Three of Swords
Printmaker:
Unknown
Publisher:
Clarizia, Dionisio
A hand-coloured woodcut of three long swords arranged side by side, a baldric wrapped around. The card is unnumbered. From an incomplete pack, 38 of 40 cards in the Neopolitan pattern, for the game of Ombre. The missing cards are the King of Clubs and the Ace of Clubs. Ombre, a card game which originated in Spain in the 16th century, uses a stripped deck where all the 8, 9 and 10 ranks are missing. These cards were made in Salerno in southern Italy in 1881 (See Ace of Coins), where cards with Spanish suits were commonly used. Unlike the Italian suits found in northern Italy, swords in the Spanish deck are straight and don't intersect. The backs of the cards feature a design of blue chevrons around a central oval-shaped medallion containing a double-ended image of a group of buildings, presumably in Salerno, but not identified. The backs of the cards are folded over the edges of the fronts forming a border that is typical of Italian-made cards.
A very similar pack, close in date but made in Naples, is in the collection of the British Museum. See: 1875,1211.172-211. The British Museum pack features the same design on the backs of the cards but with a double-ended image of the Royal Palace in Naples.
Given by J.E. Foster, M.A., 1872-1912
Method of acquisition: Unknown by Foster, J.E., M.A.
19th Century
Production date:
AD 1881-03-07
Height 83mm x width 52mm
Accession number: P.14632-R(26)
Primary reference Number: 224934
Stable URI
Owner or interested party:
The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department:
Paintings, Drawings and Prints
This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:
The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024) "Three of Swords" Web page available at: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/224934 Accessed: 2024-11-16 00:47:20
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{{cite web|url=https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/224934
|title=Three of Swords
|author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-11-16 00:47:20|publisher=The
University of Cambridge}}
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