Queen of Diamonds: P.14638-R(1)

Current Location: In storage

Titles

Queen of Diamonds

Maker(s)

Printmaker: Unknown
Publisher: Unknown

Entities

Playing card

Description

A hand-coloured woodcut on pasteboard laid down on a large piece of mount board (height 407mm x 277mm) with six other cards from the same pack. A partial playing card portraying what appears to be the Queen of Diamonds ('Carreaux'), although only half of the suit-marker is visible at upper right. The Queen is seated on a throne, facing right and holding out her hands in an attitude of benediction. The card has been cut down along the upper and left edges. An inscription in Old French is printed along the right edge: 'reverance.ala.royne' [trans. 'reverence to the Queen']. The image and text are contained within a border which is visible along the lower and right edges. French suits adopted the standing kings and queens of Spanish suits during the 15th-century and so the seated queen here may indicate an earlier legacy from German suits from which French suits derive. The style of the designs, especially in the facial features and hair, is very similar to those made by Jehan Faucil in Rouen in France during the early-mid 16th century. Faucil was active in Rouen c.1540 to c.1560. See uncut and uncoloured sheets in the British Museum collection: 1851,0208.13-18. A handwritten inscription in graphite at lower right on the recto of the mount board: 'From the Brent Eleigh Library: found / shut up between the leaves of a book. / 1891'. Another inscription in graphite in a different hand (probably Eric Chamberlain, Assistant Keeper of Prints, 1962-1975) on the verso of the mount board: 'French / ?early 16th century'.