Nine cards from the Book of Trades by the prolific German Renaissance artist Jost Amman (1539-91). Suits are books, printers’ pads, wine-pots and drinking cups. Some of the images had already appeared in books published prior to the cards.
“Indulging their fancy, they [German card-makers] varied the signs according
to every capricious notion… unicorns, dogs, rabbits and apes, monkeys and
lions, parrots and peacocks, stroll or fly or flutter through the cardboard
world. Packs appeared with suits of pinks, of columbines, printers’ inkpads,
vases, drinking cups, books, combs, fishes, crowns, bellows, frying-pans,
shields, alms-houses and knives… some were circular…”
Roger Tilley “Playing
Cards”, p. 35.
