F. 48. 4th )j 15tli ») G. 147 1st half, 16th i» G. 125. 4tli j> 15th )) G. 149 1st jj 16th ?» G. 132. 4th » 15th 5) G. 150 1st )) 16th J) G. 135- 4th 11 15th )1 G. 151 \ 2nd ?» 16th )) I. 4. 4tli ), 15th )? G. 152 2nd )) 16th 5) G. 1 29. 4tli »» 15th )) G. 154 2nd j» 16th it G. 130. 4th „ 15th J» G. 155 2nd ,1 16th »» G. 131. 4th ,, 15th )T G. 166 2nd » 16th ■)■) G. 156. 4th ,, 15th )) E. 224 2nd ?7 16th )) G. 157- 4th ,, 15th )) E. 225 ' 2nd JJ 16th »» G. 258. 2nd half, 15th >? G. 124 2nd J, 16th »T G. 163. 2nd ,, 15th )J G. 143 1 ? ? 16th )J F. 44. 2nd ,, 15th J» G. 148 i ^ ? 16th J) F- 45- 1st quarter. 16th G. 126 1st quarter. 17th )J G. 136. 1st ,, 16th JJ G.127 1st 17th J» G. 137. 1st 16th }} G. 128 1st 17th JJ E. 198. 1st 16th J! G. 144 1st 17th ft B. 198. 1st ,, 16th »J G. 145 1st 17th ?) E. 234. 1st ,, 16th J) G. 146 i 1st 17th )1 E.235. 1st ,, 16th » G. 153 1st 17th 5» E. 236. 1st )) 16th » G. 165 : 1st 17th '» E.237. 340 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. Cards of the Cards of the 1st quarter, 1 7th century E. 238. 4th quarter, 17 th century, E. 184. 2nd ») 17th )» E. 199. 4th » 17th , E. 185. 2nd »? 17th » E. 228. 4th )) 17th , E. 186. 2nd )j 17th ») E. 240. 4th » 17th , E. 187. 2nd jj 17th JJ E. 241. 4th 1) 17th E. 188. 2nd » 17th )) S. 15. 4th »» 17th , E. 189. 3rd ») 17th ?) I. 13- 4th )) 17th , E. 190. 3rd » 17th JJ E. 179. 4th )) 17th , E. 203. 3rd I) 17th >» E. 242. 4th 1) 17th , , E. 229. 4th ij 17th »J I. 13. 2. 1st JJ 17th , , F. 74. 4th u i7tli )) I. 14. 1st 11 17th , E. 226. 4th }1 17th )J I. 14. 2. 2nd half, 17th , G. 159- 4th ») 17th ?) P. 76. 2nd >T 17th , E. 195- 4th »» 17th »» F. 77. 2nd ?) 17th , E. 227. 4tli )> 17th J) P. 79. 2. p 9 17th „ I. 8. 4th )) 17th »> E. 167. 9 ? 17th „ I. 9- 4th ») 17th J1 E. 168. 9 ? 17th , F. 49. 4th »» 17th )» E. 174. ? ? 17th , D.115. 4th »» 17th )) E. 175. ? ? 17th G-133- 4th »l 17th ») E.177. ? ? 17th , G.134. 4th »» 17th 1> E. 178, 34" NOTEWORTHY SERIES. SERIES OF CARDS, etc., TO WHICH SPECIAL INTEREST IS ATTACHED. 1. The so-called (erroneously) Tarocchi of Mantegna, or Carte di Baldini, I. 1, page 65. 2. Venetian Tarots of the Marchesa Busca Serbelloni, I. 3. p. 77. 3. Early Stencilled Cards of 1440 (?), G. 122, p. 192. 4. The "Chatto Cards," (or the cards of the binding of the Sermones M. Vin- centii) of the last quarter of the 15th century, E. 42, p. 110. 5. The so-called (erroneously) " Trappola Cards," of the last quarter of the 1 5th century, having the Oranada as a mark of a suit, G. 1 20, p. 1 8g. 6. Circular Cards of Cologne, with animated marks of suits, G. 143, p. 207. 7. Telman von Wesel's version of the Circular Cards of Cologne, G. 144, p. 209. 8. Cards having chimeric animals as marks of suits, G. 147, p. 213. 9. Cards having animated marks of suits, from G. 148, to G. 155, inclusive, pp. 214-216. 10. German Numerals, from G. 124, to G., 132, inclusive, pp. 194-198. 11. The " Jehan Volay," Spanish numerals, S. 15, p. 93. 1 2. The several series of French numerals, from F. 43, to P. 49, inclusive, pp. 113-116. 13. French Tarots, F. 37, p. 107. 14. Flemish Tarots, Fl. 103, p. 179. 15. The Cards of Stefano della BeUa, F. 74, p. 126. 16. F. C. Z. Cards, G. 135, p. 199- 17. The Beham Cards, G. 138, p. 203. 18. The Jobst Amman Cards, G. 16 1, p. 221. 19. The Virgil Solis Cards, G. 156, p. 21 7. 20. German Tarots, G. 1 16, p. 187. 21. English Cards, E. 167, p. 229. 22. Spanish Armada Cards, E. 185, p. 265. 23. The Popish Plot Cards from E. 186, to E. 188, inclusive, pp. 266-270. 24. The Rye House Plot Cards, E. 189, p. 273. 25. The Seven Bishops' Cards, E. 190, p. 274. 342 NOTEWORTHY SERIES. 26. King James 11. Cards, E. 191, p. 276. 27. Duke of Marlborough Cards, E. 192, p. 277. 28. Dr. Sacheverell Cards, E. 194, p. 279. 29. Rump Parliament Cards, E. 195, p. 280. 30. The Alluette Game Cards, S. 33, p. 103. 31. French Satii-ical Cards, F. 80, p. 137. 32. Artistic Cards, E. 205, p. 288. 33. Musical ditto, E. 206, p. 289. 34. The Gatteaux designs, F. 57. 2., p. I 19. 35. Altered plate of Rembrandt, D. 1 15, p. 185. 36. Print by the Master M. Z., G. 165, p. 227. 37. Print by Isi-ahel van Meckenen, G. 166, p. 227. 38. Bagford Collection, E. 184, E. 222, pp. 243, 298. 39. Nova Statuta, E. 225, p. 304. 40. Proclamations, E. 227, p. 307. 41. Rowlands' Satirical Works, from E., 234, to E. 239, Inclusive, pp. 314- 317- 42. Marginal Index Cards, E. 248, p. 325. 43. Circular Indian Cards, O. 11. 250, p. 331. 44. ISTarrow Chinese Cards, O. C. 255, p. 335. 45. The Wood-engraver and Card-painter at work, G. 163, p. 225. 46. Le Roman du Roi Meliadus referred to, p. 14. 343 BIBLIOGRAPHY, HE following works will prove amply sufficient for those persons who may desire fiirther information on the subjects treated of in the preceding pages, but yet who do not purpose entering into a minute and critical investigation of the whole History of Playing-Cards. Such as intend to do so, however, may find all the necessary sources of instruction refen-ed to in the biblio- graphical lists appended to the treatises of Chatto (Xo. 4), of the Bibliophiles Fran^ais (Xo. 2), and of Boiteau d'Ambly (ISTo. 3). The " Analyse critique et raisonnee de toutes les Rechcrches publiees jusqu'k ce jour sur I'origine et I'histoire des Cartes 6, Jouer," which forms the second portion of the " Recherches Historiques et Litteraires sur les Danses des Morts et sur I'origine des Cartes k Jouer, par Gabriel PeigTiot. Dijon et Paris. MDCCCXxvi." may be also consulted. No. 1. Bartsch (Adam). Le Peintre-Graveur. Leipsic, 1803-21-54, 8vo. Vol. vi. p. 55; vol. x. pp. 70- 120,; vol. xiii. pp. 120- 138. No. 2. Bibliophiles Prangais (Societe des). Jeux de Cartes Tarots et de Cartes Numerales du Quatorzieme an Dix-huitieme Siecle. Paris, 1 844, folio. No. 3. Boiteau d'Ambly (P.). Les Cartes k Jouer et la Cartomancie. Paris, 1 854. 8vo. No. 4. Chatto (William Andrew). Facts and Speculations on the Origin and History of Playing-Cards. London, 1848, 8vo. No. 5. Cicognara (Leopoldo). Memorie spettanti aUa storia deUa Calcografia. Prato, 1831, 8vo., tavole in foglio. No. 6. ^Merlin (R.). Origine des Cartes h. Jouer. Recherches NouveUes sur les NaiTjis, les Tarots, et sur les autres especes de Cartes. Paris, 1869, 4to. No. 7. Passavant (J. D.). Le Peintre-Graveur. Leipsic, i860, 8vo. Vol. i., pages 6, 208, 213, 243; vol. ii., pages 66, 70, 100, 176, 205, 242, 246, 247 ; vol. v., pages 11, 11 9, 126, 129, 132, 134. No. 8. Singer (Samuel AVeller). Researches into the History of Playing-Cards, with Illustrations of the Origin of Printing and Engraving on Wood. Loudon, 1816, 4to. No. 9. Taylor (Rev. Ed. S. and others.) The History of Playing-Cards, with Anecdotes of their Use in Conjuring, Fortune-TeUing, and Card-Sharping. London, 1865, 8vo. This work foi-ms an English version, with additions and changes, of Boiteau d'Ambly's treatise, No. 3. INDEX. INDEX TO PEOPER NAMES. ^CQUAVIVA, go. Acuaviva, 97. Agrippa, 150. Aldegrever, 217. Alexander, 44. All, followers of, 10. AUiette, 11, 144, 145, 160. Alphonso, Don, 12. Ames, 94. Amman, Jobst, 47, 217, 221, 223, 225. Anne, Queen, 28, 307, 311-313. Anson, S., 285. Anstis, 90. Anthony, St., 158. Antonio da Brescia, 76. Ardant, 103. Aretino, 68. Argine, 44. Arnoult, 102, 121, 1 69. Arouy, 134. Ascham, Roger, 34. Astle, 93. Bache, 315. Bagford, J., 243, 298, 301, 302. Baker, 240-243. Bakofen, 188. Baldini, 17, 68. Baldwin, Mrs., 50, 94. Banks, Sir Joseph, 266. Barbarigo, Cardinal, 92. Barker, 309. Barrington, 51, 93, 94- Bartsch, 16, 192. Bavaria, Duke and Duchess of, 16, 227. Becker, 223. Beckett, Isaac, 300. Bedloe, 255. Beg, Timur, 1 1 . Begon, 212. Beham, 32, 203. Benedict XIII., Pope, 91. Benieres, 1 14, 320. Bentivoglio, 37, 82, 83. Bernadotte, 163. Bernard, St., 158. Bemardin, St., 5, 22, 26. Berti, 79. Besniere, 114, 115. Bettles, 327. Bickham, George, 303. BUI, John, 309, 311. Binny, 291. BlomhofT, 58. Boissiere, 134. Boiteau d'Ambly, 7, 47, 144, 149, 21 1, 335- Bologna, Tarocchino di, 80. Borron, Helie de, 14. Botticelli, 68, 74. Bourgogne, Due de, 1 33, 1 34. Bourguignon, 296. Bowles, 296, 303. Boyne, 281. Bradshaw, 321. Breitkopf, 7, 12, 28, 40, 57, 58, 191. Brescia, Ant. da, 76. Brianville, 88, 89, 90, 92, I35. Brindley, 317. Buchan, 146. Bulifon, 90. Buling, Hans, 284. Bull, 291. Bullet, 7, 45. Burgkmair, 203. Burgundy, Mary of, 190. Burnet, 260. 348 INDEX TO Busoa Serbelloni, Marchesa, 77. Bussi, Feliciano, 8, 9, 12. Butler, 316. Butler, Archdeacon, 6. Butler, Gr., 316. Byron, 297. Cffisar, 44. CaUot, 134. Capistran, Card. J., 13. Capitaine Metely, Vallante, 114, 115. Carderera, 42. Carpenter, 67, 332. Carpentier, Le, 31. Cellier, Madame, 257. Ceres, 4. Champante, 294. Chappell, 321. Charlemagne, 44. Charles I., 28, 305, 307, 319, 320. Charles II., 2^1, 270, 280, 311. Charles VI. of France, 13, 19, 37, 43, 48. Charles VII. of France, 30, I 1 2. Charles VIII. of France, 16. Chateaubriand, 137. Chaucer, 12. Chatto, 24, 25, 27, 54, 1 10, 193, 210, 225, 273,307,321,335. Chauncy, 30 1. Chess, 8, 9. Chesterfield, Lord, 90. Chris Zaga, 237. Christian IV. of Denmark, 283. Christie, lO. Cicognara, 7, 37, 87. Clarendon, Lord, 260. Clark, 234. Clement VII., Pope, 70. aerc, F., 43. Cocksonus, 283. Coleman, 253. Colnaghi, D., 193. Coningsby, Sir Kiohard, 306. Constant, Alphonse, 148. Coral, B., 89, 135. Costa, 38, 39. Cotta, 224, 225. Covelluzzo, 8,9, 12. Cranach, Lucas, 20 1 . Cromwell, Oliver, 320, 321. Crozier, 1 10. Cruden, 305. Cruiokshank, 284. Cuffe, 161. Cuming, Syer, 3 1 . Danby, Lord, 256. Dangerfield, 257. D'Anville, 296. Daniel, 7. D'Arcy, 306. Darvall, 292. Daveloy, 183. David, 44. David, the painter, 46, 1 19. Dean, 238. Decembrio, 21, 71. Deighton, 186. Delaborde, 67, 69, 74. Delia Bella, Stefano, 32, 126-131, 134. De la Rue, 52, 232. De la Rue, Regamey, 170. Desohamps, 136. Desmarests, 32, 88, 126-131. Diamond, W. H., 282. Dibdin, Dr., 14, 301, 304. Dolben, 279. Douce, 14, 208. Doughty, 281. Douet d' Arcy, 7 1 . Drake, Sir F., 247. Dubois, 115. Ducessois, 166. Duchesne, 68, 73, 75, 80, 1 12, 209. Durazzo, 76. Diirer, Albert, 74, 217. Eckeloo, Pascasius, 41. Edward III. of England, 304. Edward IV., King, 304, 305. Eftin, 117. Eitelberger, 202, 217. Elizabeth, Queen, 51, 249, 306. Ellis, Welbore, 285. Espartero, lOO. Etteilla, 109, 144, 145, 147, 160, 161. Eugenio IV., Pope, 92. Evets, 299. Eyck, Van, 16, 159. Faithorue, 270. Falstaff, 51. Fanti, 70, 159. Fauloon, N., 300. Faveil, Jehan, 1 13. Fawkes, Guido, 250. F. C. Z., 32, 200, 201. Fibbia, Prince of Pisa, 37, 80. Find, Oronce, 88, 135. Fines, Nathaniel, 280. Finiguerra, 68, 69, 74. Folkestone, Lord, 52. F BO FEB NAMES. 349 Forli, 159. Fountaine, 299. Fox, 285. Francese, Alberto, 160. Francis I., 94, U3, 115, 129. Franco, F., 1 1 6. Freeling, G. H., 14. Freschot, 92. Fries, Count, 78, 191. Fuller, S. and T., 291. Galasso, l6o. Galichon,'65, 70. Gatteaux, 46, 67, 119. Gauthier, 89. Gavarni, 175. Gazzoni, 39. Gebelin, Court de, 11, 104, 138, 147- George III., 281, Germanin, Frau, 226. Genevoy, 1 1 5. Gerard, 163. Gibert, 124. Gibson, 232. Gihaut, 174. Giroux, 174, 176. Gloucester, Duke of, 6. Gobel, 188. Godfrey, Sir Edmund Berry, 254. Godolphin, 263. Gonzaga, A. V., 19. Gonzalez, 96, 97. Gough, 94, 193. Grandier, Urban, 165. Gravelot, 296. Greene, 321. Grene, Giles, 309. Grignion, 296. Grimaud, 103, 121. Gringonneur, 13, 19. Guevara, 4 1 . Guizot, 212. Gumpenberg, 79. Gutery, 41. Hamilton, Adams, & Co., 292. Hankey, 268. Hardwicke, 292. Hardy, 232. Hastings, 281. Haus, Baron de, 78. Hay man, Francis, 295, 296. Heinecken, 25, 27^ 208. Henin, 1 1 o. Henry 11. of France, 1 16. 144, Henry IV. of England, 50. Henry IV. of Prance, 283. Henry VI. of England, 305. Hem-y VII. of England, 28, 30, 32, 50, 112,305. Henry VIII., King, 51, 305. Herbst, 204. Herbert, 94. Heuslerus, 222. Hewson, 229, 230, 321. Hey wood, 293. Hills, 235, 311. Hirschman, 220. Hitchcock, 324. Hiva, 95, 96. Hoffmann, 220. Hogier, 44. Holbein, 16. Holden, 299. Hort, Dr., 297. Hoyle, 48. Hunscott, 309. Huson, 286. Hugo V. Trymberg, 1 2. Hyatt, Thaddeus, 280. lao, 58. Ingold, 7. Innocent XI., Pope, 90, 135. Innocent XII., Pope, 9 1 . Isabella, Queen, 96, 100. Ireton, 321. Isis, 141, 143. James I., King, 50, 283, 314-316. James H., King, 259, 262, 274, 275, 276. Jane, 235. Jehan de Saintre, 1 2. John of Castile, 41. John of Cologne, 208. Johnson, 305. Jombert, 13 1. Jones, Sir W., lo. Jounin, 1 18. Judith, 44. Keightley, 246-264. King, Gregory, 299. King, Dr. W., 297. Knight, 51. Kirk, 303. KoUoff, 68, 74. Lacroix, 15, 26, 11 3, 1 16. Ladenspelder, H., 76. 350 INDEX TO Lahire, 1 16. Lancelot, 44. Lange, 135. Laurie, 297. Lebahy, 1 16. Leber, 25, 27, 33. 40> HI- Lecomte, 131. Leeornu, 1 13. Legi-and, 172. Le Gras, H., 127, 129, 130-131, 299. Lehmen, 48. Lenormand, 162. Lentball, 286. Letronne, 212. Levi, BKphas, 11, 145, 148. Littlebury, 237. Locker, E., 31. Lopez, 100-106. Louisa of Savoy, 1 1 $. Louis XIII. of France, 45. Louis II. of Naples, 14. Louis XIV., 87, 129. Lully, Raymond, 1 54. Lyra, Mo. de, 1 1 0. Machlinia, 304. Maoready, 44. Mandi-ou, I17. Mantegna, Taroochi di, 65, 68. Marcel, 10. March, 295. Marcolini, 70. Mariette, I., 132, 133, I34. Marlborough, Duke of, 262, 277, 279. Marsh, 293. Martins, Galeottus, 334. Mary, Queen of Scots, 247. Master of 1466, 31, 214. Master of the i-oiind cards, 32, 211. jNIaurice, Prince, 283. Maximilian, 90, 203. Mazarin, Cardinal, 127, 131. Mearn, 234. Mechlin, William of, 304. Meckenen, Israhel van, 16, 90, 227. Medina de Campo, 41. Menestrier, 7, 231. Mercury, 4. Mericourt, 172. Merlin, 5, 7, U, 27, 28, 29, 31, 32, 46,66, 155, 1 SI, 179, 332. Milan, Duke of, 21, 31. Minne, 136. Mitelli, G. S, 37, 38, 81, 82, 84. Modena, Princess of, 260. Modena, Duchess of, 261. Momus, 185. Mongez, 46, 11 9. Monmouth, Duke of, 258. Monogram, the sacred, 149' Montezuma, 41. Montier, 87. Montieri, 88. Morant, 89. Moore, Dr., Bishop of Ely, 30 1. Moreau, 136. Morelli, 21, 71, 75, 158. Morin, Senora, 42. Mottavio, 85. Moxon, J., 54, 236. Murat, Joachim, 162. Murr, Von, 12, 25, 192, 223. JMusset, Paul de, 48. M. Z., 16, 227. Napoleon I., 1 19. Napoleon III., 1 20. Newcomb, 3 1 1 . Nicholson, 299. Nicholl, 301. Nicoletto da Modena, 32. Niebuhr, 10. Nisard, Ch., 161. Gates, Titus, 253, 272. Odeschaloi, 135. Oldmixon, 2^2, 255. Oliver, 283. Osiris, 4. Ottley, 74. Oxford, Loi-d, 30 1 . Pallas, 44. Palmer, 316. Pam, 297. Papworth, J. B., 288. Paracelsus, 150. Pardon, 98. Parma, Duke of, 92. Parma, Prince of, 249. Parris, Paulin, 111. Parry, Dr., 245. Passavant, 12, 16, 27, 55, 194, 209. Patin, 185. Peignot, 40, 138. Pendleton, 298. Peter III. of Arragon, 40. Peter the Great, 220. Petrarch, 1 2. Petre, Father, 260. Petrini, 91, 92. Pcttigrew, 280. FBOFEB NAME8. 351 Pfaun, 220. Phayer, T., 6. Philip II., 95 ; IV., 95; v., 95. Philippe le Bon, 1 6, 1 59. Philo-patris, 268. Planche, 15, 112. Pope Benedict XIIL, 9I. Pope Eugenio IV., 92. Pope Innocent XI., 90 ; XII., 9 1 . Pordenone, 78. Porta, G., 160. Prest, 280. Pretorio, 220. Postel, 149. Poupart, Charles, 13. Preau, Du, 156. Pynson, Richard, 304, 305. Quandt, 213. Quaritch, 220. Querry, SI- Rachel, 44. Raillard, 90. Raleigh, Sir W., 306. Raspi, 135. Rasponi, 135. Rembrandt, 185, 186. Redgrave, S., 283, 288, 296. Reisch, 156. Repton, F. A., 51. Reynolds, 294. Rimbault, Dr., 6, 317. Rive, I'Abbe, 7, 40, 41. Roberts, Miss, 292. Roche, 1 24. Rolant, 44. Romsey, 292. Rossi, 80, 83. Rowland, William, 161. Rowlands, Samuel, 28, 314-319. Rowley, 230, 231. Rufiis, 325. Rulaudo, 222. Sacheverell, Dr., 263, 279. Sandro di Popozzo, 12. Samellius, 91. Savage, 236, 299, 300. Sayer, 297. Scanegata, 91. Schachomair, 202. Schaiifelin, 13. Scbeidl, 188. Schongauer, go, 208. Scroterus, 223. Sebastianus, 9 1 . Seller, 234, 235. Seratti, 65. Seyfrid, 220. Shaftesbury, Lord, 257. Sheridan, 245. Shipton, Mother, 109. Shirley, 299. Sigogne, 104. Silberrad, 191. Singer, 7, 39, 52, 144, 193, 223, 305, 335- Smith, Captain, 55- Smith, Messrs., I91, 211. Solis, Virgil, 32, 217, 219. Spielhagen, 48. Strutt, 51. Stukely, Dr., 1 94. Sturton, AValterus, 12. Suffolke, 307. Summerly, Felix, 232. Sumner, 280. Suzanne, 108. Sykes, Sir M. M., 65. Talleyrand, 137. Tap, John, 315. Taylor, Jeremy, 6. Taylor, Rev. Ed. S., 42, 51, 52, 193, 230, 286. Telman von Wesel, 32. Tenda, Beatrice, 19. Thurlow, Lord, 281. Townroe, 232. Toxophilus, 34. Tross, 20. Tucker, 280. Tuttel, Thomas, 236, 300. T. W., 208, 209, 212. Utterson, 316, 317. Vailsant, 58, 148. Valery, 44. Vandenbore, 107, 179. Vega, de la, 41. Veyrat, 182. Violet, 172. Virgil, 161. VLsconti, Pilippo, 19, 20, 21, 71. Volay, Jehan, 42, 93, 95. Volpato, J. A. v., 21 1, 212. Waagen, 67. Wallis, 291. Walpole, 297, 300. 352 INDUX TO PBOPEB NAMES. Warman, 94. Warter, 300. Weigel, 12, 55, 195, 200. Wesel, Telmanvon, 32, 208, 209, 213. Whittle, 297. WijsmuUer, 183, 184. Wilkinson, Sir Gardiner, 4. Wilson, 185, 186, 214. Winstanley, 237. Worms, Anthony of, 16, 48. Wright, 14, 15, 111. AViist, 206. Zainer, G., 7, 195. Zatzinger, Martin, 16. Zell, Christ., 200. Zlismon, 109. Zoppo, Marco, 68. INDEX TO SUBJECTS. ^BENDGESELL- SCHAFTEN, 48. Absolute, the, 1 49, 153- Abuses, Anatomie of, ^^^^^^^Pi, 51. Acts of Parliament, 50, 304-313. Advertisements, 50, 303. AdTBrtiser, the Public, 303. Ahmedabad, cards of, 331. Albertine Collection, 78. Aldermary Churchyard, 285. An fours, 52, Alluette, 103. Almanack, Cotta's Card, 224, 225. Alpha, 149. Alphabet, kabbalistic, 150. Alphabet cards, 239. Amman's cards, 47 ; Book of Trades, 225. Am one, Busca cards, 77. Anatomie of Abuses, S 1 . Animals, chimeric, on cards, 213-216. Animated cards, 31, 47, 207. Antiquaries, Society of, 266, 306. Antinomies, the, 154. Apocalypse, the, 1 54, 1 55. Apollo, 66, 68, 69. Apprentices, 6. Aquila coronata, 85. Arabian Nights' Entertainments, lO. ArchEeoIogia, 12, 193. Archseological Association, 280. Archaeological Journal, 31, 280. Archeologique, Revue, 7 1 . Aretino, cards of, 68. Arithmetical cards, 235. Aritmetricha of 1485, 73, 75. Armada, Spanish, 247, 265. Armeristi, 90. Armorial, 71. Art Journal, 14. Artistic cards, 288. "Arts, Repository of, 288. Arts, the, 66, 72. As Nas, 57. Astrologia, Tarots, 66. Astrological cards, 146, 147, 169. Astrology condemned, 1 6 1 . Astronomical cards, 146, 147, l65. Athenseum, 52. Atouts, 18, 139. Atutti, 18, 139. Augsburg, 13, 26. Avatars of Krishna, 332. Avatars of Vishnu, 56. Azot, 148. Azoth, 149. Bacchus, 78. Bagatello, II, 160. Bagford's collection, 243, 298, 30 1 , 302. Baker's eclectic cards, 240-24 1. Bal, le grand, 16. Baldini, carte di, 1 7, 35, 65, 1 55. Ballad Society, 321. Ballads, Roxburghe, 321. Banda, la, 12, 41. Bai-celona, cards of, 99, 106. Bassett, 51. Bears on cards, 214. Beaux -Arts, Gazette des, 69, 75. Becker, Memoir on I. Amman, 223. Beham cards, 32, 203. Beldornie Press, 3 1 6. Bells, 47, 192-200. Berti, F., cai-ds of, 78. Bibliography, 343. Bibliophiles FranQais, work of, 3], 201, 212. Bibliotheque Curieuse, 7. Biblioth^que du Roi, 211. Biographic cards, 136, 240. Birds on cards, 207-215-217. Bishops, the Seven, 258. Blazon, 7 • • A A 354 INDEX TO Bloody Game at Cards, 319. Boerinue, 186. Bologna, Republic of, 37, 80. Bolognese taroochino, 80. Book of Cards, Amman's, 221-224. Trades, Amman's, 225. Boston, 49. Briefmaler, 25, 225. Broadsides, 271, 272, 284, 297. Bruxelles, cartes de, 1 79-182. Bubble schemes, 185. companies, cards relating to, 185. Busca cards, 77. Byron's Don Juan, 297. Caballero, 29, 99. Cabinet des Estampes, 211. Cabinet, Weigel, 195, 198. Cadiz, cards of, 96, 97. Calendar of State Papers, 307. Cambridge, cards found at, 117. Card Company, American, 324. Card-houses, 295. Card-makers' Company, 306, 313. Card-playing, early representations of, 14, IS, 16. Cards, American, 324. amusing, humorous, 53, 221, 286, 290, 293. animated suits, 31,47, 207, 209- 219. bears on, 214. Beham, H. S., 203. biographic, historical, 53, 240, 292. birds on, 207, 2 1^-21 7. Book of, by I. Amman, 221-224. canvas, 28, SS- Carpentier cabinet, 31, 43. carving, 54. catalogue of, 59. Chatto, 1 1 0. chimeric animals on, 213, 216. Chinese, 29, 57, 58, 333-335- chronologic sequence of, 339. circular, SS, 207, 209, 331. costume on, 51, 318, 319. Coursube, 110-112. dates of, 339. deer on, 214. dogs on, 215. Dutch, 183. educational, instructive, 58, 86, 126, 234, 239. emblematic, 18,21,139-143, 164, 290. Cards, English, 50, 51, 229. European, 12, 65, 93- fancy objects on, 221. Flemish, 179. flowers on, 92, 207, 209, 213. forbidden, S, 13, 22, 50. for blind persons, 55- for ecclesiastics, 54- found at Cambridge, 117- four-colour, 327. French, 30, 33, 44, 106, 164. fruit on, 189. genera of, 61. general nature of, I7. geographic distribution of, 33, 34. geographic, heraldic, 86, 92, 127, 131, 132, 219. German, 29, 33, 46, 187, 207. Greek, 206, 207. groups on, 224. hares on, 208, 209, 213. heraldic, 86, 92, 127, 131. Hindu, 29, SS, 331. human figures on, 207, 209, 213, 224. improved, 46, 52, 81, 1 19, 325, 327- index and margmal, 325. Italian, 33, 36, 65. Japanese, 58. large, 29, 81. lions on, 214, 217-219. materials of, 28, SS- monkeys on, 217, 219. musical, 199, 289. Naibis, 20, 21, 73. names on English, 33. names on French, 30, 44, 111, 115-118. natural history on, 286. noteworthy, 341. numeral, 20, 85, 1 10, 229. of Aretino, 68. of Besanqou, Marseilles, and Geneva, 107. of Charles VI., 156. of Delia Bella, 126-131. of Desmarests, 126-13I. of divination, 54, 138, 164,294. of F. C. Z., 200, 201. of great interest, 34 1. of I. Amman, 221. H. S. Beham, 203. of Telman von Wesel, 208, 209, 213. SUBJECTS. 