Erhard Schön, c. 1528

Most if not all of the 48 cards of this beautiful pack made by Erhard Schön around 1528 survive, spread across several collections. Structurally, it is a standard German pack, but with non-standard suit signs. Like in the slightly older pack by Hans Sebald Beham, pomegranates replace bells and roses replace hearts so that all four suits grow from trees. It also shares the unusual shape of the leaves in that suit, but deviates even further from the norm by replacing acorns with grapes.

The pip cards are printed from two separate engravings, where the upper ones contain the suit symbols, and the lower satirical scenes. Twelve scenes corresponding to the lower part of similar cards are ascribed to the same artist, plus a thirteenth design possibly intended as a card. It is not known if these were intended as alternate scenes for the same pack, or a similar pack, perhaps with the standard German suits.

	Trauben Grapes	Laub Leaves	Rosen Roses	Granatäpfeln Pomegranates
Daus Deuce
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Unter Under-knave
Ober Over-knave
König King
Fragments