Jack of Hearts: P.14629-R(35)

Current Location: In storage

Titles

Jack of Hearts

Maker(s)

Printmaker: Unknown

Entities

Playing card

Description

From an incomplete pack of 42 playing-cards with French suits. There are 10 missing cards: Ten of Clubs, Four of Clubs, Nine of Spades, Ace of Spades, Queen of Diamonds, Three of Diamonds, Two of Diamonds, Ten of Hearts, Nine of Hearts, Ace of Hearts. Woodcut with hand colouring on pasteboard. Contained inside a pasteboard box covered in a design of bamboo strips and black tape. A double-ended court card with a decorative strip dividing the two ends. The Jack wears a hat with a blue ribbon and green collar. He holds a halberd in his left hand. The French suit mark of hearts is printed to the left of the Jack's head. The back is printed with a pattern of dots and half circles with dots at the centre in blue ink. An oval-shaped stamp is printed in black ink on the recto. The stamp contains a shield emblazoned with three fleur-de-lis, surmounted by a crown, flanked by two branches. 'DELLE CARTE' can be made out around the upper edge. The stamp is closely comparable to the tax stamp, circa 1830 of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (Naples and Sicily). The stamps indicates that the cards were probably printed in France for use in Naples/Sicily, as packs were stamped in the country of use, not in the country of production.