3,?5 331- Cards of T. W., 209, 213. of Virgil Solis, 21 7. Oriental, 8, 55, 56, 58. origin of, 7. packs of, 33. Persian, 29, 55, 56, 57. poKtico-historical, 53, 226, 243, 265. Portuguese, 42, 43, 323. Prag, 204, 205. proclamations concerning, 313. purely fanciful, 54, 173, 291. Russian, 323. satirical, 53, 137, 281. shields on, 49. smaU, 29, 122, 335. Spanish, 29, 40, 50, 93. Stukely, 193, 194, 201. Swiss, 29, 49, 324. tarots, 18, 19, 65, 107, 179, 187. tax on, 52, 305. Teheran, 55, 56. terms for, 34. Union playing, 324. varieties of, 7. various countries, 35. with secondary purpose, 53, 86, 126, 184, 219, 234. Carte di Baldiui, 35, 65, 155. padovana, 68. parlaute, 68. Cartes de fantaisie, 54, 1 74. de la geographie, 131. de Limousin et de Limoges, 1 04. de points, 20. des Reynes renommees, 1 29, 1 30. rondes, 211. des Roys de France, 1 29. opaques, 124. Suisses, 29. Cartomancy, 138, 148, 164, 294. Cavaliers, songs of the, 286. CavaUo, 77. Changes in design, 44, 46, 1 19. Charade cards, 1 74. Charles VL's cards, 13, 19, 156. Charta Lusoria, by I. Amman, 222. Chartse ScriptEe, 320. ■Charticellas, 22, 159. Chatto cards, 1 ID. Chiaro-oscuros, 160. Chiites, 10. Chimeric animals, 213-216. China, 8, 11. Chinese cards, 29, 333-335- Christendome, re veils of, 283. Christmas, cards at, 6, 50, 54. Chi-istopher, St., woodcut, 24, 26. Chronicle of MoreUi, 21, 71. Chronological table, 339. Circular cards, 29, 207, 209, 331. Cite de Dieu, 12. Civitas Dei, 12, 15. Classiiicatiou of cards, 6 1 . Cleland, 50. Club -players, 52. Coate-cards, names of, 34. CoiFee house, Croivn, 52. Collection, Albertine, 208. Bagford, 243. Begon, 212. Hauslab, 202. Heber, 317. Malone, 317. Praun, 223. Quandt, 213. Weigel, 195-198. Willet, 213. Cologne, circular cards of, 208. Company, card-makers', 306, 3 1 3. Coney-catching, 321. Conversation cards, 293. Conjuring cards, 295. Con-er, Musee, 19, 20, 71. Costume of Enghsh knave cards, 51, 318, 319- Cotta's card almanacs, 224. Coucou, game of, 89. Counters, 75. Coursube cards, 43, 1 10- 1 12. Cross, the, 149. Dates of cards, 339. Death, Dance of, 16. Decameron, 14. Deck of cards, 34. Deer on cards, 214. De la Rue's cards, 232. Designs, 29, 44, 46, 1 1 9. Desmarests' cards, 126-131. Destins, Livre de, 172. Dice, 4, 307- Divination, 6, 138, 164, 294. Divinatory cards, 138, 164, 294. Dogs on cards, 215. Dominoes, 178. Dot, jeu de la, 175. Double busts, 53. Dreams and visions, 166. Drolls, by Sayer, 297. Ecclesiastics, cards for, 54. 356 INDEX TO Eclectic cards, 240-241. Edward I., King, 12. Edward IV., 50, 304, 305- Egyptian symbolism, 139-143, 168. Egyptians, 4, 139. Eitelberger's memoir, 202, 217, Elizabeth, Queen, 246, 307. Emblematic cards, 18, 66, 139, 291. Emblematic figures, 18, 22, 139-143, 164. England, cards in, 30, 50, 229. England, figure-cards of, 51, 53. Ephod, 149. Eseurial, MS. in, 1 2. Espadille, 34, 98. Essay, Eitelberger's, 202, 217. Essex, Earl of, 162. Etching by Rembrandt, 185. Etteilla, Grand, 164, 168. Etteilla, ZSTouvel, 145, 165. Ezechiel, wheel of, 149. Fanciful cards, 54, 173, 291. Fancy objects on cards, 221. Fante, knave of cards, 34, 85. F. C. Z. cards, 32, 200, 201. Fighting valets, 202, 205. Flemish cards, 178. Florentine Minchiate, 38. Florentine school, 35, 68, 69. Flush, a,, 297. Flowers on cards, 92, 207, 209-213. Form, 29. Formschneider, 26, 225. Fortification cards, 132, 133. Fortune- telling by cards, 54, 70, 164- 172, 294. Four-colour cards, 327. Four kings, game of, 12. Four knaves, 314-319. French cards, 30, 43, 106, 126. tarots, 107. numerals, 1 10. Fries cabinet, 78. Fruit on cards, 189. Galvano-plastio process, 46. Gambling, 3, S, 24, 282, 284, 297. Games at cards, 51, 56, 57, 297. Hindu, 56. Hoyle's, 48. Gamester, the Compleat, 98. Gatteaux, designs, 46, 1 20. Gazette des Beaux- Arts, 69, 75. Geographical cards, 131, 132, 236, 237- Gdomance de Cattan, 156. George III., cai-ds, time of, 232. Genoa paper, 311, 312. German cards, 31, 46, '86. suits, 47, 189, 192, 207. Ghendgifeh, 8, lO, 56, 57- Gibson's cards, 232. Gipsies, 7, 11, 159. Giuoco del fante di spada, 78. Giuoco d'armi, 90, 91. Gleek, 51. Gnostic heresy, 155. Godfi-ey, Sir E. B., cards relative to, 266-270. Gomor, 154. Grammar, Lillie's, 234. Grammatical cards, 234. "Granada," mark of suit, IQO. Gravure Florentine, 69. Greek names on cards, 206-207. Gringonneur cards, 13, 19, 24. Guerre, de la, cards, 133. Guldin Spil, das, 7, 12. Gumpenberg, cards of, 79- Gunjee fu, 10. Gunpowder Plot, 250, Hardy's cards, 232. Hai-es on cards, 208, 209, 2 1 3, He, 154- Helgen, 25. Helglein, 25. Herald and Genealogist, 89, 92, 135, 185, 299. Heraldic cards, 86-92, 135. ffire, game of, 89. Herrera, 41. Hewson's cards, 229-230. Hieroglyphs on cards, 138, 150. High cards, 21. Hindustani cards, 29, 331. Historic introduction, 245. Historico-political cards, 243,245,265. Hoffmann-FaUersleben libraiy, 1 94. Hoja, una, 100. Holbein's Dance of Death, 16. Holland, cards of, 183. Hombre, 9, 10, 23, 33, 51, 56, 57, 98. 226. Honours, game of, 51. names of, 34. Housekeeper's Pastime, the, 54. Houses, card, 295. Illuminations, 14, 56. Importation of cards, 3 1 0. SUBJECTS. 357 Imposition on cards, 3 1 1 . Improved cards, 52, 325-326, 327. Ibis, 154. Index cards, 325. INRI, 149. Institutions, Cleland's, of a nobleman, 50. Intelligence, domestic, 243. International cards, 232. Interpolations of the word cards, 1 2, »3- Introduction, historic, 245. Isis, 141-143, 154- Italian cards, 36, 65, 86. cards with a secondary pui-posc, 86. numerals, 85. school, 68, 126. tarots, 55 . Ivory cards, 28, 55. Jack-a-napes, SO. Jamesanna, 321. James II., King, 258, 259. James 11., King, cards relating to, 274, 276. Jeu d I'Epee, 49. de Cartes Tarots, &c., 20, 66, 201. de Loto, 177. de Patience, 121. de PolichineUo, 175. de Societe, 174, 175. dela Dot, 175. de la Geographic, 1 3 1 . de la Guerre, 133. de la Sybylle, 1 74. des Fables, 128. des Quilles, 176. des Reynes Renommees, 129. des Roys de France, 129. des Suisses, le, 1 5- des Vicissitudes Humaines, 177. ■ du Nigaud, 177. Lilliputien, 29, 49. Jod, 154. Jombert's catalogue, S. Delia Bella, 131- Journal, Archaeological, 31. Jugglers, Italian, 160. Kabbalah, 11, 70, 1 48. Karten Almanach, Cotta's, 224. Kartenmacher, 26, 225. Kartenmaler, 26, 225. Keraptener cards, 202. King, Gregory, his cards, 299. Kings, honour cards, 4I, 42. Knave, 50. of clubs, 314. of hearts, 315. Knaves, a murnival of, 321. more, yet, 315. S. Rowlands', 314-319. Koran, 10. Labarum, 149. Lab I'kamar, 10. Lab I'oureq, 10. Ladenspelder's copies, 76. Landskuechtspiel, 23, 48. Landscape, Rembrandt, 185. Lansquenet, 23, 48. Latrunculi, 4. Leather cards, 28. Leaf cards, 28. Lebahy, J., 1 16. Leone, Al, cards, 79. Liber de Leipso, 222 Library, Hoffmann-Fallersle'ben, 194. Library, Berlin, 194. Licence to sell cards, 52. to tax cards, 306-307. Lions on cards, 214, 217-219. Liliputian cards and games, 29, 49, 122, 335. Litany, a Lenten, 321. Livres populau-es, 16 1. Locke, quoted, 245. Lombardian tarots, 179. Loo, 297. Lord Treasurer's letter, 307. Loto, 177. Lots, casting, 4. Low cards, 21. Luette, la, 103. Lyra, commentaries of N. de, 1 1 0. Madrid cards, 95, 98, 103. Magasin Pittoresque, 15. Magie, Haute, 146-148. Magazine, Gentleman's, 51, 284. Maitre aux cartes ^jouer, 214. Malcontant, game of, 89. Manichean heresy, 1 55. Maniere criblee, print in the, 26. Mantegna, tarocchi di, 65, 68, 155. Manuscripts, 12, 14, 56. Margarita philosophica, 1 56. Marginal index cards, 325-, Marcolini's system, 160. Marks of suits, 29, 44, 49, 207-213, Marcolini, le Soi-ti di, 70, 159. 358 INDEX TO Marlborough cards, 277, 279. Marseilles tarots, 107, 108. Master of 1466, 31, 214. Master of the round cards, 211. Massinger, plays of, 34. Mathematical cards, 236, 300. Mat, 9, 11, 143. Matto, 9, 11, 143. Mawe, 51. Maximilian, triumph of, 51' Mediateur, 33. Meckenen, Israhel van, print by, 16, 227. Melancholy, A. Diirer's, 74. Meliadus, le Roman du Roy, 14, 15. Metal cards, 28. Micare digito, 4. Milan tarots, 79. Military science, cards on, 132, 133. Minchiate, 9, 17, 23, 36, 38, 39, 1 57. Miniatori, 3 1 . Miniatures, 14, 15, 27, 31, 56. Miscellanea, 62, 225, 295. Missals, 56. Mitelli, works of, 82. Money, comedy of, 44. Monkeys on cards, 217-219. Monogram, Sacred, 149. Moor's head tarots, 80, 81, 84. Mora, 4. Moral cards, 238. Moral and instructive cards, 238. Morelli, Chronicle of, 21, 71. Mousquetaires, les, 120. Moyen ^ge, 15. Muhamedans, 8. Musee Correr cards, 19, 71. Musee Hal, 49. Muses, the, 65, 72. Museum, British, 66, 67, 78. Musical cards, 199, 289. Mythologic cards, 134. M. Z., print by, 16, 227. Naibis, 9, 20, 35.65, 158. Names of suits, 32. Fames on cards, 30, 44, 45, 111-112. Naypes, 9, 95-97- Netherlands, cards of, 184. Neuf preux, the, 44. Newspapers, 303. Nielli, 74, 77. Nigaud cards, 177. Notes and Queries, 6, 34. Nova Statuta, 304. Numerals, 20, 23. Numerals, Dutch, 183. English, 239. Flemish, 180. French, llO. German, 189. Italian, 85. Spanish, 93. Nurnberg, 12, 13. Oates, Titus, relative to, 272. Obermann, 47. Observator, the, 299. Oja, una, 97- Ombre d trois, 56, 98. Omega, 149. Oracle des Dames, petit, 166. Oracle des Dames, grand, 169, 170. Oriental cards, 332-335. suit marks, 332-335. origin of cards, 8, 1 0. Osiris, 140, 143. Padova numerals, 85. Padua, school of, 68. Pagad, 9. Paier of cards, 34. Pam, 297. Panfilio, Busoa cards, 78. Pantacles, 155. IlANOnAlA, Schopper and Amman, 225. Paper, 28, 311, 312. Papesse, la, 36, 37. Parliament, orders of, 305, 306-310. Patents granted to tax cards, 306-307. Patience, Jeu de, 121. Pavia, 1 1 5. Peerage cards, 299. Pelerinage de I'homme, 1 2. Pentagramma, 154. Perleta, la, 85. Perletta, la, 85. Perlimpimpim, 160. Persian cards, 29. Petitions, 311-313. Percy Society, 317, 319. Philippe le bon consultant une tireusc de cartes, 16. Pip cards, 20. Piquet, 23,45,49, 111, 123, Plague, great, 250. Plate, Delft dinner, 284. Plot, Gunpowder, 250. Meal- tub, 257. of Dangerfield and Cellier, 257. Popish, 251, 266-272. SUBJECTS. 359 Plot, Rye House, 257, 273. Warming-pan, 259. Poliohinello, 175. Politico-historical cai-ds, 245, 265. Pomegranate, 90. Pope quoted, 6, 98. Popes, the, 36, 37, 68, 69, 70, 135- Popish Plot, 251-272. Portugal, 123. Portuguese cards, 42, 43, 323. Positive, the, 153. Poulains, 16. Prag, cards of, 204-205. Pregi, li, 92. Press, Beldomie, 316. Primero, 51. Print after an illumination, 14, 15. after Van Eyck, 1 5. by Anthony of Worms, 16. Diirer, 74. Holbein, 16. Israel van Meckenen, 16, 227. Mitelli, 83, 84. Rembrandt, 185. Schaiifelin, 13. M. Z. (M. Zatzinger), 16, 227. Prints after Hayman, 295, 296. of the Italian school, 77, 84. Proclamations, 307, 310, 313. Prophets and sibyls, 69. Proverb cards, 300. Put, 52. Quadrille, 51, 53, 98, 296. Quatuor Reges, Game, 12. Question and answer cards, 292-293. Quilles, jeu de, 176. Rape of the Look, 98. Raoul de Presle, 12, 15. Rebellion of 1688, 263, 276. Reduction, 23. Reign of Queen Elizabeth, 246, 307. Rembrandt's etching, N". 206 of WUson, 185. Revells of Christendome, 283. Reversis, 51. Revolution, French, 45, Revue Archeologique, 7 1 . Revue des Deux Mondes, 48. Reynard le Contrefait, 1 2. Reynes Renommees, cards, 129, 130. Robino, 104. Ro, Ros, Rog, 143. Romancero Prangois, 1 1 2. Rota, 149. Rouen cards, 1 1 4. Round cards of Cologne, 32, 207. Round cards of India, 29, 331. Rowland, satires of, 28, 51, 314-319. Rowley's cards, 231. Roys de France, cards of, 1 29. Ruff, 51. Rump Parliament, 280. Russia, cards of, 323. Rye House Plot, 257, 273. Sacheverell, impeachment of, 264. cards relating to, 279. Sacred image of the cross, 149. Sacred monogram, 149. Saintre, Petit Jehan, 1 2. Sarafino, Busca cards, ^ 7 . Sarg, 47. Satan, 159. Satires, Rowland's, 28, 51, 314-319. Satirical cards, 137, 281. Scarabeus, 67. Schaffouse, cards of, 49. Schah, 332. Schaiifelin, print by, 13. Schellen, 47, 192. School, Florentine, 35. Scientiall cards, 298. Sculptures, Egyptian, 4. Semitic nations, 1 1 . Series, noteworthy, 341. Sermones M. Vincentii, 1 10. Seven bishops, 258, 274. Seven, the number, 9. Shakespere cards, 293. Sheepshanks cabinet, 211. Shields on cards, 49. " Shufling, cutting, and dealing," 320. Sibyls and prophets 69. Silesia, 39. SUk cards, 28. Size of cards, 29, 81, 122, 335. Slade collection, 76. Society of Antiquaries, 306. Percy, 317. Soleure cards, 49. SoHs, Virgil, cards by, 217. Sorti, le, di P. Marcolini, 70, 159. Sortilege, 16 1. Seta, knave, 34, 93. South Sea Bubble cards, 1 84. Spadille, 98. Spain, Queen of, 42, Spanish Armada cards, 265. cards, 30, 40, 41, 93. invasion of 1588, 247. 360 INDEX TO SUBJECTS. Spata, 242. Squares, magic, 1 S^^. Stamp duty, 52, 232, 286. State papers, 306. Statuta, Nova, 304. Statut&s, Maohlinia, 304. Pynson, 304. Stencils, 27. Stukely cards, 27, 193, 194. Stuttgart cards, 29, 47. Suit marks, 21, 32, 33, 192, 207, 324, 327. 331-335. German, 192, 207. Oriental, 331-335- Suits, 20, 44. rrench, 45. Sunday, cards on, 5. Switzerland, cards of, 49, 325. Sybylle cards, 1 74. Symbolism, 139-143- Table, chronological, 339. Knights of Round, 111. Tare, 19. Taroccare, 38. Tarocchi, 19, 38, 65, 73- Tarocchino, 19, 23, 36, 37, 80, 81, 86. Tarocohino di Mitelli, 81-84. Tar, 143. Tarot, U, 19, 143, 148, 149. Tarotee, 19. Tarots images, 157. Tarots, 9, 17, 19, 65 ; (Italian) 70, 78, 79; 107 (French); 109, 187 (Ger- man). Tarots- Jeux, 157. Tarots of South of France, 71, 107, 155- Tarots, version of 1470, 65, 75. Tarots, version of 1485, 73, 75. Tax on cards, 52, 286, 305, 311. Tchaturanga, 10. Temperancia (of 1485)) 74- Terminology, 29. Tetes, jeu k deux, 86. Tetragramma, 148, 154. Theraphinj, 149, 154. Thot, 109, 148. Tharot, 161. Thumin, 154. Tile cards, 28. Times newspaper, 233. Tortoise-shell cards, 28. Tracts, satirical, 317, 319-321- Trappola, 23,^39, 40, 189, 192. Trente-et-un, 57. Triomphes, 18. Triompho di Fanti, 70. Triumph of Maximilian, 51. Tu'chan, 9. Tuohim, 9. Tuttell's cards, 236. T. W., cards by, 208, 212. Typographia, Johnson's, 305. Ulm, 13. cards of, 195-202. printers, 195. Untermann, 47. Urim, 154. Vampires, jeu des, 176. Varia, 323. Venetian dialect, 66. Venetian tarots, 19, 21, 32, 65, 70, 77-79, 85, 155, 179. Venice, 36, 38, 78- Viennese designs, 288. Vishnu, avatars of, 56. Viterbo, 8, 9, 1 2. Volay, Jehan, cards, 93. Warming-pan Plot, 259. Weigel collection, 195- 198, 2 18. Wallis's emblematical cards, 29 1 . Whist, 51. Wesel, Telman von, cards by, 208- 213. Walpole's Anecdotes, 300, 297. Wooden cards, 28. Wood-engraving, 24. Works on cards, 65, 343. Worms, Ant. of, print by, 16. Wright, 14, 15. Wusseer, 331. Xylography, 27. Zatzinger, M., print by, 16, 227. Zero, 157. Zingari, 1 1 . Zintilomo, 66. CHISWICK PftESS : PRINTED BY WIIITTINGHAM AND WILKINS, TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE. DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE OF PLAYING AND OTHER CARDS IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM. (SUPPLEMENTARY PORTION.) ^HB arrangement adopted in describing the various playing and other cards in the national collection may be found detailed at pages 61 and 62 of the first part of this Catalogue. The contraction Bibl., accompanied by a number, in the fol- lowing pages, refers to the "Bibliography," vol. i., p. 343. PREFACE. FEW prefatory remarks are necessary on this supplementary portion of the " Descriptive Catalogue of Playing and other Cards." It was not until the first Division was ready for publication that the Trustees decided to issue this supplementary part, which should include an account of several items acquired by the Museum since the former part had been completed. It was also determined that advantage should be taken of this supplement to include in it a series of illustrations by which a fuller explanation of several of the topics dis- cussed in the first part of the Catalogue might be given and the reader's interest in them be thereby increased. This subsequent decision will account for the absence from the first part of aU reference to the commentary and plates in the present portion of the Catalogue. b vi PREFACE. The present supplement to the Catalogue has been executed by the author of the former portion, under the supervision of the Keeper of the Prints and Drawings. March, 1877. Geoege William Reid. TABLE OF CONTENTS. PART I. UROPEAN Playing-cards Italian Cards : Tarots Spanish Cards French Cards : Numerals Numerals Piquet With a seci French Cards : Amusing . I, Miscellanea Flemish Cards : Numerals German Cards oudary purpose English Cards : Tarots Numerals . With a secondary purpose Amusing . Numerals . Piquet With a secondary purpose Edu cational — ^instructive Amusing . Humorous Miscellanea Varia Oriental Playing-cards Hindustani „ Chinese „ PAGE 2 4 7 "4 14 «4 »5 18 »9 20 23 23 25 27 28 28 29 29 30 35 37 39 41 PART II. Commentary on and Description of the Plates Description of Tarots ...... „ of the MiSEEO and Maete of the Carte di Baldini Explication of the Symbols of the Numeral Suits . „ „ Suit Marks of Italy and Spain . „ „ „ of France and Germany . „ „ ,, of English Cards 47 • 49 • 59 6i, 62 . 62 . 63 67 viii TABLE OF CONTENTS. PAGK Animated Marks of Suits . . ....•• "9 Composite Marks of Suits ..... • 7 ' " Charta Lusoria," or Book of Cards. By Jobst Amman . . • 7 ' Early German Cards (circa a.d. 1440 f ).....• 73 The "Chatto Cards," or the Cards from the Binding of the " Sermones M. Vincentii" ■ 76 Hindustani Cards ......... 77 Chinese Cards . ........ 78 Early Representation of Playing at Cards . . . .79 The Sizes of Cards . . . 8o EUROPEAN PLAYING-CARDS. ITALIAN PLAYING-CAKDS. TAROTS. I. 256. LATTER THIED OP SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. FLORENCE. (MiNCHIATE.) , N imperfect sequence of combined tarots, i. e., an em- blematic series along with numerals, constituting a modification of the old Venetian tarots, known as the " Minchiate of Elorence." A perfect set of Minchiate playing-cards is composed of ninety-seven pieces, viz., forty-one tarots proper and fifty-six numerals. The present incomplete set includes twenty-six tarots proper and thirty-nine numerals ; it is hence deficient of thirty- two pieces. The " Minchiate " is alluded to in vol. i. p. 38 as the third tarots game, or that modification of the early Venetian tarocchi which became the national game of the Florentines and Tuscany, a game not any longer one of simple combina- tions like its parents, but one of arithmetical perplexity. An account of the " Valore di Tarocchi " in this complex amusement, and of the numerical combinations arising out of them, may be met with in the following treatise by a professor of mathematics at Rome: — " Giuochi delle INIinchiate, Ombre, Scacchi ed altri d'ingegno, Dedicati Alia lUma, ed Eccma Signora la Signora Principessa Donna Guilia Albani Chigi Da D. Francesco Saverio Brunetti Da Corinaldo. In Roma, per il Bemabo, e Lazzarini, 1747. Con licenza de' Superiori," 8vo, pp. 128. A copy of this uncommon work is in the Library of the British Museum, 7915 a a a. In the treatise by Brunetti may be found a full description of the way in which Minchiate should be played, the laws relative to the game, as also " Avvertimenti per giuocar bene." Following each notice of particular details is a " Nota Allegorica," with quotations from Latin and Italian writers. The Nota Allegorica to the " Capo Primo " on the " Mazzo delle Carte " is as follows : — "This extensive series of cards may be likened to the catastrophes and 4 ITALIAN. casualties of mankind ; the whole is analogous to the Human race, which lives mixed up together on this earth. The four suits represent the four early monarchies of the Assyrians or Chaldeans, which commenced with Ninus, the father-in-law of Semiramidis, in the year of the world 1944, contemporaneously with Deborah, and ended with Darius Medus, the son of Astiagus, contem- poraneous with Daniel, in the year of the world 3450. The second monarchy of the Persians commenced with Cyrus, the nephew of the sister of the before- mentioned Darius, and ended with Darius Codomanus, who was conquered by Alexander the Great. With the latter commenced and finished the third monarchy of the Greeks, since the latter were afterwards broken up into several kingdoms. These latter gradually succumbed to the Roman power, which culminated gloriously in the fourth monarchy." " The forty tarocchi, which are superior to or ' take ' all the other suits, may be likened to the fifth universal monarchy, which brought together every nation under its segis. We have at last the ' Matto ' which responds to every other card, but never takes nor can be taken unless all be lost. Perhaps we should bear in mind that the hviman race became mad from its origin ; and that, never- theless, fools will last to the end of the world, when more men will not be pro- duced any longer. Stultortim plena sunt omnia (Cic. Ep. ix.)