Les Mousquetaires Playing Cards

The famous novel 'The Three Musketeers' by Alexandre Dumas was first published in France in July 1844. It is a historical adventure set in the period 1625-1628 when Louis XIII was king of France.
This pack of playing cards which was produced by B.P.Grimaud of Paris in about 1860 has colourful illustrations of all the main characters from the book on the court cards. The pack is named 'Costumes du Temp de Louis 13. Les Mousquetaires' as shown on the wrapper and is the more luxurious version with rounded gold corners. Square cornered versions were also produced. There is a Saxony tax stamp on the ace of hearts from the town of Leipzig.
Notice the name 'Grimaud' on the jack of clubs. This not the name of the printer, but the name of a character in the book who was the servant of Athos and who communicated with his master only in sign language.

I have in my collection a hand coloured ink drawing of the king of clubs which may be an original design. I have not been able to verify this however. I have shown it together with the playing card at the end of the article.

Below: the wrapper and reverse of the cards.

Below: coloured ink drawing of the king of clubs and the playing card for comparison

All cards shown are from the collection of Paul Symons ©