"lombarde" ( lombardy pattern )

Lombardy pattern by Modanio.
40 cards.
Note the jack of clubs. on his chest is the arms of -  the house of visconte* a serpent busy swallowing a man...
 This pattern also comes in a form with indexes ( the court cards bear their titles in italian, spelled vertically on the corners, and the pips have indexes like those on normal playing cards), called the " lombarde estro"( see http://anthonylesq.blogspot.com/2012/05/milaneselombardy-pattern-ag-muller.html)

*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biscione

"piacentine" ( modanio)

Piacentine pattern , by Modanio.
40 cards.
Pedants consider this deck, despite being used in italy, as "spanish suited"
Why?
Well, there are a couple of reasons...
Firstly, compare it with this deck.
http://anthonylesq.blogspot.com/2011/10/trevigiane-venetian-pattern.html (the venetian)
Now; note the shapes of the suits of swords and batons.
In the Piacentine, the swords look like daggers, and are placed seprately, as opposed in the Venetian, where the swords look like curved sabers, joining each other at the ends to form a pleasing oval shape
The same occurs with the batons, which, here, look like lumps of wood, and in Ventian, are represented as staves, or rods, and interlace in a trelis fashion.

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Now, is it just me, or does the king of coins in this pattern look like the king of diamonds in a bog standard English pattern? ( 3rd image. )

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(N.B 2 of coins added for interest. I personaly find the faces on it amusing)

 

For a deck of this pattern produced by the French maker Grimaud , see http://anthonylesq.blogspot.sg/2013/10/no85-carte-di-giuoco-piacentine-pattern.html

Paris pattern ( France Cartes)

This deck is of the paris pattern, and of 32 cards.
this deck is not very interesting, until you compare it with other decks.
try comparing it with ....
http://anthonylesq.blogspot.com/2011/10/paris-pattern-cards.html
http://anthonylesq.blogspot.com/2011/10/paris-pattern-single-faced.html
http://anthonylesq.blogspot.com/2011/10/russian-playing-cards-by-piatnik.html
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A very interesting feature of this deck is the fact that the court cards have names...
                  king               queen            jack
spades      David         Pallas       Hogier
cubs          Alexander  Argine      Lancelot
hearts       charles      Judith       Lahire
diamonds  cesar         Rachel      Hector

Now, to say that the cards actually  represent the people above (something commonly claimed) is just a matter of wishful thinking. the only exception being the king of spades, ( David) carries a harp, an instrument associated with that king.