." " I have desired to point out the above in order that, with the opportunity of playing Minchiate, those engaged in it should desire to obtain a knowledge of his- tory and above all of chronology, because nescire quod anteaquam natus sis acci- derit, id est semper esse puerum. Cic. in Oratore." (Brunetti, op. cit. p. 15.) There is a tradition that the game of Minchiate was invented at Sienna by Michael Angelo to teach young persons arithmetic, but that it did not become fashionable until the time of Pope Innocent the Tenth (1644 a.d.), whose portrait is that of the Pope of these cards. (Gough, in " Archseologia," vol. viii. p. 172.) In the " Regole Generali del Giuoco delle Minchiate," etc., a work to be presently alluded to, is the following statement : — " Ebbe, questo Giuoco a sua prima origine in una conversazione de nobili Cittadini Piorentini che studiosi nell' aritmetioa lo inventarono per occuparsi con util diletto ncU' ora di loro recreazione." The precise origin of the term Minchiate is not known, but is probably from the old Italian word Menchia, signifying game, sport, etc. It was obligingly pointed out to the author by C. Knight Watson, Esq., of the Society of Antiqua- ries, that in the old " Vocabolario Italiano e Inglese," by Florio, London, 1659, the name of the game is spelt Menchiatte. Florio gives also Menchia, game, some sport, etc. In more recent dic- tionaries the word is always spelt Minchiate. In the latter part of the year 1803 a paper was read at the Society of Anti- quaries by Mr. J. Smith, describing " Minchiate," who, at the same time presented the Society with a pack of the cards. In this paper, which may be found in the fifteenth volume of the " Archa3ologia " (for 1 806), p. 1 40, Mr. Smith observes : — " I have the honour to present to the Society a complete set of Minchiate cards such as have been long in use at Florence, and with it a small treatise, in the Italian language, containing the rules of the game and directions for playing it, both of which I have brought from the Continent some years ago, and have had them by me ever since. " There is no game on the cards of which I have any Imowledge that requires closer attention, a more ready talent for figures, or greater exercise of the memory than this of Minchiate. It is held in high estimation among the fashionable circles in Tuscany, where almost everybody exclaims in the language of the treatise, ' E senza dubbio il piii nobile di tutti i Giuochi che slensi mai potuti inventare coUe carte,' " Opportunity has been aflfordcd the author of examining Mi\ Smith's gift to TAROTS. s the Society. He has found the set of cards to be complete aud in good condition, and the little work accompanying it to bear the following title : — " Regole Generali del Giuoco delle IMinchiato con Diversi Istrnzioni brevi, e facili per bene imparare a giuocarlo, " In Firenze mdcclxxxi. " NeUa Stamperia Vanni e Tofani. Con Approvazione. "A Spese de Vlncenzio Landi." (8vo, pp. 70.) The characteristics of the Florentine Minchiate may be thus described: — In place of the twenty-two atutti of the old Venetian sequence there are forty-one tarots proper, i.e., nineteen of the older series, or what are equivalent to them, and twenty-two additional tarots, including the matto or fuu. The chief modifications of the old Venetian sequences are as follows, tIz. : the figure of Le Pape (No. v.) is ^vithdrawn ; La Papesse (No. ii.) becomes " Le Grand Due " ; V Imperatrise (No. iii.) and U Empereur (No. iv.) represent the " Emperor of the West '' and the " Emperor of the East " respectively ; L^Hermite (No. ix.) becomes an old man upon crutches (Ze Sablier No. xi.), having behind him a star and above his shoulder an hour-glass transfixed by an arrow ; while La Maison Dieu on la Foudre (No. xvi.) is discarded, or, perhaps, is metamorphosed into VEnfer (No. xv.). VEtoilc (No. xvii.). La Lune (No. xviii.), Le Soleil (No. xix.), and Le Mojide (No. xxi.), ai'e retained. To this slight modification of the old Venetian tarots are added the three theological Virtvxes — Faith (No. xviii.), Hope (No. xvi.), and Charity (No. xix). Other additional pieces are, one of the four cardinal virtues, Prudence (No. x^ni.) ; the four elements of the ancient philosophers, as Fire (No. XX.), Wafer (No. xxi.). Earth (No. xxii.), Air (No. xxiii.) ; the twelve signs of the Zodiac (Nos. xxiv. to xxxv.) ; the remainder of the series concluding with the Star, the Moon, the Sun, the World, and La Renommee. A peculiarity of the emblematic series in the Minchiate sequence is that the cards do not bear any titles nor names below the subjects represented on them, as they are borne in the other tarots sets. The subjects can be known by their attributes only. The cards are numbered above in Roman numerals. Another characteristic of the Minchiate tarots is that the concluding eight of the series — viz., the Lion (No. xxxiii.), the Bull (No. xxxiv.), the Twins (No. XXXV.), the Star, the Moon, the Sun, the World, and La Renommee — have the designs on them relieved from a red or rose-colom-ed gi'ound. The numeral series consists of four suits of fourteen cards each suit, as in the other tarots sequences. Here, as in the case of the emblematic series, certain peculiarities may be observed. The cavalli of the court-cards, or "honours,'' are chimeric or centaur-like ficmres, composed of human busts, on equine or other trunks with fantastic tails. The fanti, or valets, are warriors in the suits of spade and lastoni, and fantiglie, or servants, in those of coppe and danari. The suit-marks of danari on the pip-cards have heads in their fields, with the exception of the nine, on which are bu-ds. In spade the swords are straight and pointed for thrusting with, except as regards the cavallo and fante, whose weapons are scimitars. In the suit of spade particularly the designer of the Minchiate variation has placed various animals, such as cats, elephants, monkeys, and other creatures, with now and then objects, such as stars, etc., on the faces of the cards, as ornamental additions. These would appear to be proper to the Minchiate pieces, since they may be seen both on the older and more recent versions. Breitkopf would appear, from an observation he makes ("Versuch," etc., p. 27, note m), to award to the Neapolitans the increase of the old tarots sequence to the number of ninety-seven pieces, as found in the present Mmchiate ; and though he refers to the " Regole Generali del Giuoco delle Mmchiate," published 6 ITALIAN. at Florence in 1781, and before alluded to, the author did not observe therein any warranty for such award while examining this little treatise at the Society of Antiquaries. The same writer observes, also, that at Munich a modification of the series might be met with, in which the \>a,j_ X 2— in.] [Backs decorated.] GERMAN. G. 277. FIRST QUARTER OP NINETEENTH CENTURY. BERLIN. PACK of fifty-two numerals having French suit-marks. The figure-cards have on them busts printed double and in reverse. The designs are of semi-historic costume character, and are much inferior to those of the previously described sequence, as are also the technic and colouring. The valet of clubs bears on his right arm an oval shield, having on it the Prussian eagle, around which is the motto, " Unter seinem Schutzc sind wir sicher." On the valet of hearts is the address, " F. G. B. in Berlin." The backs of these cards are marked with rows of stars printed in red. [33 X 2^ in.] [Backs decorated.] G. 278. FIRST QUARTER OF NINETEENTH CENTURY. LEIPZIG. PACK of fifty-two numerals of the suits spades, hearts, diamonds, and clubs. The coate-cards have on them whole-length costume figures of good design and of careful technic and colour. The valets of the suits are soldiers in armour bearing partisans. The valet of clubs points with the index finger of his right hand downwards to an oval shield, on which is inscribed, " Industrie Comptoir Leipzig." The " honours " have their titles, viz., roi, dame, valet, engraved at the lower left-hand corners of the cards. The dames are dancing females with wreaths and flowing scarves. The kings are crowned, and have on long trailing robes. The backs of these cards are marked with alternate rows of stars and perpen- dicular bars, printed in a blue colour. [3 8" X 2|-'iu.] [Backs decorated.] AMUSING. 23 CARDS WITH A SECONDARY PURPOSE. AMUSING. G. 279. FIRST QUARTER OF NINETEENTH CENTURY. TUBINGEN. SERIES of fifty-two numerals, contained in a book of 102 pages, which has on the title-page the following inscription : " Karten- Almanach, Tiibingen in der J. G-. Cotta'schen Buchhaudlung, 1810." The marks of the suits are cceurs, treffel, pick, and karo, i.e., hearts, clubs, spades, and diamonds. Each ordinary numeral consists of a more or less humorous composition of several figures connected with the military or with subjects of domestic life. The marks of the suits are so placed over these designs as to fit in, as it were, naturally to particular portions of the body, and as if forming parts of the original design. The engraving is executed in a half stippled and line manner, and is uncoloured ; the marks of the suits hearts and diamonds only are coloured. The " honours " are placed together at the end of the volume, and represent whole-length figures, which travesty the heroes and heroines of ancient mythology. The king of clubs has been removed from its natural place in the sequence to form a frontispiece to the book, and represents a travesty of Jupiter, smoking, seated in an ai-m-chair, and wearing a large wig. The dame of this suit is Juno, with parasol and feathers, and the valet is Momus, or an enraged author, holding open a book, on which may be read, " Schlag ihm nur todt den Hund, er ist ein liecenseur." The title of the honour is placed at one of the upper corners of the piece, and the mark of the suit at the other corner. Below the designs are the names of the characters travestied, some of which are so effected in a most ludicrous manner. On the valet of karo, which concludes the series, is represented Paris as a capering French dancing-master, with cocked hat and fiddle under his arms. Accompanying each cardpiece is a humorous poem or description in prose connected with the pictorial composition opposite. At p. 78 of the volume the pip -numerals finish with the ten of karo, and its description. Following these are the honom-s, accompanied by " Neue Mythologische Briefe an EmUie," in which some of the chief points in the histories of the Olympian heroes here burlesqued are jocosely referred to. The present series of amusing playing-cards is interesting, from its being the fifth issue of the work once well known as " Cotta's Card Almanack." The latter was referred to at p. 224 of the first volume, where the first issue in 1806 is described (Gr. 162). The almanack now under consideration is dedicated to "Ihrer Majestat 24 GERMAN. Louisen Koniginn von Preussen seiner Erhabenen Landes Mvitter, in tieister Elu'furclit gewidmet von G. Reiubeck." Following tte dedication is a poem relating how " Jokus und Phantasus" wove a wreath of flowers, and bestowed it on a poet, who places it, in the form of the present work, at the feet of Louisa. A preface follows, to this purport : — " The Card Almanack may boast of having received for four years the dis- tinguished favour of the public. The witty ideas, so ingeniously developed and embodied by female hands, deserved this encouragement. On the present oc- casion, the fifth yearly issue, the work appears under another form, and by other hands. That which the designer, ' Herr Osiander in Tiibingen,' evolved, with rich, if often wayward fancy, from the simple card-marks, the poet under- took to describe in his own way. Designer and poet worked, in other respects, quite independent of each other. As the latter received the designs from the artist as soon as they were ready, without any understanding with him, it remained free to the genius of the writer to make out of them what he could, as well as to infuse into them any fancy of his own. Thus originated this ' quod libet,' which the author commits in full trust to the forbearance of the public. " The whole should not be regarded otherwise than as an amusing game of jest and fancy, and, indeed, of that kind, in its own way, which bonis rimes are in theirs. Not any higher credit is to be attributed to the author. The poet, therefore, entreats that he be not judged by any other standard ; in particular he deprecates any comparison Avith Lichtenberg's celebrated commentary to Hogarth's engravings, with which the present work, either as regards matter or object, has nothing in common, and he declares — since, alas ! such declarations are requisite in our own times — that he himself is determined not to enter the lists with such a master. What would alone entitle him to do otherwise he knows better, perhaps, than many who would impose on him such a comparison. , . . The plates have been engraved by Herr Bissell, in Manheim." The volume consists of 102 duodecimo pages, independent of the card- pieces. [4|- X 3f in.] [Backs plain.] ENGLISH PLAYING-CARDS. NUMERALS. E. 280. FIRST QUARTER OF NINETEENTH CENTURY. LONDON. PACK of fifty-two numerals of the usual suits, viz., spades, diamonds, clubs, and hearts. The figure-cards have on them busts of the conventional type, printed double and in reverse. The marks of the suits are modified slightly in desio-n. Around the ordinary sign of the spade, at the sixteenth of an inch distance from it, runs a black Hue, following the form of the symbol itself, a narrow white space being thus preserved between the two. In the suit of diamonds there is a rather small white mark of the suit in the centre of a larger red one. In clubs there is a small white mark of the suit enclosed within a larger black one. In hearts there is an outside line around the symbol, as in the suit of spades. The designs on the aces bear reference to the four chief orders of knighthood in this country. The ace of spades bears the sign of the suit within the insignia and mottoes of the Order of the Garter, " Honi . Soit . qui . Mal . y . pense ; " below which is the motto, "DiEu ET MoN Droit." The date of the year, 1344, in which the first step was made by Edward III. towards founding the Order, is placed below the mark of the suit, the Order being definitely constituted a.d. 1 349. On the ace of spades are also the inscriptions : " G iii. Hex," " Sixpence additional Duty " (repeated three times), " T. Wheeler, No. 56." On the ace of diamonds the mark of the suit is surrounded by the insignia and motto of the Order of the Bath, " Teia Juncta in Uno," below which is the date 1 399, and " Ich dien." This Order, though stated to be of early origin, was for- mally constituted only by Henry IV. two days previous to his coronation in the Tower. He conferred the honour of fellowship upon forty-six esquires who had watched the night before and had bathed. After the coronation of Charles II. the Order became neglected, but was revived by George I., a.d. 1 725. On the ace of clubs the Order of the Thistle is represented with its motto, 26 ENGLISH. " Nemo me impune lacessit." Below is the date of its revival by Queen Anne, viz., 1703. 1 • 1 ^ The Order is considered to have been of very ancient date, as early, incleea, as the year 800 ; but its usual recognition is only from the year 154O, when James V. definitely founded it. After the death of James, in 1 542, the Order was discontinued. It was renewed by James VII., King of Scotland, and II. of Eng- land in the year 1687, increased by Queen Anne in 1703, and again augmented by George IV. in 1827. On this cardpiece— the ace of spades— is also the inscription, " Ludlow and C. Patent Knight's Cards," with the date below, " 1 800." On the ace of hearts are the insignia and motto of the Order of St. Patrick, " Quis Seperabit," and the date below of 1 783. This was an Order instituted by George III. m 1 783, and in 1 784 the establishment of the St. Patrick Benevolent Society of London was effected. The Order was increased in the years 1821,1831, and 1 833. The Prmee of Wales was installed a Knight of the Order in April, 1 868. The designs, particularly of the aces, have been carefully engi-aved, but the colouring of the figure-cards is opaque and heavy. A wrapper, with duty stamp on it, accompanies the sequence. On one face is a bust of the "Great Mogul," below which is the address of'Thos. Wheeler, from Gibson, No. 27, opposite Fetter Lane, Holborn, London." The duty stamp of sixpence has been affixed on the front of the Great Mogul. On the other face of the wrapper is an ornamental design printed in red and inscribed, "Stamp Office." "£lO penalty selling any playing-cards unlabelled. i£20 penalty selling or buying any Label or Wrapper used before." The backs of these cards are quite plain, but the edges are coloured green. The manvifactui-e is good. [3t X 2iin.] " [Backs plain.] E. 281. FIRST QUARTER OF NINETEENTH CENTURY. LONDON. PACK of fifty-two numerals of the several suits, spades, hearts, diamonds, and clubs,. On the coate-cards, or " honours," are whole-length figures of the conventional kind. The ace of spades bears the duty stamp of " George iii. Rex," and the number 10. The execution of the figure-cards is of an inferior character. A peculiarity of these cards is the relative small size of the figures on the honours. They are barely 2|- of an inch high by li in. wide, and are contained within a clear border of |- of an inch wide. An engraved wrapper accompanies the pack. On the former is a bust of the " Great Mogul," having below the address of " Hall and Bancks, Card-Makers to her Majesty and their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess of Wales, No. 23 Piccadilly London." A duty stamp of sixpence has been placed over the bust of the Great Mogul. On one end of the wrapper is the warning, "£lO Penalty selling any playing-cards unlabelled, £20 Penalty selling or buying any Label or Wrapper used before." [3|- X 2f in.] [Backs plain.] PIQUET. 27 E. 282. LAST QUARTER OP NINETEENTH CENTURY. LONDON. SINGLE card — tlie three of hearts — from a numeral series of fifty- two pieces. It serves as a specimen of a variety of the oniamental devices recently introduced for the backs of playing-cards. In the middle of the card, on the verso, is a bust of Shakespeare, placed within a double and acuminated oval frame. The points of the external frame nearly touch the upper and lower edges of the card. Between the inner and outer frames are small designs of the seven ages of man, with their titles, and on a mark of the suit of spades at the bottom is inscribed, " We are all players." Within the lines of the outer framework or oval border may be read — •' All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players, " They have their exits and their entrances, and one man in his time plays many parts." Leaves and flowers of ornamental character form parts of the general design. All is printed in black and red, on a yellow ground. The fabrication and lissage are good, but such adornments will not meet with the patronage of regular card-players. (See vol. i. p. .52.) [3|- X 2^ in.] [Backs decorated.] PIQUET. E. 283. FIRST QUARTER OF NINETEENTH CENTURY. LONDON. ' PIQUET set of cards of English manufacture. The pack consists of thirty-two numerals of the suits hearts, clubs, spades, and diamonds. In accordance with the game of piquet, the two, three, four, five, and six of each suit are suppressed. (Vol. i. p. 45.) The coate-cards have on them whole-length figures of the conventional kind, and of a like size, character, and execution as those of E. 281, or even inferior to them. Around the mai'k of the suit on the ace of spades are a garter and crown. Within the former is inscribed, " Duty — VI. Pence." [3f X 2| in.] [Backs plain.] 