Portuguese pattern by Real Fábrica

This splendid pack from the British Museum collection, with serpents or dragons on the aces and with court cards wearing theatrical costumes, may be seen as a later version of the ‘Portuguese pattern’. The kings are standing. The female court cards are not queens, but female maids or ‘sotas’, a feminine word. They have no crowns and rank below the knights. Whilst the maid of coins carries a small coffer, the other three carry only their suit symbol. There are no ‘pintas’ or breaks in the frame lines, which of course suggests a destination other than Spain. However, this pattern was by no means confined only to Portugal.

On the 4 of coins is a scroll which reads "Real Fabrica", presumably the Impressão Règia, Real Fábrica de Lisboa. The bright gold-coloured coins are designed with 5-petalled flowers, apart from the 2 & 3 which contain busts or a heraldic device. Shields or escutcheons appear on most of the intercrossing sword and club numeral cards. The figure on the two of clubs, wearing a plumed hat, is of archaic origin. The cups are chalices; the four has a scroll with no inscription, the 6 having the initials "F.B." interlaced and repeated in reverse, with a crown above, possibly made to resemble that of the Real Fábrica de Lisboa. There are no 10s: numerals 1-9 and 3 courts per suit = 48 cards.

The decline of the Portuguese pattern occurred as French playing cards, with hearts, diamonds, clubs and spade suits, became more popular and widespread across Europe. French cards were more easily mass-produced, leading to the gradual replacement of local Portuguese cards. By the mid-19th century French-suited cards had largely supplanted traditional Portuguese decks. The ‘Portuguese pattern’ is now all but extinct, though it survives in the Sicilian tarot, and was known in earlier Spanish, Italian and Maltese cards, and also influenced some East Asian patterns where it travelled with traders and colonialists.

Above: Portuguese playing cards manufactured by Impressão Règia, Real Fábrica de Lisboa, c.1800-1830. 48 hand-coloured cards, backs printed with a design of small, deep blue dots running diagonally, 48x78 mm. © The Trustees of the British Museum

References

British Museum number 1850,0612.533-580►

Denning, Trevor: The Playing-Cards of Spain, Cygnus Arts, London, 1996, pp 43-46.

Dummett, Michael: The Game of Tarot: From Ferrara to Salt Lake City, Duckworth, 1980

Willshire, W. H.: A Descriptive Catalogue of Playing and Other Cards in the British Museum, Trustees of the British Museum, 1876, reprint 1975. (Spanish 22).