Showing posts with label ten. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ten. Show all posts

Wednesday, 28 December 2011

swiss playing cards "Jass" ( Müller)

Swiss playing cards, AG Müller, 36c.
In switzerland, two kinds of playing cards are used. there is one, with french suits, and another, with the native swiss suits, described here.
 The native swiss playing cards are a very interesting deck to say the least. the cards maintain some ancient features that were one present in german playing cards, but now long gone.
It has been said that the swiss cardmakers were so conservative, a man from the 15th c. will be quite at home with the playing cards of 1950s schaffhausen.
Things of note:
1- the tens have been replaced by banners, a feature found in the most primitive of german cards ( fith card from right in all of the pictures)
2 the court cards have their ranks spelled out (  viz; KÖING, OBER, UNDER)



for the french suited pattern mentioned earlier, see:

Thursday, 17 November 2011

"los dos tigres" ( fournier)

Los dos tigres - fournier, 48c.
this deck is essentially a luxury version of the common or garden Spanish national deck.
http://anthonylesq.blogspot.com/2011/10/spanish-playing-cards.html
What is interesting, however, is that this deck maitains some features that have been lost in the spanish national deck in the meantime. for example, the knight of cups still bears the inscription "AHI VA"
also note the 2 of cups. ot states "DE UNA HOJA"- "ON ONE SHEET"- this message dating back to the days when most cards were made of  sheets of paper & card glued together. a deck that was made of solid card , was therefore, seen to be of better quality, and so this would be advertised
also note the 2 and 3 of coins ( 3rd pic) the maker has cleverly turned the coins to medals, to advertise the superiority of this product!



Friday, 11 November 2011

"bresciane" (modanio)

Bresciane by modanio. 52 cards.
The Brescian pattern is the only italian pattern that invariably has 52 cards. You will not find a 40-card version of this pattern.
The design of this pattern is not unlike the bergamo pattern ( see:http://anthonylesq.blogspot.com/2011/11/bergamasche-modanio.html), viz: it has the same distinctive red & black coins, the cupid on the ace of cups & the 5 of coins has a starburst around the central coin.
other than that, this pattern is much smaller ( 8.5 x 4 cm) ,and the court figures are drawn in a more crude fashion ...