28 ENGLISH. CARDS WITH A SECONDARY PURPOSE. EDUCATIONAL, INSTRUCTIVE. E. 284. LAST QUARTER OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. LONDON. (Geographic.) ^. SERIES of fifty-two cardpieces of the suits spades, clubs, hearts, and diamonds. This set is intended to afford instruction in geography and ethnography. Each card is occupied with a general account of various portions of the earth's surface. At the upper left-hand corner of each piece, in a space about ^ of an inch square, is the mark of the suit, in its proper colour, and having stamped on it, in Arabic numerals, the value of the particular card. The mark on the ace of each suit bears the name of that quarter of the globe which is described on the cards of the particular suit to which the ace belongs. The figure-cards, or " honours," are indicated by the letters J, Q, and K, for Jack, Queen, and King, placed on the marks of the suits. These marks have also ornaments, as crowns, flowers, etc., above and below them. A narrow ornamental border or edging printed in the colour of the suit runs round each cai-d. Accompanying the pack is a supplementary cardpiece explanatory of the intention of the series. It bears the following inscription: — " A Systematical Compendium of Geography on the face of 52 cards." The four quarters of the globe are thus arranged: — " Asia under Spades ; Africa under Clubs ; Europe under Hearts, and America under Diamonds. " The Cards with the names of the quarters in the pips give an account of each .and take the rank of Aces ; those of kings have a K in the pips and contain the Kingdoms, to which figures are annexed referring to cards of the same suit (rank- ing according to their number) which describe them ; the Q and J cards rank as Queens and Jacks or Knaves, and contain all the Islands. " If the reader wishes to find any Island, if in Asia look on the Q and J of Spades ; if in Africa look on the Q and J of Clubs, and so of the others. " Note. — The kingdoms between two lines on the K cards are described on those cards of the same suit which the figures denote— for instance, China on the K of Spades has 2 and 3 ; its description begins on 2 (where Tartary ends) and finishes on 3. Turkey in Asia with its provinces have 8, g, and 10. See 8, 9 and 10. Guinea and its divisions on the K of Clubs have 8 and 9, look on those numbers of that suit. Sjpain and Portugal on the K of Hearts have 6, look on 6, and so of all the other kingdoms. " B stands for bounded ; N for north, &c. ; O for ocean ; R for river ; M for miles. " Entered as the Act directs, February 17...." [31- X 2i in.] [Backs plain.] , AMUSING—HUMOROUS. 29 AMUSING. E. 285. FffiST QUAKTER OP NINETEENTH CENTURY. LONDON? WENTY-FOUR numeral-cards of the suits diamonds, hearts, and clubs. Of these suits only the aces, the twos, threes, fours, fives, sLxes, sevens, and eights are present. In the middle of each cardpiece is a large X nearly an inch square, stamped in a red colour. The backs of the cards are both undecorated and uncoloured. Of the nature of the game intended to be played with these cai-ds, and as to whether the series is complete or not, we are ignorant. It is assumed the former must have been of the amusing character. [31- X 2i in,] [Backs plain.] HUMOROUS. E. 286. FIRST QUARTER OF NINETEENTH CENTURY. LONDON. SERIES of forty-eight numerals from a sequence of fifty-two cards of the suits hearts, diamonds, spades, and clubs. The pieces absent are the five of clubs, tlie eight, ten, and queen of spades. These cards are of a half-jocose, half-satirical character. On each piece are designs of various kinds treated in a humorous manner and associated with descriptions, exclamations, etc. The marks of the suits are made to fit into particular portions of the bodies of the figures. Thus on the upper part of the four of hearts is a gentleman bowing like a dancing-master to a lady opposite. He is represented as saying, " Madam, I am eternally yours." The lady replies, " Are you in earnest, Sir ?" Below is the bust of a male person, who exclaims to that of a lady hiding her face with a fan, " Angels are painted fair, to look like you." The lady replies, " Spare my blushes." On the seven of clubs is represented " Miss Pricilla Prickfinger, Milliner and Fancy-dress maker," etc., with three of her young ladies at work. Miss Priscilla herself appears to be engaged on a" pair of man's small-clothes. A pug-dog is seated on the work-table. On the six of spades is represented the " Englishman in Paris." A lady and gentleman are at dinner in a restaurant. The gentleman holds up a frog on Ms fork and addresses a waiter, who replies, " lis sont les veritables grenouflles monsieur." " Green owls," replies the gentleman ; " D c they're nothing but frogs." 30 ENGLISH. It is not unlikely that the cards here wanting to complete the set had on them designs of more than equivocal character, and were destroyed by a former pos- sessor on account of that circumstance. It is assumed that this may have been the case from the fact that the four of spades had been torn in six pieces, and the design on it is such as we have stated. The designs are in general of a common description, except those on the figure-cards, which are superior in every respect. On the latter are whole-length figures of the conventional form, with the countenances made humorous. In the suits diamonds and hearts, the faces remaui human but laughable. In the suit clubs, the knave has the face of a ram, the queen the head of a parrot (?), and the king the head of a bull. In spades, the knave has the head of a dog, and the king that of an ape. Each figure on the coate-cards is enclosed within a border, ornamented with small designs of pip and figure-cards. The marks of the suits on many of the higher pip-cards remain uncoloured. Some of the pieces bear the name of " Cowell " at the bottom, as that of the etcher of the compositions. [3f X 2|- in.] [Backs plain.] MISCELLANEA. E. 287. SECOND HALF OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. LONDON. SMALL octavo volume of fifteen printed pages, and seventy-five en- gravings, having on the title-page the following inscription : " A Political and Satyrical History of the years 1756 and 1757. In a series of Seventy-five Humorous and Entertaining Prints, containing All the most remarkable Transactions, Characters, and Caricaturas of those two memorable Years. To which is annexed an explanatory Account or Key to every Print which renders the whole full and significant. The Second Edition. London : Printed for E. Morris, near St. Paul's." Among the engravings in this volume, plates 7i '4i '5^ 26, and 38 have on them satirical designs under the guise of cards. On plate 7 is represented, according to the " Explanation ": — " A remarkable Caricatura compounded of several Species, being by some sup- posed to be a Sea-Calf, by others, a Sea Lion ; after having been tossed about on its native Element for some Years it was cast ashore on a gaming Island, where it was so captivated with Cards and Dice, that it was Naturalized, commenced g'ome- ster, and fixed upon the Island ever since." On the plate above the figure is inscribed, " The Sea Lyon ; " below, " Mores Homines." On the ground lie several figure-cards. On plate 14 is the knave of spades, having below the title, " Mons'' Dupe.'' Along the bottom of the piece run three fleurs-de-lis. According to the " ex- planation," this plate " expresses by the Flower de Luce how much the carica- tura was connected with our enemies, and was even a dupe to them against the interest of his country." MISCELLANEA. 31 On plate 1 5 is the knave of hearts with a fox's head, having below the title, " j\Ions' Surecard." This figure " mfers by the sharpness of the Nose that Craft and Subtilty that is natural to creatm-es of a similar kind known by the name of Foxes, and is here pointed out as a k e." On plate 26 is the knave of clubs, having inscribed below, " Null Marriage." " This caricatura was esteemed the most atrocious knave in the Pack and the worst of the black sort.'^ On plate 38 is the knave of diamonds, having above, " IKc niger est;'' below, " Acapulca." " This caricatura's propensity to gaming tells us at once how valuable he must be to a shipwrected state, and that he deserves (like a drunken pilot in a storm) to be thrown overboard to make room for one of clearer brains and more integrity." The last plate (75) in this volume represents " The true Patriot," and is dedicated " To the R' Hon'''" the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Common Council of the City of London " " by their humb" servants Darby and Edwards " " To be had at the Acorn facing Hungerford Strand." E. 288. SECOND HALF OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. LONDON. SMALL octavo volume of eight printed pages and twenty-five en- gravings, having on the title-page the following inscription : — " A political and Satyrical History of the Years 1758 and 1 7 59 Li a series of Twenty-five Humorous and Entertaining Prints containing all the most remarkable Transactions Characters and Caricaturas of those two memorable years. To which is annexed an explanatory Account or Key to every Print which i-enders the whole full and significant. "Part II. London. Printed for E JMorris near S' Paul's.'' The plates in this volume are numbered so as to follow in sequence those of the work last described (B. 287). They commence therefore with No. 76, and end with No. 100. Plates 79, 80, and 90, convey their satire under the guise of cards. On plate 79-are two knaves of clubs as supporters to a shield of armorial bearings, the components of which are dice and dice-boxes on a chevron, two cards (aces of hearts and diamonds) in chief, one card (ace of spades) in base. The coat is an arm with dice-box in hand rising from a coronet. The motto is " Claret," " Cogit," " Amor," " Nummi." The " explanation " (p. 4) is as follows: — "The arms of two great gamesters well-known at Arthurs and the Cocoa-tree.'" On plate 80 are "The court-cards or all trumps 1756," under the guise of the twelve figure-cards of the ordinary numerals. From the mouth of each figure proceeds an exclamation : such as, " I'll have England," from the French king, the king of clubs ; and " I'll stick to France," from the king of Spain, or the king of diamonds. Below each figure is the title of the person intended to be repre- sented. The "explanation" of this plate is the following: — "The different resolutions of the great personages of that time is here represented according to the appearance they then made in the aff'airs of Europe." On plate 90 are "the court-cards of 1759, a heart is trumps, and has won 32 ENGLISH. the game." . The figures are the twelve " honours " of a pack of cards, designed on the same principle as are those on plate 8o. Of the present it is remarked in the " explanation " : " The labels and characters here represented are sufficient to explain the meaning of the print with the least application " (p. 6). The series terminates with an engraving described below : " 'Tis a Christians duty to show mercy to his enemys." For a, full accovmt of the literary and politico-satirical history of these works (E. 287, E. 288) the reader should refer to the third volume of the Catalogue of " Political and Personal Satires," " The .2 H, H's" (No. 1), March, 1756, by Mr. Frederic George Stephens. It may be remarked here, however, that Mr. Stephens points out that there are copies of two earlier editions of the work now described in the general library, and two more versions occur in the Grenville Library, the latter includ- ing a series of copies from the engravings on new plates, of which last there is an imperfect series in the Print Room. Reference should be made also to the first volume of the present Catalogue on Playing-cards, where at p. 285, E. 202, are described some prints of cardpieces which seem to be re-engraved versions of some of the pieces connected with the present series (E. 287, E. 288). V A R I A. V A E I A. V. 289. MEDDLE OF FIFTEENTH CENTURY? GERMANY. {Number 305 of the Weigel Collection, and now in the British Museum. German prints from metal in relief and wood.) Early ?MONG the rare and interesting examples of early German cuts obtained at the sale of the Weigel collection, at Leipzig, in 1872, was the piece marked No. 305 in the large work of Weigel and Zestermann,' and in the sale catalogue. This piece bears on it a design of the Holy Cross, and cipher "y h s" — in hoc signo, or, Jesus Hominum Salvatorf treated in a floriated ornamental manner. - The cross is in the middle of the composition, and forms the upright portion of the letter " h " ; on the left of the latter is a large " y", and on the right an "s". Above the cross is a large crown, from which, at the upper part, spring three branches, bearing at their extremities appendages of an acorn-like character. The centre and shortest of these branches bears three glands, the two others one acorn each. Other two branches run out from beneath the crown, having acorns at their ends. The latter branches are longer than the upper ones, and are each looped once. Below the cross and cipher is an inverted lily (?), embedded in much orna- mental leaf-work. The whole composition is enclosed within a double-lined border, and has been coloured. The border and crown are yellow, the cross crimson-madder, the letters crimson-madder, yellow, and green. " These colours point to Swabia. The paper has not any water-mai"k. The piece was produced probably towards the middle of the fifteenth century — at least, the style and treatment of the ornamental portions tend to such an inference." " The decoration of the crown with eicheln (glands, acorns) is peculiar, such Las not previously come before us on analogous prints, and the symbolic meaning of which, in relation to the general design, is less clear and apparent than would have been that of ordinary leaf-work employed in its place. Perhaps it may be inferred from this that we, have here to do, not simply with a representation of the * Die Anfange der Druckerkunst in Bild und Schrift. Leipzig, 1866. Vol. ii. P- 175- 36 VARIA. religions symbols, but with a playing-card for the ecclesiastical orders, other examples of such cards being present in our collection. The eicheln would then not appear out of place, and would simply illustrate the suit of "glands m German playing-cards." (Op. cit.) The view here taken by Weigel we find difficult of acceptation. In the first place, the size of the piece, though not positively negativing it, is certainly against it; in the second place, a gold-thread, or otherwise composed acorn-like ornament, is an old and still frequent termination to decorative bands and cords. (Vol. i. p. 54.) [8 X Si in.] [Backs plain.] V. 290. PEN and ink facsimile drawing of the piece numbered 199, p. 88, in Wilson's "Catalogue Raisonne of the Select Engravings of an Amateur." London, mdcocxxviii. The same piece, a five numeral-card, may be found represented on plate 91 in the " Jeux de Cartes Tarots," etc., of the Bibliophiles Franqais. (Bibl. 2.) The character and relations of this cai-dpiece have been previously alluded to in vol. i. p. 214, G. 148. V- 291. LAST QUARTER OP SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. LONDON. s-T pp. 234 and 235 of the first volume are described (E. 174, E. 175) two series of the educational and instructive cards issued by John Seller. These series are of a grammatical character. The present volume is " A Book of Geography, shewing all the Empires, Monar- chies, Kingdoms, Regions, Dominions, Principalities, and Countries in the whole World. By John Seller, Hydrographer to the King, and are sold at his House at the Hermitage at Wapping." It is presumed that this book of cards with a secondary purpose is composed of " the geographical cards " alluded to in the advertisement quoted under E. 1 7 5, vol. i. p. 235. Appended to the geographic cardpleces are several tables, almanacks, astronomic diagrams, and representations of the surface of the moon. This volume came into the possession of the Museum too late to admit of its insertion and full description in the proper place. ORIENTAL PLAYING-CARDS. '0 ORIENTAL PLAYING-CARDS. HINDUSTANI. O. H. 292. PLACE AIsTD DATE UKCEKTAIN. SEQUENCE of ninety cii'cular cards from a series appa- rently of ninety-six pieces. There are three suits of colours, viz., red, yellow, and green. These colours in different shades form the grounds of the various cardpieces. The red and green suits have each three series, ranks, or grades of colour, viz., a chocolate-red, a deep red, and a light red colour ; a deep green, a medium green, and a light green colour. The yellow suit has but two grades, or ranks, viz., an orange-yellow and a light yellow colour. Each of the eight suits should have normally ten pip or point numerals, and two figure-cards, or " honours." There being, as in the set described in vol. i. p. 33 •) O. H. 250, eight suits of twelve cards each suit. In the present set five of the suits are incomplete in their numbers, and in two there are duplicates apparently by mistake. Thus, e. g., the deep green-coloured rank of the green suit wants the one, or ace, and there are in it two seated schahs, or kino-s, instead of one king and one wusseer. It is extremely diflicnlt to define the nature of the symbols on the various ranks of the coloured suits. The symbols here are totally different to those in O. H. 250. The fiirst rank (chocolate) of the red suit has a small green disc with three dark spots on it, and a series of white spots below it, or reversed it may be likened to a purse, the white spots representing the open and beaded mouth. The second rank (deep) of the red suit has a long leaf, or tulwar or sword, for its sign ; while the third rank (light red) has a parallelogram with dots, and a curved line on it, as if to represent writing. In the orange rank of the yellow suit the symbol, or mark, is a small green oval body, having one white and two dark spots on it ; in the light ycUow rank of this suit it is a man's head and shoulders. In the deep-coloured rank of the green suit the mark is a circular white spot — ^perhaps silver coin. There is a three in lieu of an ace, or one, and a second schah in place of a vmsseer. In the second rank of the green suit the ten is wanting. The wusseer is mounted on a camel. In the third rank, or light green suit, the number of pieces is complete. Both wusseer and schah are mounted on tigers running towards the left hand. The 40 HIND US TA NI. schah has a full radiant sunlike face, but with profile eyes. On the latter pecu- liarity, see Merlin, Bibl. 6, p. 1 24. On comparing the present set with the one previously described (vol. i. p. 331, O. H. 250) it may be observed that the more important details con- nected with the figure-cards, or honours, are alike. Thus, in each set, the schah is seated under a sort of canopy and attended by slaves in the three red ranks. In each set the schah of the light yellow rank is mounted on an ele- phant, and in the light green rank of each set he is a radiant sun, also mounted. In the second rank (medium green) of this suit the sign may be intended for a flower (?), and in the light green rank it represents, perhaps, a gold coin or money. In connection with the marks or symbols in the suits of these cards, the observations of Mr. Chatto (Bibl. 4, pp. 35, 46-50) may be referred to with advantage. In the chocolate-red rank the pieces here present are the one, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, and ten point-cards, and two figure-cards, or honours, viz., a mounted wusseer galloping towards the left, and a seated schah, or king. In the second rank of the red suit the pieces present are the one, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, and ten numerals, and the two figure-cards, or honours, a mounted wusseer and seated schah. In the light red rank the number of pieces is complete — ten pip-cards and two honours. In the orange rank of the yellow suit the six and seven pip-pieces are wanting. In the second rank (light yellow) of this suit the number is entire, and the schah is not seated in the usual way, but is mounted on an elephant. In the first rank (light) of the green suit there are twelve pieces, and both schah and wusseer are mounted on tigers. In each set the vmsseer is mounted on a horse in the three red and in the two yellow ranks, while in the medium green he is on a camel, and in the light green on a tiger. The present cards are circular in form, as are those of O. H. 250, but ai-e of larger diameter. They appear to be made of a similar material, or else of canvas, are painted red on the backs, and are highly varnished or lacquered on both faces. The designs and execution of the present set are inferior to those of O. H. 250. These cards are contained in a box of corresponding character to that of O. H. 250. [2|- in. in diameter.] [Backs coloured.] CHINESE. O. C. 293. NINETEENTH CENTURY. CHINA. SERIES of cards consisting of thirty pieces, probably complete. Tliere appear to be five suits — viz., a suit of chains (?), of ten pieces ; a suit of heads, of ten pieces ; a suit of money or cakes, of five pieces ; a suit of three pieces, the sign of which we are scarcely able to decipher, but designate tables ; and a suit of two pieces, on one of which latter are several Chinese characters. It is possible, however, that there may be in this series three suits only, the five, three, and two cards last mentioned belonging to one suit, thus making it to consist of ten pieces, in conformity with the suits of chains and heads. This is the more likely, since one of the card- pieces of the lot contaiijing two cards bears on it a red stamp. The signs and values of the one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, and nine of chains are easily to be distinguished, but not so those of the piece assumed to represent the ten. This numeral piece has on it five marks only of the suit, and it bears a large red stamp. The outer broad black margin of the one and nine of chains is cut off in an oblique manner at the upper right-hand and lower left-hand comers ; the two has an arched notch at the upper right and lower left-hand comers of the inner edge of the broad black border ; the three has a needle- shaped slit at the same places ; the four has an arched notch in the middle of the inner edwe of the same border ; the five has two arched notches outerly, top and bottom; the six has two slits in the margin, top and bottom, at opposite corners, diagonally ; the seven has three oblique notches on the black margin, top and bottom, directed in reverse way; the eight has a notch centrally, top and bottom ; the nine has the corners of the outer margin cut off obliquely, as in the one of the suit (chains) ; while the tenth cardpiece, with the red stamp, has a slit in the marn-in at the upper left-hand and lower right-hand corners of the broad black border. The pieces of the suit of heads are marked with slits and notches in a manner almost identical with that common to the suit of chains. The tenth cardpiece has a red stamp covering its face and Chinese characters at the upper margin. The designs have been stamped off in deep black ink, and belong to the heavier and coarser variety of Chinese cai-ds. The texture is that of thin cardboard. The backs of the pieces are smooth, and of a brownish-yellow colour. Two cards from the suits of heads and of tables (?) are represented on plate 21. [2|- in. X Of in., size of impression ; 21 in. X of- in., whole card.] [Backs coloured.] 