These cards come from a Spanish-suited pack printed by A. Camoin et Cie of Marseille around 1900. The suits are the Spanish ones: coins, cups, swords and clubs, and the ace is the showpiece of each. The ace of coins is a great gold medallion with a lion, hung from a ribbon above a spray of laurel. The ace of cups is a tall covered chalice, and the ace of swords is a sword with an eagle's-head hilt, wound with a ribbon.
By 1878 the Camoin house was the only cardmaker left in Marseille. It also held the woodblocks of Nicolas Conver's Tarot de Marseille of 1760, the pattern behind the French occult tarots that came after. Alongside its tarots the factory printed Spanish packs like this one for North Africa, and the firm worked in Marseille and Casablanca until 1971. The Spanish pack is the everyday card game of Spain, North Africa and Latin America. It is also the pack of Spanish cartomancy, in which each of the forty cards has its own meaning, so a fortune-teller lays out the same cards a card player deals.
The pack came to us with thirty-nine of its forty cards; the four of cups was already gone. We are offering the cards singly. Choose the card from the menu; each one is shown in the photographs. The fourth ace, the ace of clubs, carries the maker's name and is offered on its own.
A. CAMOIN ET CIE. [Spanish-suited playing cards.] Marseille: A. Camoin et Cie, [c. 1900]. A single ace from a pack of forty, of which thirty-nine survive.
Physical Description: Playing card printed in color on pasteboard, with rounded corners. The suit sign drawn large, the index number 1 at head and foot. Back printed with a light blue pattern.
Condition: Toned, with light wear and soiling from use; individual cards vary, as the photographs show.
These cards come from a Spanish-suited pack printed by A. Camoin et Cie of Marseille around 1900. The suits are the Spanish ones: coins, cups, swords and clubs, and the ace is the showpiece of each. The ace of coins is a great gold medallion with a lion, hung from a ribbon above a spray of laurel. The ace of cups is a tall covered chalice, and the ace of swords is a sword with an eagle's-head hilt, wound with a ribbon.
By 1878 the Camoin house was the only cardmaker left in Marseille. It also held the woodblocks of Nicolas Conver's Tarot de Marseille of 1760, the pattern behind the French occult tarots that came after. Alongside its tarots the factory printed Spanish packs like this one for North Africa, and the firm worked in Marseille and Casablanca until 1971. The Spanish pack is the everyday card game of Spain, North Africa and Latin America. It is also the pack of Spanish cartomancy, in which each of the forty cards has its own meaning, so a fortune-teller lays out the same cards a card player deals.
The pack came to us with thirty-nine of its forty cards; the four of cups was already gone. We are offering the cards singly. Choose the card from the menu; each one is shown in the photographs. The fourth ace, the ace of clubs, carries the maker's name and is offered on its own.
A. CAMOIN ET CIE. [Spanish-suited playing cards.] Marseille: A. Camoin et Cie, [c. 1900]. A single ace from a pack of forty, of which thirty-nine survive.
Physical Description: Playing card printed in color on pasteboard, with rounded corners. The suit sign drawn large, the index number 1 at head and foot. Back printed with a light blue pattern.
Condition: Toned, with light wear and soiling from use; individual cards vary, as the photographs show.
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