Pierre Marechal, Rouen c.1567

Below: cards based upon the mid-sixteenth century designs of Pierre Marechal of Rouen.

fter the development of the printing industry at the end of the 15th century, Rouen became an important centre for card-making whose influence extended far afield. Packs of playing cards reached England from Rouen, indeed, many were smuggled via the Isle of Wight.

A pack of cards made by Pierre Marechal c.1567 preserved in the museum at Rouen is undoubtedly the model from which our English pack subsequently evolved. The style of the costumes on English playing cards is late medieval, being descended from the Rouen models.

Other early examples of French cards also show details which appear in English cards, for example, some cards discovered inside the covers of a book, from around 1450-75. Again, the medieval costumes are the same ones which have endured into our modern cards.