42 CHINESE. O. C. 294. NINETEENTH CENTURY. CHINA. SERIES of twenty-eight cards, composed of seven suits of four pieces each suit. Each cardpiece is divided into three parts, enclosed in a general broad outer border and in a narrow inner one. In the centre of each piece is the representation of an animated sign (vol. i. p. 47) of a division, above and below which is the name of the suit in Chinese characters. Through the obliging assistance of Professor Douglas, we are enabled to state that the names of the seven primary suits are as follows: — viz., scholars, generals, knights (probably, or a grade equivalent to that of the knights in chess), soldiers (eqtiivalents to pawns in chess), elephants, horses, carriages. In the centre of the pieces of the suit of " scholars " is what looks like a crah, in' that of " generals," a scarabavs, in " knights," an escalop or limpet shell, in "soldiers," a snail, in "elephants," a, dragon, va "horses," s, fish, and in the middle of the pieces of the suit of " carriages " is something like a iich. The designs are stamped in deep black ink, and belong to the heavier or coarser kind of Chinese playing-cards. The texture is that of thin cardboard. The backs are smooth, and of a brownish-yellow colour. Cards from the suits of "horses" and "carriages" are represented on plate 21. [2 X o,|^ hi-, size of impression ; 2|- X o| in., size of card.] [Backs coloured.] O. C. 295. NINETEENTH CENTURY. CHINA. SERIES of fifteen cardpieces, having their imports denominated in Chinese characters, painted iu a water-colour of " Chinese Ver- million," some of the characters being six-eighths of an inch in length. There is a card entitled leader, or commander, or black king, two cards re- presenting " aids to the black king," two cards arc " black knights," four are " soldiers," two represent " black elephants," and four other pieces — two of a kind — are too obscure to decipher, or the characters designating them are con- tractions. The texture is that of thin cardboard. The backs arc smooth, and of a deep reddish-brown colour. Two cards from the suits of black knights and the contracted characters are represented on plate 2 1 . [3t X of in.] [Backs coloured.] CHINESE. 43 O. C. 296. NINETEENTH CENTURY. CHINA. \ HTRTY-TWO cardpieccs, consisting apparently of three suits. One suit is of figures, a second of animals and of flowers, and a third of boxes or cases. Each cardpiecc is divided into three portions. The centre is occupied by the mark of the suit, the upper and lower parts are marked with round domino-like dots of different values, on some cards in red, on others in black ink, and on some pieces both red and black dots are present. The exact numerical progression and sequence of these domino points are not easily deter- minable, though they no doubt indicate the values of the pieces on which they occur. In the suit of figures there are five designs, once repeated. These figures are whole-length males and females, carrying various devices. The first two cards have figures of men, carrying small banners, and are dotted like each other at top and bottom. The next two figures are females, bearing flags and provided with swords ; then follow two males carrying whips, next two females, each carrying a child, and lastly two males with swords (?) and flags. In the suit of animated cards (vol. i. p. 47) there are here eight pieces only ; three have on them flowers, two have fishes, two butterflies, and one bears a tiger. In the third suit, or that of boxes, there are fourteen cards ; in the middle of each piece is an open ornamental box or case, on the lid and inside of which are repeated the domino points in like value to those marked on the upper and lower portions of each card. All the figures or designs are neatly executed and coloured. The texture is that of thin cardboard, the lissage is considerable, and the backs are marked with hexagonal figures stamped in black ink. Two cards from the suits of animated signs are represented on plate 2 1 . It is doubtful if this series be complete, and whether or not the cards to be next described belong to it. [3|i X oZ^ in.] [Backs decorated.] O. C. 297. NINETEENTH CENTURY. CHINA. f WENTY cardpieces, marked with domino points in black and red ink at their tops and bottoms in reverse way. The middle portion of each cardpiece is quite plain. It is not improbable that these cards may form a plain suit in the foregoing sequence (O. C. 296), as the backs are marked in a like way. The°texture is thinner than that of the previous series, the lissage is good, and the cards are marked with hexagonal figures in black. r^i. X oj in.] [Backs decorated.] PART II. COMMENTARY ON AND DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES. '^^^'^^S^^ DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES. ;T has been stated at p. 35j vol. i.^ that although it be 'not 2^'>'oven, playing-cards had their origin ia Europe^ and in modern times^ yet that there is more direct evidence in favour of such opinion than can be adduced in support of the hypothesis that they have descended to us — in the form of the tarots or emblematic series^ at least — from remote ages, and had their birth in the East. While maintaining here a like doctrine, and laying stress on the obscure and recondite character of the data on which the belief of an Oriental source of the tarots has been based, it is nevertheless freely ad- mitted that the meaning of many of the relations and peculiarities of these cards are left quite unexplained by the theories of their European origin, while those affirming their Eastern source do really attempt some elucidation of them, however fanciful and mystical it may be considered to be by the opponents to the theories from which it springs. While feeling satisfied then that there is not any direct proof of the Oriental origin of playing-cards, and that not any documentary evidence can be produced for their existence before the second half of the fourteenth century, we cannot refuse to allow that the theory which regards the numeral playing-cards of Europe as having been invented either in Spain or Venice, for the purpose of displacing the emblematic tarots (which had become prohibited from their connection with the practice of " la magie noire " and divination derived with them from the East), has been supported by much ingenious illustration, .obtained from translating the emblems in question through the doctrines of the Hebrew Kabbalah and of the Egyptian mystics. The entire displacement of the tarot cards has not only not been accomplished, but even their fusion with the numeral series has not been prevented : that series which, according to the theory 48 DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES. last referred to, was invented to supplant them, and in connec- tion with which they continue to exist in some countries to the present day. To such as carry out the theory of the Oriental origin of cards to the still greater extent of tracing the original conception of the true numerals as well as of the emblematic series to India or Egypt, this persistency of union will not be surprising. Perhaps, too, it might be difficult to show a valid reason why acceptance should not be given to the hypothesis in its entirety, if given to it at all. (Yol i. pp. 20, 73.) However this may be, we find that for five hundred years have endured, with some slight modifications of design, a series of cards of emblematic composition ; the source, exact meaning, and original intention of which have been variously interpreted, and concerning which we are in darkness at the present time. Details connected with this series — the tarots — formed an impor- tant part of the history and examples recorded in the previous volume. It has been felt that, notwithstanding the attempt made to render their nature and symbolical meanings, as derived from the Oriental and Kabbalistic theories of their source, tolerably clear by the dis- quisition on Divination and Cartomancy, etc. (pp. 138-163, vol. i.), that a fair idea could be formed of them by those strange to the subject, only by having before them while studying the previous pages an actual tarots sequence, or carefully executed plates illus- trative of the symbolic designs therein contained. As these advantages might not be always at hand, and that the labour already performed should not remain more fruitless than it need, it has been deemed advisable to supplement the text of vol. i. by a series of plates illustrative of this obscure subject. It must not be assumed — it is once more insisted — from the comments which follow, and from what has been previously stated (vol. i.), that the occult and thaumaturgic doctrines touched on are here accepted as verities, or even as probably hidden or intended to be expressed in the emblematic composition of the tarots. They have been brought forward simply as a necessary part of the scheme proposed in this work, of illustrating the general history of playing- cards. Without viewing these objects under their aspect of em- blematic cards or tarots, and these again, in connection with their Oriental and mystical relations, the consideration of the subject would have remained imperfectly performed. PLATES I., II., III., IV., v., AND PART OF VI. ?N these plates are represented the twenty- two em- blematic cards or tarots described at pp. 18j 36, 38, 150, and 155 of vol. i. In these designs the oldest typical forms, as far as they can be attained to now, of the yet compara- tively modern renderings of a supposed ancient hieroglyphic and feabbalistic alphabet are given, in order that the interpretations of the symbolic figures, and their accessories, according to the recondite theories of Court de Gebelin and others detailed at p. 138 et seq. of vol. i., may be easily followed. The cardmakers have generally caused these designs to be drawn, engraved, and coloured in so coarse and careless a manner, and with such small amount of regard to essential details, that direct facsimiles of any actual sequence in the Museum collection would not have answered the purpose of illustrating the esoteric doctrines of those who would derive the tarots from the patriarchal East, so well as will the compositions here placed before the reader. Nevertheless, on comparing them with those of any actual tarots sequence of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and of such more recent series as have imitated the older emblematic cards, it may be seen at once that like emblems and ob- jects are intended to be represented, though on a smaller scale in our illustrations than is usual in the cardpieces of ordinary tarots. The earhest known tarots have been supposed to be after all but compara- tively modern renderings, during the latter portion of the fourteenth and beginning of the fifteenth centuries, of other forms gradually vanishing in the twilight of Oriental obscurity; and however close the esoteric doctrines themselves, as taught in modern times, may be to those inculcated originally, through a series of hieroglyphs and emblems, it is quite impossible that the latter could approach but in intention, and as translated by modern art and influences, the assumed original symbolical designs. Egypt is to us the cradle of wisdom and science, since it clothed in hieroglyphic forms the ancient dogmas of the first and true Zoroaster, forms purer and more exact, if not richer than those of Hindu birth. The right expression of these symbolic forms and E 50 COMMENTARY ON AND their interpretation constitute the kabbalistic and thaumaturgic science of hieroglyphs, which in Egypt had for its basis an alphabet in which all the gods were letters, all the letters were ideas, all the ideas were numbers, and all the numbers perfect signs. This kabbalistic alphabet was in one of its forms, according to certain writers, the famous book of Thauth or Thot,^ to be found broken up and scattered amongst the debris of Egyptian monuments, and from it have descended, they affirm, the spirit and intention of the tarots of the fourteenth century. These latter, along with the numeral series, in the opinion of the extremer theorists, constitute, in the eyes of the initiated, an alphabet of twenty-two allegorical letters, and of four series of ten hieroglyphs relating to the four letters of the name of Jehovah or the tetragramma. The various combinations of these signs, and of the numbers corresponding to them, compose so many kabbalistic oracles, which may become in the hands of such as belong to the higher initiation the exponents of all wisdom and science. (Eliphas Levi, "La Clef des Grands Mysteres," etc. p. 208.) According to Levi, the best key to the primitive hieroglyphic alphabet on which this tarot sequence has been founded, was to be met with in the mensa isiaca, formerly belonging to Cardinal Bembo, but afterwards unfortunately destroyed. This table was of copper, having on it engraved figures filled with a sort of incrusted enamel. A copy of the table with an interpretation of its hiero- glyphs and emblems, etc., may be seen in the following work of the learned Jesuit Father Athanasius Kircher, viz. : — "iEdipi ^gyptiaci. Athanasii Kircheri. Romas 1652." t. 3. cap. V. p. 123. A fine copy is in the Library of the British Museum — 87.1.4.7. According to Kircher, this table contained the hieroglyphic key to the sacred alphabets of Egypt. If the table — as given in Kircher^s treatise — be placed by the side of our present tarots not any similarity of actual pictorial de- signs can be found, it is true. But if the intention of the emblems of the former or their interpretation by Kircher be considered, it may be readily conceived in what way the followers of the schools of De Gebelin and Levi have been led to borrow an origin so remote as they have done for the tarots of the fourteenth century. To the statement that there is not any likeness between the figures of the modern tarots and the emblems of the Egyptian hieroglyphs, whatever there may be between the dogmas which have been extorted from the esoterism of each, reply may be • The Egyptian Hermes or Mercury, and the patron deity of scribes and writinsr. DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES. 51 made in inferring a continuedly advancing metamorphosis as necessarily involved in the varying iconic phases of the tarots as they have come down to us on the stream of time. It is advisable that the series of tarot figures contained in Breitkopf's work' be consulted side by side with that presented here, as certain modifications of the ordinary designs proper to be noticed are therein given, and which do not exist in the present illustrations. To the general account which has been laid before the reader in vol. i. p. 138 et seq. of the emblematic figures represented on plates 1, 2, 3, 4j 5, and 6 in this appendix, the following remarks on some particular tarots will not be out of place, for the more perfect explanation of them in their connection with occult philosophy, and with the theories of De Gebelin, Eliphas Levi, and others. On the kabbalah generally the following work may be advan- tageously consulted : — " The Kabbalah. Its Doctrines, Development, and Literature. An Essay by Christian D. Ginsburg, LL.D. London, 1865." TAROT NUMBER II. LA PAPESSE. In this design the binary principle is intended to be symbolized as represented by the High Priestess of the Egyptians, now meta- morphosed into a female Pope in certain tarot series (vol. i. pp. 36, 37) , and reverting in others to the true correlative, the goddess Hera of the Greeks and Juno of the Romans. (Breitkopf, op. eit. Tarot No. 11.) In the latter, the figure properly follows what is more likely to have been the normal action of the antiquer emblems in elevating one hand towards heaven, and pointing down- wards with the other towards the earth, formulating by this gesture the dogmas of unity and dualism, which constitute the basis of " la haute magie," and commence the symbols of the emerald table of Hermes. (Breitkopf, op. ci'i. Tarot No. 11. Eliphas Levi, "Dogme et Rituel," etc. vol. i. p. 133. Desbarrolles, " Chiromancie NouveUe," "Les Mysteres de la main reveles et expliques." Paris, 1859, p. 33.) TAROT NUMBER V. LE PAPE. The Pope of the ordinary emblematic cards is the grand hiero- phant of the Egyptians, and changes in certain Italian sequences to his correlative, Zeus of the Greeks and Jupiter Optimus Maximus of the Romans. As the latter, he descends from heaven on an eagle, 1 "Versuch den Ursprung der Spielkarten, die Einfiihrung desLeinenpapieres und den Anfang der Plolzschneidekunst in Europa zn erforsclien." Leipzig. 1784. Erster Abschnitt, p. 20. COMMENTARY ON AND (Breitkopf, Tarot 52 bearing thunderbolts and lightning in each hand. No.V.) In accordance with the mystical and Oriental theory of the import of the tarots, it has been presumed that the normal form of this present emblem, in which the Pope is seen extending the fingers of the right hand in benediction, showed the hierophant making the sign of esoterism which prescribes silence, and which may be observed also in the accompanying figure of Addha-Naei, the Isis of the Hindus, a pantheistic emblem typifying Nature, Truth, and Eeligion. The hand which holds the wand has the first three fingers extended, signifying Force, Power, and Fate; the annular and auricular fingers, which typify science and light, are hidden or bent. This gesture may be translated as implying — " I speak thus to the initiated. " "Unite together, for so you have strength and dominion to guide the fatality which is in your hands ; but from the un- initiated — since they are the vicious, the unintelligent of men — DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES. 53 hide (esoterism) all Kght and science ; " sucli teaching being quite in accordance also with the doctrines of Egyptian philosophy. In this Hindu emblematic figure the four symbols of the ancient tarotSj now the suit-marks of the numeral series of the playing-cards of Italy and Spain^ are placed in the hands; viz., the cup, the circle or money, the sword, and the wand or club. These attri- butes will be again referred to (postea, p. 62). TAROT NUMBER VII. LE CHARIOR. This emblem represented normally the advance or triumph of Osiris ; afterwards the chariot of Hermes, then the Marte of the Carte di Baldini, and finally " Le Charior " of the modern tarots. It symbolizes the septenary principle, or the No. 7, representing the universal synthesis. The number seven was absolute among the Eastern magi. The seventh year was a jubilee with the Jews, and the seventh day, the end of the week, was consecrated by them to rest and prayer. " In Septenario (qui sacratissimus est in oraculis numerus et mysteriorum plerissimus) tam sacrum augustumque decus in est, ut iuter eos numeros qui concluduntur in denario singularem eximiam prse caeteris rationem habent." (Petri Bungi, " Bergomatis Nume- rorum Hysteria,'^ etc. Bergomi ioXCi. De Numero vii. p. 282. Which see also on other numbers. There is a copy in the Museum Library, 529, c. 8.) " On the seventh day God ended his work which he had made — and God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it because that in it he had rested from all his work." (Genesis, chap. ii. v. 2, 3.) Noah was directed to take the clean beasts and birds into the ark by sevens, " and it came to pass after seven days that the waters of the flood were upon the earth." (Genesis, chap. vii. v. 2-10.) So holy was the seventh day to be regarded that on the sixth day a double quantity of manna was given to the Israelites on their joumeyings, as the bread of two days, with the order, " Abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day ; so the people rested on the seventh day," and thus not any infraction of its repose ensued. (Exodus, chap. xvi. v. 29, 30.) The Hebrew slave became free on his attaining his seventh year of service. " Six years he shall serve, and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing." (Exodus, chap. xxi. v. 2.) There was the " mystery of the seven stars," of the " seven golden candlesticks," and there were " seven churches which are in Asia." . (Apocalypse, chap, i.) . 