Current Location: In storage
Titles
IIII / (Four of Clubs)
Maker(s)
Printmaker:
Unknown
Publisher:
Tourcaty, J. Francois, fils
Entities
Categories
Description
Two pairs of crossed batons with flower motifs and initials 'B.A.'. Roman numeral 'IIII' at centre left and right. From an incomplete pack of Tarot of Marseille, with Italian suits, 73 of 78 (including one partial card). The Two of Coins is inscribed with the publisher's name: 'J . FRANCOIS . TOURCATY . FILS', followed by 'ANNO', although no year of publication is given. 'J. François Tourcaty fils' was the son of playing-card maker and engraver, Jean François Tourcaty (1734-53), who was based in Marseilles. The son's dates are thought to be 1763-1793 after. Missing cards are: King and Queen of Cups, Five of Cups, Three of Swords and Two of Clubs. The trump pack is complete, although the lower half of the first card, 'Le Bateleur', is missing. The numerals of 12, 'The Hanged Man' are printed back-to-front as 'IIX'. A number of the cards are inscribed with initials: 'E.S.' on Two of Swords, Six of Swords and Eight of Swords; 'Le Chariot' bears the initials 'F.T.' ; All the numeral cards of the suit of Clubs are inscribed with the letters, 'B.A.'. The backs of the cards are printed in blue with a 'diamond' pattern. This pack contains suppressed and missing court cards where regal titles and crowns have been effaced and similarly in the trump pack, the titles and crowns of characters on such cards as the Pope, Popess, Emperor and Empress are missing. This suppression of sovereignty was common practice in playing-card production during the revolutionary period in France, 1789-1799, and continued into the early nineteenth century. Other collections hold similarly suppressed packs: See Bibliothèque nationale de France: http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb409185685. Another set, similarly censored, is in the collection of the British Museum: 1896,0501.568.1-58. See O'Donoghue, Freeman, Catalogue of the collection of playing cards bequeathed to the British Museum by Lady Charlotte Schreiber, London, BM, 1901, no. 17.
Legal notes
Bequeathed by Spencer George Perceval, 1923
