Playing cards engraved in silver from Peru, 1745
Wealthy card players have always enjoyed playing with expensive luxury sets of
illuminated, hand-painted and gilded cards, or cards printed from finely
engraved plates. Silver playing cards are recorded as having been used
at the French court in the reign of Louis XV, probably not because
silver was cheaper than paper or vellum! Engraved silver cards are said
to have become fashionable as early as the end of the sixteenth century
for inclusion in princely display cabinets and examples are known with
French, German and Italian suits. [See for example cliché no. E3407 in the
Royal
Institute for Cultural Heritage, Bruxelles]
The example of Spanish-suited silver cards shown here is grotesquely embellished and enamelled. It came from a former Spanish Viceroy in Peru and is dated 1745. The ace of coins displays the arms of Castille and León and the two-headed imperial eagle. A similar set is said to be in the Museo de America in Madrid and yet another in Italy.
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