Musikalisches Kartenspiel

Musical playing cards were popular since the 18th century, and dances were favourites. This facsimile of Dondorf’s “Musikalisches Kartenspiel” (c.1862) was published by Lo Scarabeo in 2004 as a homage to the Strauss dynasty which contributed significantly to the development of popular music with such pieces as “Blue Danube”. The court cards feature comical musicians, often with red noses, along with two bars from classical dance scores such as the waltz and polka. The images are in full colour on the 4 aces and 12 court cards, and muted tones on the number cards; the red suited number cards show animal musicians, the black ones feature dancers. The bottom of each card also features a suit symbol and rank indicator thus making the deck double-ended for play. See the Box►

Above: original ace of hearts with tax stamp.

Above: facsimile of Dondorf’s “Musikalisches Kartenspiel” (c.1862) published by Lo Scarabeo, 2004. The facsimile edition contains two jokers plus six extra description cards, not part of the original edition which contained 52 cards only. Images courtesy Rex Pitts.

The artwork appears to be by the same draughtsman who produced Cartes Comiques►