An impossible deck

The Maker

There are no details about the artist who designed or drew the cards for the present deck. For a description of the Cotta publishing firm, please see item 19.

The Cards

After it had successfully published four decks of playing cards, the Cotta firm decided to produce its fifth deck with a different design. Rather than issuing playing cards accompanied by a separate almanac, the 1810 edition came in the form of a booklet.

The cards themselves returned to the classical theme of the 1806 deck, this time showing Greek and Roman gods rather than mythological characters:

Club – Jupiter, Junon, Momus Diamond – Bacchus, Ceres, Paris Heart – Apollon, Venus, L’Amour Spade – Vulcain, Minerve, Mercure

Paris and Momus do make two strange additions to the pantheon otherwise shown on the court cards, neither being gods. In keeping with the previous Cotta decks, the pip and Aces are “transformation cards”, showing the suit marks merging into the design: spade symbols stand as hats, diamonds as frames, clubs as gables and hearts as various elements from an urn to a rotund stomach. Text on the facing page provides a description and explanation of each card.

Perhaps predictably, the 1810 edition was not a success. The cards were presented somewhat chaotically in the booklet and, more importantly, were actually impossible to play with!

FURST, Urs [Swiss playing cards].

Publication [Flumenthal, Urs Fûrst, c1810].

Description

52 engraved playing cards with fine original hand-colour, versos blank.

Dimensions

86 by 55mm (3.5 by 2.25 inches).

References Van den Bergh p.267.