Posted to the medieval trivia list at yahoo (gone now)
I recently found an interesting article about the symbolism on early
German playing cards, so I put together a little video about a deck we
have by the German artist Jost Amman
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTBUygN8fOk
Chas
--
MacGregor Historic Games
http://historicgames.com
The "card spots" common in one place might not be the same as in another! In the U.S. I grew up with spades, hearts, clubs and diamonds. In Spain their club is an actual wooden club, and they have gold, cups and swords. Their playing card art can look like our tarot card art.
I don't know which kind they use in Mexico; anyone know?
The illustration of the Spanish cards from wikipedia:
(click to enlarge)
2 comments:
To see Mayan playing cards (open and scroll down) http://www.culture-making.com/tag/games
From the page Heather brought:
"Mayan playing cards," posted by Andy B, Design Boom, 20 November 2008
Or rather, vintage Soviet playing cards featuring Mayan-esque artwork. I'm not sure if there was a specific internationalist/anti-capitalist intent, or if the designers just thought they'd look neat. Which they do—love that cute opossum/squirrel in the queen's hand!
http://www.culture-making.com/tag/games
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