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pack of playing cards
Panichi, Giovanni - Enlarge image
pack of playing cards
- Place of origin:
Florence (made)
- Date:
circa 1730-40 (made)
- Artist/Maker:
Panichi, Giovanni (maker)
- Materials and Techniques:
Woven silk - cream satin gathered with supplementary weft of black for Clubs and Spades, red for Hearts and Diamonds, and four or five colours for the Court cards: black, blue, green, red and beige. The one exception is the King of Hearts which has additional red.
Etching on paper - backs consist of an etching of a halbedier supporting the arms of the Grand Dukes of Tuscany wrapped round the woven silk card.
- Museum number:
271:1-48-1866
- Gallery location:
Europe 1600-1815, Room 1, case CA1
This card in woven silk comes from a pack of forty eight (all the tens are missing). The backs of the cards in the pack, which are all identical, are covered with a seventeenth century print of a halbedier holding a shield bearing the arms of the Grand Dukes of Tuscany. The backs are wrapped around the edge of the woven image, a characteristic of Italian packs of the period. The Court cards (King, Queen and Knave) are based on a French design known as the Auvergne pattern. These cards may have been made as a gift, possibly a wedding present. The six of Hearts has the name of the maker, Giovanni Panichi, and his weavers’ mark, woven into the design.
