Lyons Swiss Export playing cards

I love this Signora’s posts on pre-17th century playing cards!

Lady Heather Hall

  These cards are based, with influences of other specimens, on a pack known to have been in Sylvia Mann’s collection, and is dated pre-1600.
The Jacks in this particular pack are a macho lot!
When this pattern was produced, colors included yellow and red (most cards do), as well as black, pale blue-grey, and vivid purple. Although I am researching possible recipes for the pigments, I will likely er on the side of presentation and go with what looks most consistent.

As the oldest specimens of this pattern that I could find are finished and painted (as opposed to an unfinished sheet found in a book binding), I had to do some guessing as to what lies under the thicker, darker stencil paints.

There are three packs in queue for coloring, as I felt it may be a more efficient process, even though they will not have all the…

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