XV Century Hand-painted and Gilded Tarocchi Cards
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Above: three XV century hand-painted and gilded tarocchi cards in the collection of the Bibliothèque Nationale (Paris). These cards are heavily worked with burnished gold leaf and tooled ornamentation reminiscent of medieval illuminated manuscripts and Books of Hours. This expensive and laborious process was, therefore, only affordable by the wealthy. Illustrations of cards in the Bibliothèque Nationale (Paris) are taken from F. King (1988) pp.54 & 56. |
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By Simon Wintle
Member since February 01, 1996
View ArticlesCurator and editor of the World of Playing Cards since 1996. He is a former committee member of the IPCS and was graphics editor of The Playing-Card journal for many years. He has lived at various times in Chile, England and Wales and is currently living in Extremadura, Spain. Simon's first limited edition pack of playing cards was a replica of a seventeenth century traditional English pack, which he produced from woodblocks and stencils.