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PLAYING CARDS FROM SEVEN CENTURIES WITH THOUSANDS OF ILLUSTRATIONS
ALLEMAGNE, Henry-René d'. Les Cartes a Jouer du XIVe au XXe siècle. ... Ouvrage contenant 3200 reproductions de cartes dont 956 en couleur, 12 planches hors texte coloriées a l'aquarelle, 25 phototypies, 116 enveloppes illustrées pour jeux de cartes et 340 vignettes et vues diverses.
Paris, Librairie Hachette et cie, 1906. Imperial 4to (33 x 25 cm). 2 volumes. Title-pages in red and black, with a colour-halftone frontispiece, reproductions of 3200 historical playing cards (956 in colour), dozens of other plates (some in collotype), and hundreds of illustrations in the text. Some illustrations are printed in colour, but many are hand coloured. The original wrappers and many of the plates show numerous different colours (some more than ten), and some include gold and silver. Original publisher's pictorial wrappers.
| Orders and Information | € 3250 |
First edition of an extensively and beautifully illustrated standard reference work on the history and art of the playing card, with an emphasis on France, but also covering Asia, Germany, Spain, Italy, Switzerland and Belgium: "oeuvre remarquable comme toutes celles de ce savant collectionneur" (Cinq Siècles de Cartes a Jouer). An extraordinarily exhaustive work of scholarship, it covers the origins, evolution, manufacturing techniques, trade and social aspects of playing cards and associated games from the fourteenth to the twentieth centuries. The illustrations reproduce playing cards themselves; wrappers for the packs; woodcuts, paintings, etc. showing people playing cards; and even relevant portraits, city maps and architectural views. Besides normal playing cards, tarot cards and instructional cards, it includes cards with baudy satires, figures from the French Revolution, and many other topics.
D'Allemagne developed his love for playing cards at a very young age. What he was prepared to undergo to improve his collection is illustrated by an anecdote: he once travelled to Asia to acquire two playing cards lacking in his own collection, but to get them he had to accept a crocodile and a panel of blue ceramic tiles from a mosque as well, which he dutifully brought home along with the cards.
In fine condition, with only a tear in the lower spine of the first volume and at the top of the front hinge of the second volume. A marvel of book illustration, devoted to all aspects of playing cards.