54 COMMENTARY ON AND There were " seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, on which are the seven spirits of God," and the book " sealed with seven seals " (Apoc. chap. v.). There were the " seven angels which had the seven trumpets " (chap, viii.), and there was " a beast rise up from out of the sea, having seven heads " (chap, xiii.) . There were "seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues^' (chap. xxi.). In the days of Elisha-there were yet " seven thousand in Israel-"^ who had not bowed unto Baal. (1 Kings, chap. xx. v. 18.) When Elisha " said to his servant. Go up now, look towards the sea ; and he went up, and looked, and said. There is nothing." Elisha replied, " Go again seven times ; and it came to pass at the seventh time," etc. (1 Kings, chap. xix. v. 43, 44) . The same prophet also declared that " the Lord hath caUed for a famine, and it shall also come upon the land seven years.'"'' (2 Kings, chap.-viii. v.l.) When Elisha restored the dead son of the Shunamite he " prayed unto the Lord, and he went up and lay upon the child — - and the flesh of the child waxed warm — and the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes." (2 Kings, chap. iv.v. 33-35.) It was said by Jesus to the anxious nobleman of Galilee, " Go thy way, thy son liveth ;" and when " he enquired of them the hour when he began to amend, they said -unto him. At the seventh hour the fever left him." (John, chap. iv. v. 50-52.) On the stone laid before Joshua were to be " seven eyes." (Zechariah, chap. iii. v. 9.) There were seven chief Archangels — Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, Anael, Samael, Zadkiel, and Oriphiel, the latter four being the Uriel, Barachiel, Sealtiel, and Jebudiel of the Gnostic Christians. To these the seven Christian sacraments are correlates, and unite ■with the seven Virtues (the seven cords of the human lyre) , having their analogues in the seven colours of the prismatic spectrum and the seven notes of the musical octave. With these were included by modern kabbalists the seven precious stones, viz., the carbuncle, crystal, diamond, emerald, agate, sapphire, and onyx ; and the seven chief metals, gold, silver, iron, copper, mercury, tin, and lead. Finally came the kabbahstic signs of the seven spirits, the symbols of all these being to be found on the stones graven by the ancients, particularly on the talismans known as Abraxas of the Gnostic epoch. This number seven rules, in a mysterious way, the numbers of the tarots sequence, according to certain writers. There are in this sequence twenty-one pieces (the matto being unnumbered, or zero), i. e., the sacred number seven multiplied by the ternary principle, which is the universal dogma, the perfect word, the fulness of unity. DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES. SS Even the numerals in the combined tarots sequencies are fifty-six in numberj i.e., eight by seven, making in the old Venetian series a total, with the tarots proper, of seventy-seven, i. e., eleven by seven, rejecting the unnumbered matto or fool. (Taylor, Bibl. 9, p. 19.) In an ancient design of this emblematic figure the symbolic lingam of the Hindus, surmounted by the flying sphere of the Egyptians, was represented on the front panel of the car in place of the varying marks now to be met with. (See the representation of " Le Charior d'Hermes, Supreme Clef du Tarot," in Ehphas Levi's "Dogme et Rituel," etc. vol. ii. p. 332.) TAROT NUMBER X. LA ROUE DE FORTUNE. This emblem has its analogue, according to Levi, in the wheels of Bzekiel and of Pythagoras. (" Dogme et Rituel," vol. i. p. 383. "La Clef des Grands Mysteres," p. 117.) Etteilla, in his cards for divination, displaced the original descending typhon on the left by a man ; the ascending Hermanubis on the right by a rabbit, mouse, or nondescript animal ; and the sphinx above by an ape. (See the figure of " La dixieme Clef du Tarot" in "La Clef," etc. of B. Levi, p. 116.) TAROT NUMBER XH. LE RENDU. According to E. Levi (" Dogme et Rituel," vol. i. p. 255), this emblematic figure has been misunderstood by Court de Gebelin and by Etteilla, who perceived in it merely an error committed by a German cardmaker. This design represents a man having his hands tied behind his back, and with two bags of money attached to his armpits in certain of those tarots in which the figure has the hands tied behind. In " Le Pendu " of the series of cards known as those of Charles the Sixth, or of Gringonneur (vol, i. pp. 13, 14), the arms are free and dependent, and the figure holds a large bag of money in each hand. (See Bibl. 2, plate 35.) In " Le Pendu" of the Minchiate series also, described under I. 256 and I. 257 of the present volume, pp. 3, 6, the arms are free and dependent, and a bag hangs from each hand. The man is suspended by one foot to a gibbet composed of the trunks of two trees, each trunk showing the roots of six truncated branches and being surmounted by a transverse beam completing the figure of the Hebrew Tau, D. The legs of the culprit are crossed, and his elbows form a V angle with his head. Now the triangle surmounted by a cross signifies in S6 COMMENTARY ON AND alchemy the end and the perfection of the Great Work, a significa- tion identical -with that of the letter H, which is the last letter of the sacred alphabet. " ' Le Pendu/ then, is the adept bound by his engagements, spiritualized, or with the feet turned towards heaven. The emblem typifies also the ancient Prometheus suffering in everlasting torture the punishment of his glorious larceny. Yulgarly it represents Judas the traitor, and his execution menaces the revealers of the Great Secret." (" Dogme et Rituel," vol. i. p. 255.) " In the ancient writings, anterior to the captivity, the Hebrew tau had the form of a cross, a circumstance further confirmatory of our interpretation of the twelfth piece of the kabbalistic tarot. The cross, generatrix of four triangles, is also the sacred sign of the duo- denary principle (the cyclical number and that of the universal symbol), called the 'Key of Heaven' by the Egyptians for that reason." " Thus Etteilla, embarrassed in his protracted endeavours to reconcile the analogical requirements of the figure with his own personal views, placed in the hands of his reversed pendu, with which he symbolizes prudence, an hermetic caduceus formed of two serpents and a Greek tau. Since he had comprehended the necessity of the tau, or cross ("Book of Thot," p. 12), he ought to have understood the multiple and magnificent symbol of the hermetic pendu, the Prometheus of science, the living man who touches earth by thought only and whose base is in heaven ; the free and sacrificed adept, the revealer, menaced with death." (" Dogme," etc. vol. i. p. 268.) TAROT NUMBER XIII. LA MORT. l:n accordance with the misfortune and ill-fatedness attached to the number thirteen, the present member of the emblematic series represents Death in each of the chief tarots sequencies, viz. : the old Venetian sequence, the tarocchino of Bologna and the minchiate of Florence. (Vol. i. p. 141, ISTo. 13.) " Juxta Hcebreorum traditionem anno a mundo condito tertio- decimo primus reproborum exemplar, primus parricida, civitas diaboli et regni impiorum conditor, Cain nascitur." (Petri Bungi, op. cit. de num. xiii. et xiv. p. 401.) " This idea of misfortune attached to the number thirteen is essentially Oriental. The symbolical atouts are numbered, so to say, from low to high, just as certain modes of Asiatic writing pro- ceed from right to left. Has this also not some hidden meaning ? " (Boiteau d'Ambly, op. cit. p. 21.) DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES. s'l A striking series of coincidences has been recently recorded in an account of one of the more remarkable of the Arctic expeditions of modern times/ " At lastj" writes Commander Payer, " every trace of land dis- appeared from our gaze, a hopeless waste received us, in which no man could tell how long we should be, nor how far we should pene- trate. . . A change, however, was soon to come over the scene. . . A dreadful day was the 13th of October — a Sunday — it was decisive of the fate of the expedition. To the superstitious amongst us the number 13 was clothed with a profound significance : the committee of the expedition had been constituted on February 13 ; on the 13th of January the keel of the 'Tegetthoff " had been laid down j on the 13th of April she was launched; on the 13th of June we left Bremerhaven ; on the 13th of July, Tromsoe ; after a voyage of 13 days we had arrived at the ice ; and on the 13th October the temperature marked 13 degrees below zero. In the morning of that day, as we sat at breakfast, our floe burst across, immediately under the ship — -just as in the risings of a people, the wave of revolt spreads on every side, so now the ice uprose against us, mountains threateningly reared themselves from out the level fields of ice, and the low groan which issued from its depths grew into a deep rumbling sound, and at last rose into a furious howl, as of myriads of voices. Noise and confusion reigned supreme, and step by step destruction drew nigh in the crashing together of the fields of ice." (Vol. i. pp. 161-4.) It may be observed en passant, that in the sequence known as "Charles the Vlth cards" (vol. i. pp. 13, 19), Death is mounted and on a black horse instead of on a white one (Bibl. 2) . The like emblematic figure is also mounted in the two mincMaie tarots (sets I. 256, I. 257) described at pp. 3, 6 of the present volume. Here the horse being unshaded is probably intended to be whit^" TAKOT NUMBER XVI. LA MAISON DIBU. Herein is symbolized an event in the life of the Egyptian Prince Rhampsinitus, or Eameses the Second, which is alluded to in vol. i. p. 142. The history of this event is given in detail by Herodotus, whose account of the end of the thieves differs in some particulars from the following version, taken from Court de Gebelin. According to the latter, the Prince Rhampsinitus ordered a great * "New Lauds within the Arctic Circle. Narrative of the Discoveries of the Austrian ship ' Tegetthoff.' " By Julius Payer, one of the Commanders of the Expedition. Translated from the German. London. 1876. 53 DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES. tower to be built, for the purpose of containing his treasures. Though he alone possessed a key to it, he found his treasures daily- diminish, and yet not anyone passed the door. In order to discover the adroit thieves, the Prince placed snares around the vases con- taining his money ; by these the robbers were indicated, and turned out to be the two sons of the architect who had built the tower. The latter person had so disposed a stone that it might be easily removed and replaced at will, without risk of discovery. This secret he intrusted to his sons, who availed themselves of it as related. Having been betrayed while at their work, through the Prince's arrangements, they threw themselves down headlong from the summit of the tower. TAKOT NUMBER XXI. LB MONDE. Bliphas Levi, in his chapter ("Rituel,'-" etc. p. 172) on " Le Grand CEuvre," remarks : " The twenty-second key, which bears the number 21, because the fou which precedes it in the kabbalistic order is not numbered, represents a youthful female divinity, slightly veiled, running within a blossoming wreath, supported at the four corners by the four animals of the kabbalah. The goddess holds a wand in each hand, in the Italian tarots ; while in the tarots of Besancon she retains both wands in a single hand, placing the other hand on her thigh ; symbols equally indicative of the magnetic action, whether alternate in its polarization, or simultaneous by opposition and transmission." In an article " Sur la Kabbale," in the supplement to " La Clef des Grands Mysteres," the author writes : " That which most attracted the attention of Court de Gebelin, when he discovered the tarot, were the hieroglyphs of the twenty-first piece, which bears the title of ' Le Monde.' This card (which is nothing but the same key of William Postel) represents Truth, naked and triumphant, within a wreath divided into four portions by four flowers of the lotus. At the four corners of the card may be seen the four symbolic animals, which are afforded by an analysis of the sphinx, and which Saint John borrowed from the prophet Ezekiel, as Ezekiel himself had taken them from the bucephalous or other sphinxes of Egypt and Assyria. These four figures — which a tradition, uncomprehended even by the Church, still allots to our four Evangelists — represent the four elementary forms of the kabbalah ; the four seasons ; the four metals; in fine also the four mysterious letters of the TORA of the Jews, of the wheel of Ezekiel, ROTA, and of the TAROT, which, according to Postel, is the key of things hidden from the beginning of the world." PLATES VII. AND VIII. 'N plate 7 is a facsimile of the piece No. 1, the Misero of the series B of the Carte di Baldini, or the so-called TaroccJd of Mantegna. (Vol. i. pp. 66^ 155.) On comparing this emblematic figure of the Italian sequence with the mat, matto, or fou, the unnumbered piece or zero of the tarots on plate 6, it may be seen how in both examples a dog is seizing the man by his left leg. In this instance the descent of both symbolical designs from some earlier type is certainly fairly presumable, and if it be admitted with Merlin and others, that the engraved Italian version of 1470 (?) was derived from a pictorial series of emblematic representations existing long anterior to the invention at Venice (?) of games of hazard with cards, there cannot easily be placed any limit to the traditional origin — if we may so speak — of the common type of both examples. (Vol. i. p. 71.) On the other hand, the opponents to the theory of the Oriental source of cards, and their original mystical teachings, may point to the resemblance in question as proof simply of the fact that the matto of the old Venetian tarots was borrowed directly from the Florentine sequence of 1470, and, therefore, as helping to support the doctrine that the twenty-two old Venetian emblems are of more recent origin than the Carte di Baldini. (Vol. i. p. 156.) It should be noted also that in some of the tarots versions the matto, or foil, is represented like the Misero of the Florentine sequence, that is, more of a beggar than a fool, as which latter he is given in other tarots. According to one system of interpretation the unnumbered emblem, the matto, or fou, of the ordinary tarots (plate 6) is to be regarded as symbolizing Folly with a sackful of faults on his back, while the animal biting him signifies the pangs of conscience and of remorse which so often attack the possessor of such a burden. In the Misero of the Carte di Baldini (plate 7) are portrayed 6o DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES. the want and destitution to which such faults have brought their owner. Conscience yet pricks him — in the biting dog — though the faults be gone, while the leafless barren trees and broken wall typify the fruitlessness and waste of such a fool's existence. On plate 8 is a facsimile^ the actual size, of No. 45 the Marte of series A of the Carte di Baldini. (Vol. i. p. 66.) This design should be compared with No. 7 of the tarots figures on plate 2. In the former or present emblem the figure appears as a sedate warrior in helmet and armour, bearing in his right hand a sword, and bending his left arm on his left thigh. He is observed to be seated in direct or full face on a car, having an architectural canopy above, supported by columns. A dog is at his feet. In the tarot piece No. 7 (plate 2), we have Osiris advancing in his chariot, bearing a sceptre in his right hand, and bending his left arm on his left thigh. The figure is in direct or full face to the spectator, and the car has a canopy above supported by columns. Two animals are in front of the car. The same kind of comparison is applicable here as in the case of the matto and Misero just noticed. The resemblance be- tween the two emblems testifies either to the descent of both compositions from an antecedent and common type, or to the fact that the piece No. 7 of the old Venetian tarots is simply a modifica- tion of No. 45 of the Italian sequence. (Vol. i. p. 156.) PLATES IX., X., XL, AND XIL EPEESBNT the marks, signs, or symbols of the suits of the numeral playing-cards of Italy, Spain, Prance (England), and Germany, whether uncombined or combined with an emblematic series. A general rule prevails, however, that when numerals are conjoined to an emblematic series the suit-marks of the former are of the Italian character. ^, In the typical and fuU numeral series of each country there are always four suits. Plate 9 exhibits the marks of the suits of Italian numerals. (Vol. i. pp. 32, 85.) These are coppe (cnpa) , spade (awoTds), danari (money), and hastnni (clubs). It should be observed that the marks of the suits spade and hastoni are crossed or interlaced among themselves, and that the narrow width of each piece in proportion to the length indicates that these particular numerals belonged to a combined tarots or tarocchino sequence. The proportions of these cards are true, but the general size is smaller than that of the originals. Plate 10 represents the marks of the suits in Spanish numerals. (Vol. i. pp. 40, 93.) There are copas (cups), espadas (swords), oros (money) > and hastos (clubs) . It should be noticed that the marks of the suits espadas and hastos are discrete or separate, which circumstance along with the numbers at opposite corners diagonally, and the divisions of the inner border lines on the pieces in three of the suits into separate portions of different number {antea, p. 8), distinguish the Spanish numeral pip-cards from the Italian numerals. Plate 11 shows the marks of French numerals, viz., coeurs (hearts =: cups), piques (spades :ii swords) , carreaux (diamonds zr money), and trefles (clubs). (Vol. i. pp. 46, 60, IIL) These suit-marks have always been adopted for English numerals, frequently for Italian, occasionally for Spanish, and in 62 COMMENTARY ON AND modern times pretty constantly for the numeral playing-cards of Germany. France and Belgium manufacturing cards for various countries naturally introduce these symbols, except when fabricating to order what may be turned factitious Italian, Spanish, and other cards. ■ Plate 1 2 represents the national suit-marks of the earlier cards of Germany, viz., roth or herzen (hearts zr cups) ; laub or griin (leaves zz swords, spades) ; schellen or " grelots " (bells ^ money, diamonds), and eioheln (glands n trefles, clubs). (Vol. i. pp. 47, 192.) EXPLICATION OF THE SYMBOLS OE THE NUMERAL SUITS. THE SUIT-MARKS OF ITALY AND SPAIK. lOT only has the series of emblematic cards, or tarots, j ? been translated into the dogmas of an ancient and recon- ^ dite philosophy, but the symbols of the numeral-cards accompanying them in combined or compound sets have been also interpreted in a similar manner. As a natural consequence a like interpretation was afterwards applied to the same marks of the suits of numerals, when