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King of Swords: P.89-1944(21)

Object information

Current Location: In storage

Titles

King of Swords

Maker(s)

Printmaker: Unknown
Publisher: Felix Solesio & Sons

Entities

Categories

Description

A standing king with full-length robe, facing left and holding a straight-edged sword (typical of Spanish suits) in his right hand. The card is untitled. Hand coloured woodcut on pasteboard. From an incomplete pack, 38 of 40 playing cards of a stripped Spanish deck in the Cadiz pattern, made in Madrid in 1892 by Felix Solesio & Sons. The 8 and 9 cards are missing in all suits, indicating the stripped deck, and additionally the Jack of Clubs and the Five of Clubs are lost. The Spanish term for the suit of Swords is 'Espadas'. The standing kings are typical of Spanish card design. The Kings in Italian suits are seated. Each suit is identified by an outline frame known as 'la pinta', which distinguishes the suit without showing the whole card; the Cups have one interruption, the Swords two (as is seen here), the Clubs three, and the Coins none. 'La pinta' first appeared around the mid-17th century. The backs of the cards are printed in blue ink with a repeated pattern of star shapes composed of eight small dots with an isolated dot separating each star.

Legal notes

Given by Revd. F.M. Yglesias, 1944-07

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Given (1944-07) by Yglesias, F. M., Reverend

Dating

19th Century
Production date: AD 1892

Note

Height 92mm x width 56mm

School or Style

Spanish

Techniques used in production

Hand colouring
Woodcut

Identification numbers

Accession number: P.89-1944(21)
Primary reference Number: 225195
Stable URI

Audit data

Created: Wednesday 5 September 2018 Updated: Monday 2 October 2023 Last processed: Friday 8 December 2023

Associated departments & institutions

Owner or interested party: The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department: Paintings, Drawings and Prints

Citation for print

This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:

The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024) "King of Swords" Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/225195 Accessed: 2024-11-25 10:07:31

Citation for Wikipedia

To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:

{{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/225195 |title=King of Swords |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-11-25 10:07:31|publisher=The University of Cambridge}}

API call for this record

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https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/api/v1/objects/object-225195

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