This sheet with examples of seven cards originally attached but now removed (E.410:1-8-2005) are a remarkable survival documenting an intriguing interface between politics, social history and design in the crucial years of the French Revolution. These were submitted to secure official approval and copyright (brevet d’invention) and have the four page printed description and explanation to accompany them.

The year 1789 saw the outbreak of revolution in France in which the ancient regime (literally the old rule) was being challenged by those eager to replace the unlimited royal power of an absolute monarchy with a new constitution. The country became immersed in revolutionary politics. The ideals of the new order were disseminated through newspapers and pamphlets, political clubs and public festivals and by a wealth of novel imagery and visual symbolism intended to reinforce the revolutionary message and eliminate any reference to the old regime. This extended to items used in everyday life such as playing cards bearing revolutionary and later, Napoleonic imagery. In this advertisement the traditional representations of kings, queens and knaves, evocative of royal rule, have been replaced with classically inspired-figures - the Revolution strongly identified with the democratic ideals of the Roman Republic. The kings have become Geniuses, the queens Liberty and the knaves Equality. The aces are the Law of the French Republic and are represented by Roman republican fasces (bundles of wooden rods) lashed together. The red Phrygian or liberty cap – symbol of the freed slave – appears on many of the cards. While some of the attributes may only have been understood by an educated minority, the overall message is clear and playing cards would have been an effective way of circulating revolutionary ideals and ideas.

Playing cards of this type are extremely rare and this object, with a provenance from the distinguished later nineteenth-century Lateriade collection, forms a significant addition to the Museum’s holdings of playing cards.