the latter appeared unconnected with an emblematic sequence. Eemarks relative to this point may be found on reference to vol.i. pp. 143,163-155. To these we shall add the following observations. On examining such numerals as are found first to have been con- joined with the tarots proper they may be observed to bear the ordinary marks of the four suits of the playing-cards of Italy and Spain, viz., the cup, money, sword, and club. It was at an after period that the French and other symbols were so employed, but even then, as far as our own experience extends, quite exceptionally. According to the schools of the occult philosophy, the four thaumaturgic signs of the tarot may be seen in the hands of the Hindu symbolic figure Addha-Naei, which was given antea, p. 52. These signs represent also the symbols of the four numeral suits, and correspond to the four elements of the old philosophers. There is the cup in the lower right hand of the figure, which in other emblems when held by a man = aquarius, typifies water ; there is the staff or club of wood in the upper right hand, signifying the_^)-e, which it DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES. 63 feeds ; in the lower left hand is the circle (afterwards meta- morphosed into the form of money), emblematic of air, while the upper left hand grasps the sword or knife of Mithra, which immo- lates yearly the sacred bull, whose blood causes the sap to flow and fill all the fruits of the earth. (E. Levi, " Dogme," etc. vol. ii. p. 333.) If we pass from India to Egypt and its occultism and then to the Hebrews and their theosophyj it may be assumed that the symbols of the numeral suits are the hieroglyphs of the tetragramma. (Vol. i. pp. 148, 154.) The " club ■''' is the phallus of the Egyptians, and the jod of the Hebrews ; the " cup ■'■' is the cteis, and the primitive he; the " sword " is the conjunction of the phallus and cteis represented in Hebrew anterior to the captivity by the vau ; while the " circle " (pantacles) and money (vulgarly the emblem of the world) is the final he of the Divine name. Thus we have n 1 H * jod he vau he, or, as we conventionally pronounce it, Jehovah. (" Dogme et Eituel,'' etc. vol. i. p. 230.) Some adherents to the theory of the Oriental origin of cards, refusing to admit such extremely transcendental views as those just mentioned, nevertheless go to the extent of recognizing in the symbols of the numeral suits the four chief castes into which men were divided on the banks both of the Nile and the Ganges. Ac- cordingly, the "cup" denotes the sacerdotal rank, or priesthood ; the " sword " implies the king, warrior, or military ranh ; the ''circle" typifies the world, or commercial community, of which money is the sign ; and the " club " is emblematic of agriculture, or of the tillers of the soil. THE SUIT-MARKS OP FRANCE AND GERMANY. [he origin and meaning of the marks of the suits of the numeral playing-cards of France and Germany have been variously determined, and much research and ingenious attempts expended on their elucidation. The adherents to the theory of the Eastern source of cards have assumed the like intentions to be conveyed in them as in the suit- marks of Italy and Spain. It has been urged against such a view that the signs of France and Germany do not accord with each other, or ostensibly only in respect to one sign, viz., roth or herzen, and coeurs. How, then, can these signs make common cause to- gether, and link themselves with those of Italy and Spain ? It has been replied that a sufficient analysis will show that the three other 64 COMMENTARY ON AND suit-marks of Germany and France are modifications one of the other. But, if soj which were the originals ? It is probable, we think, that the German signs were first in the field, though Leber and Merlin are not of this opinion. Be that as it may, in the suits roth or herzen, and coeurs, may be found the analogues of the vase or " cup," the emblem of the sacerdotal rank or clergy, with its irre- proachable, unworldly heart. Lauh or griin, and carreaux, are modifications of the " circle " or money, typical of commerce and wealth; in schellen (bells) and piques (spades) may be found the spade or swords of the nobles and military; while in the suits eicheln (glands) and trefles (clubs) is signified the agricultural status. In tracing the connection between the suit-marks of France and Germany and those of Italy and Spain there does not arise much difficulty, except in the case of the schellen and piques of the former and the spade and espadas of the numerals of the latter countries. In respect to schellen, or bells, the difficulty is not insuperable, if it be borne in mind that bells were the insignia of rank and importance in the East from the earliest times. They were the signs of worldly position before the second epoch of heraldic distinctions (a.d. 1152), and at an after period the bell was used in Falconry^ by princes and nobles of the highest class. The hell thus became the emblem first of the falcon and afterwards of the upper and richer grades, to which its employment was confined. The robe of Aaron, the high priest, was directed to be thus adorned : — " A golden bell and a pomegranate upon the hem of the robe roundabout. •■' (Exodus, chap, xxviii. v. 34.) " And they made bells of pure gold, and put the bells between the pomegranates upon the hem of the robe." (Exodus, chap, xxxix. V. 25.) " It is probable, however, that these bells had a symbolical an- nouncement, like all the other parts of the high priest's dress. The pomegranate was the emblem of fulness, and the bell of announce- ment, and the alternation of these on the meil indicated the wearer's function as the preserver of the Divine Word in its fulness, and the announcer of it to the people. It is remarkable that there is no appearance of any kind of bell in the Egyptian monuments." (Kitto, "Cyclopaedia of Biblical Literature.") It may be added that the decoration of their idols with bells was a common practice with the Hindus. 1 It is not implied tbat the bell was thus made use of at the earlier period of that sport. DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATEii. 6S Breitkopf gives (" Versucli den Ursprang der Spielkarfcen zu erforschen," taf. iv. s. 33) representations of Wulphildj the Emperor Henry VI., and Otto IV., the draperies in which are all adorned with small bells exactly like those on German playing-cards. In con- nection with these illustrations and the argument maintained by Breit- kopf, viz. J that the German suit-marks are older than the French ones, and date at least from the fourteenth century, the author ob- serves, in the following notes (pp. 33, g. ; 116, s. 33, anmerk. g.): — "In Gabe. Bucelini Germanise Topo-Chronostemmato-graphicae Sacrag et profanse ; Parte altera; Aug. Vindel. 1662. fol. von pp. 346-423, where are introduced Agilolfingiece familice Principum Guel/orum veterum, etc., generis deductione, are also representations of various emperors and princely personages of the Guelpho- Brunswick houses, who are clothed with these once princely adorn- ments. Among them are Guelpho II. and his consort Ermengarde, who lived about the years 1002-24, adorned with waist-girdles of bells ; Wulphild, the wife of Rudolph Com. Brig, circa 1138, with a necklace of bells; the Emperor Henry VI., who died in 1197, with a waist-girdle of bells ; and the Emperor Otto IV., who died in 1218, with a coUar of bells, which hangs behind him from across the shoulders to the calves of the legs. Since, then, this old princely clothing was worn from the eleventh to the thirteenth century, we may infer that these alterations of the suit-marks must have been made soon after the introduction of cards into Germany, and that the French, piquet, which first appeared during the fifteenth century, is only a copy of the German changes, unless it be assumed that this old decoration, becoming recalled to mind, was ingeniously made to serve the purpose of the present argument." .... . " The figures in question were most likely taken from the old German chronicle of the Guelphs, preserved in the convent of Weingarten, and from which Eccard also took them for his ' Orig. Guelf.' t. ii. pp. 279, 323, 357. Atthe earliest they were not executed before the beginning of the fifteenth century, as may be presumed from the presence of the Saxon rue, but they were taken, probably, from older originals. Keysler, in his recent travels (' Hannover, 1751-4,' IsterTheil, vi Schreiben, s. 27), alludes to these figures of the Dukes of Brunswick as statues placed in the ' autorshofe ' at Brunswick, and at the same time refers to the previously-mentioned work of Bucelini, and to the portraits of princely personages in the ' Rathhaus ' at Liineburg." Leber and Chatto treat Breitkopf s theory of bell decoration very slightingly, the former remarking on the costume of Breitkopf's illustrations: " II est hors de toute vraisemblance qu'on y ait suppose une parure de grelots ^trangere au monument original." Chatto observes : " Breitkopf's conjecture is undeserving of remark ; had 66 COMMENTAUy ON AND he asserted that his old German emperors and princes were adorned with bells to indicate their rank and precedence in the manner of leading pack-horses he would, perhaps, have been as near the truth.'^ (Bibl. 4, p. 240.) The form of the schelle, grelot, or bell, on the " old German princely-bell costume " of Breitkopf, and on the numeral cards of Germany, is denied by Lampe {" De Cymbalis Veterum ") to bear resemblance to the KporaAov, Kpwana, crotalum et crusma, of the Greeks and Romans, which are frequently translated by the word grelot, " et en effet la figure du grelot ne se retrouve dans aucun monument d^une antiquity bien itahlie." (See note 4, p. 242, in Chatto, Bibl. 4.)' Some writers make the schellen of the German numerals answer to the danari (money) of the Italian suits, and to the carreaux (diamonds) of the French cards, instead of to the spade and espadas of the southern numerals, and the piques of the French series. Lauh or griin, they regard as the correlate of spade and pique, while others compare the former with hastoni, trejies, and clubs. Three well known writers — Daniel, Bullet, and Leber — pro- pounded theories of which the following are short abstracts. According to Pere Daniel, the signs of the French suits are emblematic of the necessities of war. Trejies — trefoil, or the clover- plant — symbolize " forage ; " piques, " pikes and powder- shovels;" carreaux, arrows, stones, etc., shot from crossbows — the carreau being a kind of heavy arrow having the head earre, or squared. Goeurs signify the bold hearts and courage of soldiers. Bullet accepts with some modifications Pere Daniel's theory. He supposes that the sign piques represents offensive weapons, like the pique or lance, and that of carreaux, defensive arms, as represented by a lozenge-shaped buckler. In Leber's opinion, the sign coeurs explains itself, being a symbol of the nobler sentiments, and especially indicative of intrepidity and courage. Trefle is a flower, or fleuron, with three branches, symbolical of the mysterious number 3, or the sacred ternary. It is the three-branched fleu/ron which appears on the monuments of the early French kings, but in consequence of its having been badly designed, and worse understood, it became confounded with the heraldic fleur-de-lis, and is now in fact displaced by it. Carreau is a square placed lozenge-wise, as an emblem of constancy and firm- ness. The genius " Fortune " is always represented as standing by one foot on a wheel or globe to signify her instability. The oppo- 1 In an engraving by Mantegna (B. xiii. p. 240, n. 19), known as " La Bac- chanale k la Cuve," two figures may be observed decorated with grelots ; at least, in tbe copy by Zoan Andi-ea (?) now before us such is the case. DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES. 67 site idea to unstableness was attached to a square or cube, considered as a firm and immovable base. It was for this reason that the ancients placed the figure of Wisdom and Firmness on a cubical support, and Aristotle speaks in a like sense when he tells us that a true philosopher should be square — carre — that is to say, immovable in courage and virtue. The fique, according to Leber, represents the head of a lance, and signifies the warrior force, or soldier, and is the equivalent of the spada of the Italian numerals. Thus the French suits typify four monarchies or political societies. The suit coeurs signifies a State governed by a generous and coura- geous prince; trefles, one ruled over by a sovereign wise and just'; carreaux signifies a community swayed over by a king both con- sistent in principle and decided in action; while the suit piques implies the appanage of a warlike ruler, who owes his territory to his arms. THE SUIT-MARKS OF ENGLISH CARDS. ='HILB the English names of the suits are in part adopted from those of the Italian and Spanish cards, the signs or marks of them are exactly those of the French numerals. It is most probable that the term "spade" given in England to the French sign pique, is derivable either from the spada of Italian, or the espada of Spanish numerals; while the term " clubs " is related to hastone of the Italian, and to basto, or baston, of the Spanish suit, though here applied to the French sign trefle. (Vol. i. pp. 33, 240, E. 183.) " The Hon. Daines Barrington, in his paper in the eighth volume of the 'Archseologia,' ' On the Antiquity of Card-playing in England,' maintains the probability that cards of the Spanish type, and bearing the marks of cups, money, clubs, and swords (of the Spanish names of the last two, bastos and espadas, our clubs and spades are certainly of the one a translation, and of the other a corruption), preceded the adoption of French cards in this country ; and he endeavours to con- nect them with the arrival of Philip the Second and his suite ; though an equally plausible argument might be founded on the marriage of Henry VIII, with a Spanish Princess, Catharine of Aragon, of whom it is recorded by Sir William Forest, that in her youth — " ' With stoole and with needyl she was not to seeke And other practiseings for ladyes meete To pastyme at tables, tick tacke, or gleeke Cardis and dyce ' &c. " Mr. Chatto, in support of this assumed priority of the Spanish cards, remarks that the knave, or jack, of our popular game, the 68 DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES. meaning of wticli he defines to be ' a servant of low condition/ has more affinity in character with the Spanish sota, or the Italian /amie, than with the French valet, which, in the earliest French cards, always bears the name of some person in romance or history. This sense of knave, however, which is curiously parallel to the modem sense of valet— Yike the still earlier one of ' man-child,' soon became obsolete, and the word came to be used exclusively to denote a cheat or dishonest person. According to the same author, the original of the English term ' Jackanapes,' was in all probability Jack-a-naipes, i.e., a buffoon in a parti- coloured dress, like a knave on cards. (See a very interesting discussion in Mr. Chatto's ' Facts and Speculations,' p. 230.) The earliest use of this appel- lation occurs in a ballad in the British Museum, date about 1450, where Jac Napes is applied as a term of reproach to the unfortunate Duke of Suffolk, then lately murdered." (Taylor, Bibl. 9, p. 140.) On the other hand. Singer refers (Bibl. 8, p. 37) to a volume of Latin Dialogues, printed at Antwerp ia 1538, in which the suit of piques, or our own " spades," is termed ligones, and he observes : "The resemblance of the object represented on cards of that suit to one of the forms of the agricultural spade is striking, and hence we may account for the origin of this denomination." So also Chatto, who remarks in a note at p.. 280 : "It is but fair to observe here that the Dutch name for the suit which we call spades is scop, or shovel, or spade ; and that, as this name has been evidently given to the suit from the mark bearing some resem- blance to a spade, the same suit might have been called spades by the English, for the same reason. This objection, however, does not affect the conjecture with respect to clubs." In the " Nugse Venales," printed in Holland, 1648, we meet with the following : " Query. — Why are the four kings of cards. Diamonds, Trefoil, Hearts, and Spades — Rhombuli, Trifolii, Cordis, et Ligonis — always poor ? Answer. — Because they are always at play, and play, according to the proverb, is man's perdition. Their state is also in other respects most miserable, for when through them much money is lost, they are condemned to the flames, and burnt like wizards. The modem Dutch names for the suits of French cards are hart, heart ; ruyt, a lozenge-shaped figure, a diamond-shaped pane of glass — diamonds ; Haver, clover, trefoil — clubs ; scop, a spade, shovel, or scoop=spades." In some systems of cartomancy the suit of diamonds is con- sidered to offer, during the operations, the signs of bad omen ; while in others the suit of spades performs that function. On the " king of diamonds " reference may be made to vol. i. p. 162 ; and on the " nine of diamonds " or the " curse of Scotland," Chatto, Bibl. 4, p. 266, should be consulted. PLATE VI. LOWER PORTION. ANIMATED MARKS OF SUITS. ' N the lower part of plate 6 are very slightly reduced facsimiles of four circular cards, from the series de- scribed in vol. i. p. 209 as the " Circular Cards by Telman von Wesel" (G. 144). These specimens are given for the purpose of illus- trating a variety of the so-termed " animated suits " of early German playing-cards (vol. i. pp. 47, 207). The pieces selected are : the four and five of the suit oi parroquete , the ace of that suit, and the ace of hares. Of the engraver of these cards — ^'tw" — very little is known. He must have lived during the first decade of the sixteenth century, since he copied some of the earlier works of Albert Diirer; though judging from the general style of his technic he may have worked also during the latter portion of the fifteenth century. Telman von Wesel has been considered to have been a goldsmith-engraver of the lower Ehine, as his name indeed would indicate. On his copy (Heller, No. 135) of Albert Diirer's "Nativity" (Heller, No. 127) is the following inscription : — "DJT: HTJS: JS : GOT: BE KANT : IT : HUS:TO: . . . .LEM: IT: GENANT: TELLMAN : OP : DEN : DJCK : TO : "WESEL." The set of cards from which the present examples have been taken is considered to represent the engraver at his best. It has been supposed that cards having animated marks of suits and delicately engraved on copper, produced at the end of the fifteenth century and beginning of the sixteenth, were not intended to be used in actual play. The earliest German cards known have animated suit- marks, and are considered by Merlin as belonging probably to the end of the fourteenth or the beginning of the fifteenth century. They are 70 DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES. preserved in the Royal collection at Stuttgart. The suits appear to have been formed in illustration of the pleasures of sporting, as one suit has for its sign the " dog/' another the " falcon/' a third the "stag/' and a fourth the "duck." Admirable representations of four of the figure-cards may be found in Merlin's Treatise, plates 60, 61. PLATES XIII. AND XIV. SUIT-MARKS OP A COMPOSITE CHARACTER. 