Cotta (Johann Freidrich, publisher). Karten-Almanach, Germany: Tubingen, 1805, complete deck of 52 stipple-engraved transformation playing cards, designed by Gräfin Charlotta von Jennison-Walworth, comprising 4 suits of 13 (French suits), each with pip cards 1-10 (the red suits with hand-colouring) and 3 hand-coloured full-length court cards, some light toning, a few cards with some light brown marks, close-trimmed to line border in a few cases, plain versos, slightly rounded corners, 97 x 68mm (3.75 x 2.75ins) (Qty: 1) Provenance: Collection of Jack Webb (1923-2019), London. Field 7; Hargrave, p.145; Hoffmann 85b; Mann, Collecting Playing Cards, pp.164/5; Morley, p.89; Tilley, pp.144-6; Wowk, p.38. Rare first complete set of transformation playing cards published as a deck; this famous pack of cards is the first of Cotta's six celebrated transformation decks. The court cards depict characters from Friedrich von Schiller’s tragedy Die Jungfrau von Orleans (The Maid of Orleans), although the transformed pip cards are unrelated. The deck was published as an almanac, in which each of the cards corresponded to one of the 52 weeks of the year, and it would originally have been accompanied by a tiny 16-page almanac.
Cotta (Johann Freidrich, publisher). Karten-Almanach, Germany: Tubingen, 1805, complete deck of 52 stipple-engraved transformation playing cards, designed by Gräfin Charlotta von Jennison-Walworth, comprising 4 suits of 13 (French suits), each with pip cards 1-10 (the red suits with hand-colouring) and 3 hand-coloured full-length court cards, some light toning, a few cards with some light brown marks, close-trimmed to line border in a few cases, plain versos, slightly rounded corners, 97 x 68mm (3.75 x 2.75ins) (Qty: 1) Provenance: Collection of Jack Webb (1923-2019), London. Field 7; Hargrave, p.145; Hoffmann 85b; Mann, Collecting Playing Cards, pp.164/5; Morley, p.89; Tilley, pp.144-6; Wowk, p.38. Rare first complete set of transformation playing cards published as a deck; this famous pack of cards is the first of Cotta's six celebrated transformation decks. The court cards depict characters from Friedrich von Schiller’s tragedy Die Jungfrau von Orleans (The Maid of Orleans), although the transformed pip cards are unrelated. The deck was published as an almanac, in which each of the cards corresponded to one of the 52 weeks of the year, and it would originally have been accompanied by a tiny 16-page almanac.
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
