Italian renaissance woodcut playing cards

Block F1

There are two groups of fragments known from this woodblock, one in Museo Fournier de Naipes and one sold at a Sotheby’s auction in 1994. Exact matches in how they were cut up demonstrate that they were not only printed at the same time, but also cut up for a specific reuse at the same time.

For the Fournier group, I only have low resolution colour photos of the fragments as they are mounted, with partially overlapping fragments in order to approximate a full view of as many cards as possible. It is thus not entirely certain how many fragments there are, but it looks like five, from at least three different imprints; all of which are uncoloured.

For the Sotheby’s 1994 group I only have black and white photos, but it is clear that some cards are partially colourised. From this woodblock there are eight fragments, two pairs of which with matching edges. As none of the fragments overlap, they could well be from a single imprint.

B3	B2	BA	CA	SA	DA
B9	B8	B7	B6	B5	B4
BF	DF	SF	CF	BC	SC
DC	CC	CR	SR	DR	BR

Fournier, 2 fragments (?)

Fournier, 3 fragments (?)

Sotheby’s 1994 auction, 8 fragments

a₁

a₂

b

c₁

c₂

d

e

f

Combined images

In order to show the combined coverage of the fragments, I have assembled mosaics of the Fournier and Sotheby’s fragments separately. The third montage combines these, and fills in the remaining gaps in the second row with mirror images of the “reversed” pack.

Fournier

Sotheby’s 1994 auction

Fournier + Sotheby’s + “reversed”