Early nineteenth-century Transformation cards

These early nineteenth-century Transformation cards appear to have been individually designed using pen, ink and watercolours onto standard printed cards of the day. As such, they are likely unique, unless the artist produced multiple versions; even then, each would inevitably have differed in detail. It is possible that the maker owned, or had seen, commercially produced cards and enjoyed creating reinterpretations. At least one composition supports this idea: the six of clubs depicting marching soldiers corresponds closely to a well-known and frequently copied transformation motif.

The cards are probably around two centuries old and reportedly surfaced in the drawer of a desk in Rhode Island. The printed pips are single-ended rather than double-headed, a feature that strongly suggests a date before about 1850, when double-ended courts and pips became standard. The missing court cards would, by extension, also have been single-ended. The card backs are plain and unprinted, consistent with early nineteenth-century production.

In their informality and variation, the cards remind us that transformation imagery was not confined to professional engravers, but also flourished as a personal, imaginative pastime which give us glimpses of contemporary life. Zoom the two of spades

Above: 20 hand painted early 19th-century Transformation cards by an unknown artist, c.1800–1830. Images from the collection of Ronald Wells.

Thanks to Barney Townshend for advice about this deck.