Rouen Pattern - Portrait Rouennais

Rouen cardmakers, like their Lyonnais counterparts, exported playing cards widely. However, they did not export an “English pattern” to England: they simply used a local French-suited pattern and exported those so successfully that it became the English pattern, and was adopted by English cardmakers. In its modern, double-ended format it is now the standard Anglo-American or International pattern.

The cards made in Rouen at that time were more elongated than today's cards, and include features from cards made for various foreign markets, hence the origins of what became the "English" pattern is a mixture of several late medieval designs. Although their importation was prohibited early in Edward IV's reign, it is believed that cards like these which were imported to England in the XV and XVI centuries are the ancestors of the modern ‘Anglo-American’ pattern.

Pierre Marechal, 1567

Above: Rouen pattern by Pierre Marechal, 1567. Archives Department, Seine-Maritime, Rouen, France. Facsimile images of these cards can also be found in d'Allemagne (1906, p.86-7 ) and in Gurney Benham.

Pierre Leroux, 1660

Above: 12 cards of the Rouen pattern published by Pierre Leroux (Rouen), c.1656-1664. Plain backs. Stencil-coloured woodcuts, 8,5 x 4,6 cm. Engraver's initials I. B. can be seen on the halberd of the King of Diamonds while the cardmaker's name is on the Jack of Clubs. Source of images: Bibliothèque nationale de France: Cartes de tête issues d'un jeu au portrait de Rouen►

Other early makers include Valery Faucil , Nicolas Bénières, David Dubois, Anthoine Le Cornu and others . Early English pattern cards were also produced in Antwerp by Jehan Henault in 1543. At some point English manufacturers began to make them for themselves. One of the earliest we know about is C. Hewson.

C. Hewson

Above: cards by a maker named C. Hewson, mid-17th century, in what was becoming the standard English pattern • see more►

However, as the French cards were more elongated, the designs needed to be adjusted to fit the different format used by English manufacturers. But when the figures are fitted inside a shorter rectangle, certain body proportions are constrained. Over time the English pattern courts lost their slender figures and life-like qualities and became compressed and more abstract.

• See anonymous English cards found under the floorboards, 1700s

Above: cards by John Llewellyn, playing card manufacturer, London, 1778-1785

References

d'Allemagne, Henry-René : Les cartes à jouer du XIVe au XXe siècle, Hachette et Cie, Paris, 1906. 2 vols.

Bibliothèque nationale de France: Cartes issues de jeux au portrait de Lyon et de Rouen ►

Bibliothèque nationale de France: Copies de cartes au portrait de Rouen éditées par Pierre Maréchal en 1567 ►

Davidson, Rick: ‘Origins’ playing cards booklet The Art & the History►