Ases de la pintura / Masters of painting

This attractive pack made by Naipes Comas, c.1990, celebrates four of the great Spanish painters of 20th century Spain: Picasso, Miró, Dalí, and Tapies. A famous painting by each of these artists has been selected, and original pips in the four suits have been constructed from an element within the painting. The artists/paintings are as follows:

• Joan Miró,1892–1983, Women and Bird in the Moonlight, 1949 (spades)
• Antoni Tapies, 1923-2012, Roig I Negre 4, 1985 (hearts)
• Salvador Dalí, 1904-1989, The Persistence of Memory, 1931 (clubs)
• Pablo Picasso, 1881-1973), Les Desmoiselles D’Avignon, 1907 (diamonds).

The pack has 52 suited cards, plus 2 Jokers, plus an extra card detailing the artists. The court cards show drawings of the artists, progressively aging through the jack to king; the aces depict a slightly larger area of the original painting with the artists’ signature; backs of the cards have the signatures of the four artists. The pack was published in a black a tray within a colourful sleeve►

Above: Ases de la pintura / Masters of painting playing cards made by Naipes Comas, c.1990.

Posada de la Reyna, 1836

Above: Interior view of a Spanish inn, lettered on the wall with 'Posada de la Reyna', print made by: John Frederick Lewis for illustration in J.F. Lewis' “Sketches of Spain and Spanish character made during his tour in that country, in the years 1833-34” London. 1836. © The Trustees of the British Museum