'N plate 13 are represented facsimiles, the actual size, of three cardpieces from the sequence described in vol. i. p. 189, G. 120. The suit-marks in the rare and interesting series from which these examples have been taken are of a mixed character. The signs of three of the suits are of Italian im- port, viz., cups, swords, and clubs, while the fourth suit has fruit or the pomegranate for its symbol. Although the actual design of the sword — here a scimitar — and that of the club are not Italian in character, yet the interlaced manner in which the marks of the suits on the nine of swords and on the eight and nine of clubs are figured, evinces the spirit of the Italian numerals. The designs of the vessels on the different pieces of the suits of cups are of a Mediaeval or Gothic character, their feeling and technic evincing the craft of both goldsmith and gold- smith-engraver. The cardpieces selected are the sevens of cups and pome- granates and the queen of swords (vol. i. p. 191). The remarks previously made (p. 64) in reference to schellen, or bells, as a suit-mark should be referred to, as the pomegranate is therein mentioned. On plate 14 is given, in facsimile and of actual size, a full page from the series G. 161, described in vol. i. p. 221, as the "Charta Lusoria," or " Book of Cards," by Jobst Amman. The series in question characteristically illustrates the curious and varied suit-marks occasionally employed by the German de- signers, for we have in the " Charta Lusoria " printers' ink-balls, books, metal wine-cups, and glass or earthenware bossed vases, as marks of the suits. It also affords an example of the amusing and grotesque auxiliary compositions with which the Teutonic artists adorned their cards. The example selected is the three of the suit 72 DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES. of bossed vases. The lines below the design may be freely trans- lated as follows : — " Since man and wife are drunk and blind, Behold, my friends, the dog has mind To have Ms share and fill his jowl, So claims at once the roasted fowl ; Thus, in such cases, none need wonder Honour and riches oft sink under, For such example as the master Sets, will his servants follow after." As to whether this series of cardpieces was intended for ordi- nary play or not consult vol. i. pp. 222^ 224. PLATES XV, XVI., AND XVII. N these plates are represented facsimiles^ the actual size, of three sheets from the series of German nume- rals described at p. 192, G. 122 of vol. i. The sheets chosen are No. 2 (plate 15), No. 5 (plate 16), and No. 3 (plate 17). On plate 15 may be seen a knave of herzen, or roth, a king of schellen, grelots, or bells, a knave of eicheln, or glands, and portions of five other figures. On plate 16 are a king of herzen, or roth, a knave of herzen, a king of eicheln, and portions of cardpieces of the suits lauh or griin, schellen, herzen, etc. On plate 17 are shown the four of herzen, the five of schellen, the two of schellen, and portions of three other cards, the central piece being of the suit schellen. On the two of schellen, in plate 17, is the figure, comparatively large, of a lion, below the marks of the suit. We may here recall to mind that Mr. Chatto, who first described these cardpieces (G. 122), and as not, probably, of a later date than 1440, and executed from stencils, was of opinion that they were not unlikely the production of a Venetian card-maker. This opinion was based on the circumstance that "a, lion, the emblem of St. Mark, the patron saint of Venice, and a distinctive badge of the city, appears, as in the annexed cut, in the suit of bells, and a similar figure, with part of a mutilated inscription, occurs in the suit of acorns." (Bibl. 4, p. 89.) It is a curious circumstance that the most ancient document supposed to refer to wood-engraving in Italy is an order of the Venetian Senate, of the date 1441, refusing to permit the importation 74 COMMENTARY ON AND of playing-cards SbSid. figure stampide into Venice. It has hence been assumed, and no doubt correctly-j that playing-cards were then made in that city, or otherwise the Senate would not have been petitioned by the card-makers to preserve their monopoly. It has also been assumed that such cards and figure stampide were executed by means of wood-engravings ; an assumption of very doubtful accuracy, since they may have been the product of pure hand-work and of stencils, or of a process like that known as "block-printing," or stamping. Passavant, however, maintained that from this order of the Venetian Senate, and the particular terms made use of in it, " engraving on wood was already (1441) known, and practised throughout the extent of the Eepublic at a rather early period ; and if not any examples remain of Italian playing-cards, or other en- gravings on wood of this period, we are forced to conclude that the art of wood-engraving had never obtained but a very secondary rank there, and that it soon fell into desuetude.^' Passavant then refers to the opinion of Chatto as to the Venetian origin of the series of cards which plates 15, 16, and 17 partly illustrate: — "Chatto gives, it is true, in his work entitled ' Origin and History of Playing-cards,' London, 1848, p. 88, facsimiles of playing-cards preserved in the British Museum, which he believes to be of Venetian origin, from the circumstance that on the two of beUs may be seen a lion, which he takes for the lion of Saint Mark ; but it should be observed that the lion is not winged, which it would have been were it the heraldic lion. We may remark, at the same time, that these cards, engraved on wood (as is evident from the breaks observed in them), are copies of playing-cards some of the original series of which are preserved in the library at Berlin, as before stated. The latter cards are much better drawn and engraved than are the cards in London, and if it be maintained that the latter are really of Venetian manufacture (which we cannot allow), they offer us but a sorry specimen of Venetian art at that period." (Bibl. 7, vol. i. p. 130.) We agree with Passavant as to the character of the lion on the two of bells, but believe, on the other hand, with Chatto, that the pre- sent cardspieces were worked from stencils,and not from wood blocks. Of what process the Berlin examples are the result we cannot say, as we have not seen them. Mr. Taylor (Bibl. 9, p. 115) observes, in reference to the date of production : " It is, after all, very possible that the estimated antiquity of these cards may be erroneous ; for we have before us examples of a pack answering in every respect the description given, and corresponding exactly with the plates, save that the card-makers' arms on the deuces is wanting, and on the nine of hearts the date 1546 is legibly impressed in Arabic numerals, and, in addition to DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES. "JS the colours Before mentioned, yellow is employed for the bells and the kings' crowns." It is true that these remarks were more immediately applied by Mr. Taylor to the German pack described by Mr. Gough in the eighth volume of the " Archseologia," and generally known as the " Stukely cards'' (vol. i. pp. 27, 193, 194) ; but since he considered the present set to resemble the " Gough cards " in essential particulars, his observations as to the date of production of the former series are not inapplicable here : — " This resemblance [between the ' Stukely cards ' and the stencilled cards of 1440 ?] is most strikingly seen in the king of bells, the design of which in both packs is nearly identical. The number of ' pips ' appears also to have been the same, with the same ' coat ' or court-cards, king, knight or superior officer, and a knave or inferior — or, as Mr. Chatto expresses it, king. Jack, and Jack's man." In connection with what has been stated regarding the order of the Venetian Senate in respect to figure stampide, the author's "Introduction to the Study and Collection of Ancient Prints," 2hd edition, vol. i. pp. 43-48, may be consulted for further details. PLATES XVIII. AND XIX. EEBON are figured two sheets from the series of ' French numerals described at p. 110, vol. i. F. 42, and referred to in the table of noteworthy series I (p. 341) as the " Chatto cards," or the cards from the i binding of the " Sermones M. Vincenti." On plate 18 is a facsimile, the actual size, of the sheet con- taining the valets of trefles and piques repeated. The valet of trefles is entitled " Lancelot," the valet of piques, " Hogier." On plate 19 is represented the sheet of pip-numerals con- taining the four, five, eight, and ten of the suit coeurs. It may not be out of place to recall here the statement of Mr. Chatto, that, " From the red rose which appears on the shield held by Valery,^ an Englishman might be justified in supposing that these cards, if not of English manufacture, were more especially, if not exclusively, fabricated for the English market, at a period shortly after the accession of Henry VII., when the Red Rose of Lancaster had obtained the ascendency." It must be remembered, however, that at the period to which Mr. Chatto refers these cards the union of the Roses had been effected by the marriage of Henry VII. (red) with the Princess Elizabeth, daughter of Edward IV. (white), a.d. 1486. The badge of Henry VII. after this marriage was the Tudor rose — quarterly gules and argent. In a note at p. 219 of his work, Mr. Chatto remarks: "M. Duchesne observes that of all the old cards preserved in the Biblioth^que du Roi only one displays a rose — namely, a king. There is an old coat-card, engraved on copper, in the print-room of the British Museum, which, like that alluded to by Mons. Duchesne, has a rose as the mark of the suit." We cannot strictly identify the card here alluded to by Mr. Chatto, but under I. 142 (p. 92, vol. i.), and G. 143 (p. 207, vol. i.), suits of roses are described. ' See the sheet containing the two valets of cmurs, in T. 42 (vol, i. p. 110). PLATE XX. ?N this plate are represented facsimiles^ the actual size, of eight pieces from the Hindustani series of circular cards described under 0. H. 250, p. 331, vol. i. " In the East," writes Boiteau d'Ambly " {pp. cit. p. 86), "the circular form is loved, is worshipped; this form which is the symbol of Pantheism. In Europe we reject it; we prefer angles." The examples selected are from each of the suits, red, green, and yeUow, and from the series or ranks of orange-yellow, medium green, deep green, light red, deep red, and chocolate-red. No. 1 is the three of geese of the series or rank orange-yellow. No. 2 is the six of light- coloured birds with slate wings, of the light red rank. No. 3 is the ten of geese of the orange-yellow rank. No. 4 is the schah, or king, of the light green rank, having a red bird for its symbol. No. 6 is the mounted (camel) mi,sseer of the medium green series or rank, which has the goose for its symbol. No. 6 is the mounted (white horse) wusseer of the deep red rank, which has a black bird for its symbol. No. 7 is the seated schah, or king, of the deep green rank, having the goose as its symbol. No. 8 is the seated schah, or king, of the medium green series, which has the goose for its symbol. For further details connected with the series from which these examples have been taken reference should be made to vol. i. pp. 331, 332, and in connection with the subject of Oriental cards generally, to p. 68 of the first volume. PLATE XXI. 'N this plate are represented twelve pieces, from six different sets or packs of Chinese playing-cards. Nos. 1 and 2, beginning at the left hand, are from the set 0. C. 251, p. 333, vol. i. The examples given are a figure from the suit of arms or batons, and the seven of chains. Nos. 3 and 4 are from, the set 0. 0. 255, p. 335, vol. i. The examples are taken from the suits of money and heads. TTos. 5 and 6 are from the set 0. 0. p. 293 of the present volume. The examples given are from the suits of tables and heads. Nos. 7 and 8 are from the set 0. C. p. 294 of the present volume. They are from the suits of carriages and horses, which have the signs of ticks and fishes respectively in the middle of the cards. Nos. 9 and 10 are from the suit 0. C. p. 296 of the present volume. The examples given are from the suits of figures and frOm the " animated " suit. Nos. 11 and 12 are from, the set 0. C. p. 295 of the present volume. The pieces selected are from the suit of black knights and the suit indicated by contracted characters not easilv de- cipherable. PLATE XXII. COPY of a miniature in a manuscript volume^ pre- served in the British Museum, and fully described at p. 14, vol. i. (Singer, Bibl. 8, p. 68. "Art Journal" for 1859, p. 87.) ' " Le Roman du Roi Meliadus de Leonnoy s par Helie de Borron.'' Additional MSS. vol. i. 1828-1841, No. 12,228. PLATE XXIII. ?N this plate are represented the actual and relative sizes of some of the largest and smallest playing- cards known. No. 1 . Actual size of old German figure-cards of the fifteenth century. Preserved in the Royal col- lection at Stuttgart. (Vol. i. p. 47. Merlin, Bibl. 6, plates 60 and 61.) Wo. 2. Size of the Garte di Baldini, or the so-called " Tarocchi of Mantegna," of the version of 1470 in the British Museum. (Vol. i: p. 65. Bibl. 2, plates 21-70. Singer, Bibl. 8, p. 202. No. 3. Size of the cards known as the " Gringonneur cards/'' or the " cards of Charles VI." Preserved in the Cabinet des Estampes de la Bibliotheque Royale de Prance. (Vol. i. pp. 13, 19, 24. Bibl. 2, plates 2-18. Chatto, Bibl. 4, p. 198.) No. 4. Size of a Flemish tarot belonging to a pack in the British Museum. Fl. 103. (Vol. i. p. 179.) No. 5. Actual size of a French numeral-cardof the nineteenth century. From a pack in the British Museum. F. 63. (Vol. i. p. 122.) No. 6. Size of a tarot-card for a tarocchino game from a sequence in the British Museum. I. 8. (Vol. i. p. 84.) INDEX. INDEX TO PROPER NAMES. ^ARON, 64. Acapulca, 31. Addha-Nari, 52, 62. A, Iva, 8. Amman Jobst, 7 1 . ~9 Andrea Zoan, 66. Angelo, Michael, 4. Aragon, Catharine of, 67. Aristotle, 67. Baal, 54. Baldini, 59. Bancks, 26. Barrington Daines, Hon., 67. Bembo, Cardinal, 50. Bemabo, 3. Bissell, 24. Boccia, 7. Bocciardi, 7. Boiteau d'Ambly, 56, 69. Breitkopf, 5, 51, 65. Brunetti, 3, 4. Brunswick, Dukes of, 65. Bucelini, 65. Bullet, 66. Bungi, 53, 56. Caen, 15. Catharine of Aragon, 67. Chatto, 40, 65, 67, 68, 73, 74- Chigi, Donna Guilia, 3. Colomba, 6. Cotta, 23. Court de Gebelin, 49, 51, 55, 57- Cowell, 30. Daniel, 66, Darby, 31. Desbarrolles, 51. Douglass, Professor, 42. Dubois, 18. Duchesne, 76. Dupe, Monsieur, 30. Diirer, Albert, 69. Eccard, 65. Edward m., King, 25. Edwards, 31. Egypt, 49- Elisha, 54. Elizabeth, Princess, 76. Etteilla, t,i, 56. Ezekiel, $$,■, 58. Ferdinand II., of Aragon, 7. Ferdinando VII., 1 1 . F. G. B. (Berlin), 22. Florio, 4. Forest, Sir William, 67. Forns, 12, I3. Fortuna, 6. Gebelin, Court de, 49, Jl, 55, 57. George III., Rex, 26. George IV., King, 26. Gibson, 26. Ginsburg, 5I. Gough, 4, 75. Great Mogul, 26. Guelpho-Brunswiok House, 65. Hall, 26. HeUer, 69. Henry VI., Emperor, 65. Henry VII., 76. Henry VIII., 67. Hera, 51. Hermes, 50, 53. Herodotus, 57. Isabella of Castile, 7. Jackanapes, 68. Jehovah, 63. 84 John, St., 58. Judas, 56- Juno, 51. Jupiter, 51. Keysler, 65. Kircher, 50. Kitto, 64 INDEX TO PROPER NAMES. Rameses II., 57. Reinbeck, 24. Rhampsinitus, 57- Ribou, 15. Ridan, 14. Rosas, 9. Lampe, 65. Landi, 5. Lazzarini, 3. Leber, 63, 65, 66. Levi, Eliphas (Alphonse Constant), 50, 55, 58. Liege, 18. Louisen von Preuesen, 24. Ludlow, 26. LUneburg, 65. Mandrou, 15. Mantegna, 59, 66. Medici, Cosmo de, 6. Mercury, 50- Merlin, 40, 59, 69. Mithra, 62. Mogul, the Great, 26. Morris, 30, 31. Munich, 6. NapoliMl3. Noah, 53. Osiander, 24. Osiris, 60. Otto IV., 65. Passavant, 74. Payer, 57. PhUip II., 67. Pignalosa, 13. Postel, 58. Pythagoras, 55. Seller, 36. Shakespeare, 27 Singer, 68. Smith,J., 4. Solesioe, 8. Stephens, F. George, 32. Suffolk, Duke of, 68. Sure Card, Monsieur, 31. Swabia, 35. Taylor, 55, 68, 74. "Tegetthoff," 57- Telman von Wesel, 69. Thauth, Thot, 50. Tofani, 5. Turkey, 19. Tuscany, 4. Valery, 76. Vanni, $. Volay, Jehan, 7. Wales, Prince of, 26. Wales, Princess of, 26. Watson, C. Knight, 4. Weigel, 35. Weingarten, 65. Wesel, Telman von, 69. Wheeler, 25, 26. Wilson, 36. Wulphild, 65. Zestermann, 35. Zeus, 51. Zoroaster, 49. INDEX TO SUBJECTS. BRAXAS, 54. Acorn ornaments, 35. Addha-Nari of Hin- dus, 52, 62. ^dipi Egyptiaci, 50. Almanack cards, 23. Amateur, engravings of an, 36. Amusing cards, 14, 23, 29. Animals of Kabbalah, 58. Animated cards, 43, 69, 70. Antiquaries, Society of, 4, 6. Archffiologia, 4, 67. Archangels, the chief, 54. Atutti, 5. Bacchanale & la Cuve, La, 66. Baldini, Carte di, 59. Bells, 64, 65, 66. Bell decoration, 66. Book of Cards, by Jobst Amman, 71. Books (suit-marks), 7 I. Border lines, broken in Spanish cards, 8. Card makers, 49. Cards, amusing, 14, 23, 29. animated, 43. costume, 19. circular, 39. of Charles VI., SS- educational, 28. with fables, 20. English, 2S, 67. emblematic, 5. geographic, 10, 12, 28. of Gringonneur, 55. humorous, 29. satirical, 30, 31. sizes of, 80. of European origin, 1, 47. of Eastern or of Oriental origin, 47. Cards, Chinese, 41, 78. for ecclesiastics, 36. English, 2S, 67. Flemish, 18. French, 14, 63. German, 19, 63, 69. Italian, 3. of Rouen, 7. Spanish, 7. Oriental, 37, 39, 77. Hindustani, 77. Book of, by Jobst Amman, 7 1 . the "Chatto," 76. Carreaux, 66. Carte di Baldini, 59. Cartomancy, 48, 68. Cavalli, 5. Charior, le, 53. Charles VI., cards, 55. " Charta Lusoria," 7 1 . " Chatto cards," the, 76. Chinese characters, 4 1 . playing-cards, 41. Cipher, sacred, 35. Circular-cards, 39. Coate-cards, 8. Coeurs, 66. Collection, Weigel, 35. Costume-cards, 19. Cotta's card almanack, 23. Cross, Holy, 35. Crowned Heads of Europe, 3 1 . Cteis, 63. Cups (suit-mark), 7 1 . " Curse of Scotland," 68. "Death," 56. Diamonds, King of, 68. nine of, 68. Divination, 48. Dog (suit-mark), 70. INDEX TO Doniino points, 43. Duck (suit-mark), 70. Duty on cards, 26. stamp, 26. Ecclesiastics, cards for, 36. Educational, instructive cards, 28. Edward I"V., 76. Eicbeln, 35. Emblematic cards, 5. Emerald table of Hermea, 51. English cards, 25. English suit-marks, 61, 67, 68. French „ 61,66,67. German „ 62, 63, 66. Italian „ 61,62. Spanish „ 61, 62. Espadille, 16. Evangelists, symbols of, 59- Fable cards, 20. Falcon (suit-mark), 70. Falconry, 64- Fancy Shakespeare cards, 27. Pantiglie, 5. Figure stampide, 73, 75. Flemish cards, 18. Fleur-de-lis, 66. " Fortune," 66. France and Germany, suit-marks of, 63. Geographic cards, 10, 12, 28, 36. German cards, 19. numerals, 20. German suit-marks, 73. Grelot, 66. Grenville Library, 32. Gringonneur cards, 55. Hares, suit of, 69. Hermanubis, 55. Hieroglyphs, 49. Hindustani cards, 39. Holy Cross, 35. Humorous cards, 29. Ink balls (suit-marks), 71. I sis of the Hindus, 52. Italian playing-cards, 3. Jackanapes, 68. Kabbalah, 47, 48, 51. animals of, 58. Karo, 23. King of diamonds, 68. Knighthood, orders of, 25, 26. Lancaster, red rose of, 76. L'Hombre, 15, 16, i?- Lingam, 55. Lion of St. Mai-k, 73. Maison, Dieu le, 57. Mantegna, tarocchi of, 59. " Marte," 60. " Matto," 4, 59. 69- Men, 64. Menchia, 4. Menchiatte, 4. Mensa isiaca, 50. Minohiate, 3, SS, SI- Miniature, of playing at, cards, 79. in Le Roman du Roi Meliadus, 79. Miscellanea, 15, 17, 30. " Misero," 59, 60. Monde, Le, 59. Mort, La, 56. Name, the Divine, 63. Naypes, 8. Nine of diamonds, 68. Numeral-cards, signs of their suits, 61. Numeral series, 5. Numerals, EngHah, 25. Flemish, 18. German, 20. German, suit-marks of, 73. Spanish, "J. Old cards at Stuttgart, 69, 70. Orders of knighthood, 25, 26. Oriental playing-cards, 37, 77. Osiris, 60. Pape, le, 51. Papesse, la, 51. Parroquets, suit of, 69. Pendu, le, 55. Pick, 23. Piquet (English), 27. Phallus, 63. Plates, description of, 47, 49. Political and personal satires, catalogue of, 32. Politico-Satirical cards, 30, 3 1 . Pomegranate (suit-mark), 64, 91. Red Rose of Lancaster, 76. Rose, Red, of Lancaster, 76. SUBJECTS. 87 Rota, 58. Roue de Fortune, la, 55. Satirical cards, 30, 3 1 . Schah, 39. Schelle, 66. Schellen, 64, 66. or Grelots or Bells, 66. Scotland, curse of, 68. Septenary principle, 53. Sermones, M. Vincenti, 76. Seven, the number, 53. Signs, symbols of suits, explication of, 62. Signs of suits in ItaKan cards, 61. Spanish cards, 6 1 . IVench and English cards, 5 1 . German cards, 62. Signs, symbols of suits, 61. Spain, Kings of, 11. Spanish numerals, 7. playing-cards, 7. with broken border lines, 8. Sphere, flying, 55. Stag (suit-mark), 70. Stamp duty, 26. Stuttgart, old cards at, 69, 70. Suits, animated, 43. Suit-marks, animated, 69, 70. Suit-marks of various countries, 61, of England, 67, 68. of France, meaning of, 66, 67. Germany, meaning of, 66. composite, 71. Symbols of ancient Tarots, 53. of Evangelists, 58. Table of Cardinal Bembo, 50. of Hermes, 51. Tarocchi, 4, 59. Tarocchi Valore, di, 3. Tarocchi of Mantegna, 59. Tarocchino di Bologna, 56. Tarok-Karte, 19, 20. Tarot, the, 58. Tarots, symbol of ancient, 53. German, 19. Italian, 58. Venetian, 5. Tau, 55 " Tegetthoff," the, 57. Tetragramma, 50. Thot, Book of, 50, 56. Tora, 58. Trefle, 66. Turkish costume-cards, 19. Valery, 76. Valore di Tarocchi, 3. Varia, 35. Vases, bossed (suit-mark), 7 1 . Venetian Lion, 73. Senate, 73. Tarots, 5. Wheels of Ezekiel and Pythagoras, 5S, 58. Wine-cups (suit-marks), 71. AVusseer, 39. CHISWICK PRESS : — C. WHITTINGHAM, TOOKS COUKT. CHANCJIKY LANE. LIMPERATRISG Mt[S_LON0RH:S _a -LAMOVREVX - t3 PH0T0GRAV:JPE 4= imp GOUPIL fc Cf*^ _ PARIS _ LONDRES Ill XII I {!ifuuiiiili.^ui^;^^iui4iW \ %)|l / •LE-PENBV PKOTOCEAVURE i Ti.IP CorpIL S- C'= _ PARIS -l.OfJDRE-; IV xjjir ".TENPEKAMCE ^A xv LE X)1ABEE Q 3 XVT LA MAI S OK TJIEV '■.VURF_ & IMP I V X.VU WlWf$ r /:?I.ESTOILLE D L ALV M E ' Q FMO rOGRAVURE &TMP GOUPIL 6> C'^ _ PABIS _LONDT!E J kIMP GOUPIL &; C^E_ PA_":v _ Vll PHOTGi^RAVURE umv C-uUFlL ^ c^-_ PARIS _L0]-Uip.5S Vlll M'^,RiT':^. j9-.'--u: FHOTOGBftVUBE &IMP, GOUPtL it C^ _ PARIS -LCUPPE ? XI V ♦ V V V ♦ 4 4 * ♦ ♦ Xli "HOTQCRftVTJRF. 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