…although their measurements are small, they are not thereby limited in their imaginative range, or the skill and care of their execution. At no time was smallness more prized that at the end of the Middle Ages, especially during the first half of the fifteenth century in northern Europe…

ART IN PLAYING CARDS

The Playing-Card as a Vehicle for Aesthetic Expression

The earliest playing cards were hand-painted, often gilded, and designed to be beautiful objects. Packs of cards were mentioned in wills and inventories, and given as wedding presents, so would have been considered valuable and precious. Not only were cards gilded and painted in many colours, and not merely decorated with ornamental patterns, but often the designs themselves showed great artistic skill, harmony of colour and grace of forms.

For over six centuries - apart from its functionality as a number game - the playing card has been chosen as a medium for artistry, aesthetic endeavour and ornamental design, ranging from hand-painted and engraved cards for medieval patrons, to the chromo-lithographic delights and transformation cards of the nineteenth century, and the designer and art packs of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

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