Frontispiece: P.4098-R-24

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1934-01) by Ledger, Walter

Dating

17th Century#
Production date: AD 1644

Note

Undescribed state of the plate: with the artist's name but before the privilege and without lettering on the stone. Annotated in ink with the title: 'Les / Metamorphoses D'Ovide / nouvellement Inventez par / Etienne de la Belle / 1646'. Frontispiece to a set of 52 playing cards, commissioned as an educational tool for the young Louis XIV of France, along with Jeu de la Géographie, the Jeu des Reynes Renommées and the Cartes des Rois de France. Each card was designed with an image in the upper half, and a lower section for a title, six or seven line of description, numbers and symbols to denote suit. The cards in this album have been trimmed to the image borderlines, and the individual squares have been pasted onto rectangular pieces of blank paper, probably to give an indication of the intended size of the cards rather than to suggest that this is a set of proofs before lettering.

School or Style

Italian
French