This is the ace of clubs from a Spanish-suited pack printed by A. Camoin et Cie of Marseille around 1900, and it is the maker's own card. Its single great club carries the firm's name in capitals down its length: A. CAMOIN & Cie MARSEILLE. Of the thirty-nine cards that survive from the pack, it is the only one that gives the firm's full name.
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.
A. CAMOIN ET CIE. [Spanish-suited playing cards.] Marseille: A. Camoin et Cie, [c. 1900]. The ace of clubs, a single card from a pack of forty, of which thirty-nine survive.
Physical Description: Playing card printed in color on pasteboard, with rounded corners. A single large club lettered A. CAMOIN & Cie MARSEILLE, the index number 1 at head and foot. Back printed with a light blue pattern.
Condition: Toned, with light wear and soiling from use, and a small dark spot at the left of the club.
This is the ace of clubs from a Spanish-suited pack printed by A. Camoin et Cie of Marseille around 1900, and it is the maker's own card. Its single great club carries the firm's name in capitals down its length: A. CAMOIN & Cie MARSEILLE. Of the thirty-nine cards that survive from the pack, it is the only one that gives the firm's full name.
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.
A. CAMOIN ET CIE. [Spanish-suited playing cards.] Marseille: A. Camoin et Cie, [c. 1900]. The ace of clubs, a single card from a pack of forty, of which thirty-nine survive.
Physical Description: Playing card printed in color on pasteboard, with rounded corners. A single large club lettered A. CAMOIN & Cie MARSEILLE, the index number 1 at head and foot. Back printed with a light blue pattern.
Condition: Toned, with light wear and soiling from use, and a small dark spot at the left of the club.
