Karten-Almanach

Between 1805 and 1811, J.G Cotta, the German publisher famous for printing Goethe and Schiller, released a series of six "Card Almanacs" (Karten Almanach). This is the fifth edition, published as a book, in which each card is accompanied by a humorous poem or description in prose in German. "High" literary culture was being popularized and domesticated into an everyday object like a playing card. See an example

The pip cards

The 40 pip cards depict vignettes of everyday domestic and social life from that era. Officers and soldiers, including send-ups of Napoleon, as well as allegorical or veiled figures, appear in burlesque, satirical contemporary scenes. They provide a window into early 19th century German Romanticism, and a contrast to the mythological grandeur of the court cards. The defining feature is that the suit pips themselves are woven directly into the composition - such as in helmets, faces or lampshades.

The court cards

The 12 court cards are full-length figures which travesty heroes and heroines of ancient mythology in a light-hearted, sometimes ludicrous manner. For example, the valet of diamonds, Paris, is shown as a capering French dancing-master, with cocked hat and fiddle under his arms. The cards are labeled "Valet," "Dame," "Roi" rather than German equivalents, even though this was a German publisher and audience. That's not incidental; it reflects the cultural prestige French language and taste still carried across German courts and educated society in the Napoleonic era, when Württemberg was a French-allied kingdom. However, the overt political commentary in this almanac wasn't on the court cards but on the numbered pip cards shown above.

Karten-Almanach, 52 transformation playing-cards with French suit-marks engraved by Andreas Ludwig Bissel, bound into a book of 102 pages, published by: J G Cotta, Tübingen, 1810. The cards have plain backs.. © The Trustees of the British Museum

References

British Museum number 1876,1014.1513-1564 : A series of 52 transformation playing-cards ►

Willshire, W. H.: A Descriptive Catalogue of Playing and Other Cards in the British Museum (German 156), Trustees of the British Museum, 1876, reprint 1975 (German 279).