FULL TITLE: Origine des Cartes a Jouer, Recherches Nouvelles sur les Naïbis, les Tarots et sur les Autres Espèces de Cartes
Written by Romain Merlin
Published by Chez l'auteur et Rapilly, Paris
Language French
DESCRIPTION:
Merlin, Romain. Origine des cartes à jouer. Recherches nouvelles sur les naïbis, les tarots et sur les autres espèces de cartes. Paris, chez l'auteur et chez Rapilly, 1869. 2 parts in 1 vol., (8),144; (4)p., 74 (73) lithograph and engraved plates with numerous foldouts. Missing plate 9 and no plate 58 as always due to numbering error. Bound in brown contemporary half-calf over marbled boards, with original illustrated green paper wrappers bound-in.
We’ve included five late 19th-century replicas of 15th-century Lyonnais cards with the book. These cards are notorious for occasionally appearing on the art market, listed as authentic 15th-century cards. The 19th-century forger (unknown) took a facsimile of the cards published in this book, copied them, pasted them to manuscripts and old print, and then artificially aged them! The five cards include three replica cards from the game “La Pucelle,” by cardmaker Jehan Personne (active in Lyon 1493-1499), and the other two cards from “Jeu de Jaques” by Maître Jaques (card-maker active in Lyon 1472-1485).