Antonio López y Compañía

Antonio López y Compañía was established in Barcelona in 1855 by Antonio López Vidal and a group of business partners. López was a typefounder by trade, with a workshop for casting printing type in Calle Conde del Asalto. His knowledge of typography enabled him to develop a new method of colour-printing playing cards, for which he obtained a ten-year privilege of invention in 1855. The company was formally constituted on 2 October 1855 to exploit this invention, with Antonio López as its industrial partner, director and administrator. Business partners included Félix Ferré; Antonio, Juan and José Morera Buxó; Ramón Salvado; Francisco Fulladosa de Marín; and José Molins. The factory was built at no.104 Conde del Asalto, and López moved his type foundry there. The building was completed in 1857, and card production probably began that year or in 1858.

Surviving examples of that production reveal a broad repertoire, from fashionable established patterns such as Roxas-Cerdeña to distinctive non-standard Spanish-suited packs, including a satirical caricature pack and a ‘Four Continents’ or Cuatro Culturas pack. Several López designs were subsequently adopted and reworked by Fulladosa y Cía., which continued the business after Antonio López withdrew from the partnership around 1863.

Non-standard Spanish pattern, c.1858–63

This pack represents a distinctive and well-developed treatment of a non-standard Spanish-suited design. The ace of coins has a strongly heraldic character, bearing the arms of León and Castile, with the inscription "Con Privilegio Esclusivo De S.M." This inscription refers to the ten-year privilege of invention granted to Antonio López on 31 July 1855 for “un método para pintar naipes aplicado á la imprenta” - a method for colouring playing cards applied to printing. The Gaceta de Madrid records López as “inventor” of the method and as a resident of Barcelona.

Below the ace emblem, on the large case, appear the initials "A.L.Y.CA." (Antonio López y Cía) providing a compact identification of the maker; the full name appears beneath the allegorical figure of Fama, the winged female figure with trumpet used as López's emblem. The court cards - Spanish knaves, cavaliers and kings (numbered 10, 11 and 12), are dressed in a fanciful, quasi-Renaissance/Baroque costume with plumed caps, ruffs, doublets, striped hose and capes. The figures are rendered in bold outlines with areas of solid colour, with some variation in registration characteristic of colour-woodcut production. The four of coins has a basket of flowers, while the other fours are similarly decorated with floral motifs.

López was both an innovator and an astute participant operating within a competitive pattern-making tradition, borrowing, adapting and sometimes apparently sharing or reusing blocks, while developing his own distinctive graphic and colour treatment.

References

Arxiu Històric de la Ciutat de Barcelona : Catàleg de la Col·leció de Naips (2018) ►

British Museum : López and Company (click ‘Related objects’)►

Ferro Torrelles, Víctor : López y Compañía, una vida de inventor, La Sota Número 44, Octubre 2015.

Gaceta de Madrid : nº 1124, viernes 1 de febrero 1856. Tercera sección, Comercio.