Jack of Diamonds: P.14638-R(4)

Current Location: In storage

Titles

Jack 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 the Jack of Diamonds ('Carreaux'). There are losses along the right edge and the lower quarter of the card is missing. The figure wears a round helmet with a chin strap and holds a roman-style curved shield in his right hand and a pike or spear in his left. The figure is contained within an archway with an impost below a decorative bracket rising into the arch visible at upper left. An inscription in Old French? is printed along the right edge: '?deoinede'. The image and text are contained within a border which is visible along the upper and left edges. 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 16th century. Faucil was active there c.1540-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'.