'Identifying the World's Oldest Deck of Cards.' International Herald Tribune (October 8–9, 1983). Paris: Hôtel Drouot Rive Gauche, December 18, 1978. Livres illustrés, littérature, jeu de tarots dessiné et enluminé, importante bibliothèque héraldique, histoire, régionalisme, nombreux et bons livres non catalogués. To experts illuminate this artwork's story It is possible that they were conceived as a collector’s curiosity rather than a deck for play. The condition of the set indicates that the cards were hardly used, if at all. Almost all card games did, however, involve some form of gambling.
Although some period card games are named, it is not known how they were played. Their exaggerated and sometimes anachronistic costumes suggest a lampoon of extravagant Burgundian court fashions. The figures, which appear to be based on Franco-Flemish models, were drawn in a bold, free, and engaging, if somewhat unrefined, hand. The value of the pip cards is indicated by appropriate repetitions of the suit symbol. The suit symbols, based on equipment associated with the hunt, are hunting horns, dog collars, hound tethers, and game nooses. There are four suits, each consisting of a king, queen, knave, and ten pip cards. The Cloisters set of fifty-two cards constitutes the only known complete deck of illuminated ordinary playing cards (as opposed to tarot cards) from the fifteenth century.
