Virgil Solis
Remarkable pack of 52 animal-suited playing-cards designed and etched by Virgil Solis.
Virgil Solis was a prolific German printmaker, draughtsman and book illustrator who lived and worked in Nuremberg. He was a master of his craft and ran a successful workshop, employing several journeymen and later his sons. Solis produced a vast number of prints, estimated to be over 2,000, covering a wide range of subjects including religious themes, mythology, history, portraits and decorative motifs. His work was popular and widely distributed, influencing artisans and craftsmen across Europe.
He produced this remarkable pack of 52 ornamental playing-cards in c.1544-50, showcasing his skill and meticulous attention to detail. Intricate designs and motifs such as leaves and flowers support the suit symbols. The four aces contain the cipher VS. The suit symbols characteristic of German cards in those days have been reassigned on the aces as monkeys for acorns (aicheln), peacocks for bells (Graven), parrots for hearts (Rot) and lions for leaves (Schelen). The pip cards in each suit run from 1 to 10 with their values in Roman numerals at the top; the court cards are a foot soldier, mounted Queen and mounted King (no uber and ober). Thus in several aspects the pack does not conform to a typical German pattern, which suggests that maybe the pack was “not intended for the commonality” (Willshire p.217). The monkeys, peacocks, parrots and lions reflect Solis’s interest in natural history and exotic creatures, which were popular subjects in Renaissance art, instead of employing the more rustic acorns, bells, hearts and leaves.¹
Note 1. On the question of suit symbols, examples are known of packs with roses, acorns, birds, bells, leaves, pomegranates, parrots, carnations, beans, lions, bears, dogs, shields, crowns, swords, batons, eagles or hearts as suit symbols. It has been suggested (Dummett 1980, p.14ff) that this sort of anarchy in early German cards was because every cardmaker was free to choose their own until about 1460, when suits began to be standardised. We already noted that Solis alluded to the four standard German suit symbols on the aces in his pack, so in this case he must have been extending his artistic licence.
Further References
British Museum: keyword 1854,1113.206►
O’Donoghue, Freeman M: Catalogue of the collection of playing cards bequeathed by Lady Charlotte Schreiber (German 111), Trustees of the British Museum, London, 1901
Willshire, W. H.: A Descriptive Catalogue of Playing and Other Cards in the British Museum (German 156), Trustees of the British Museum, 1876, reprint 1975, p.217-8.
Tor Gjerde Historical playing cards: Virgil Solis c.1544►
V&A Museum: Portrait of Virgil Solis►
By Simon Wintle
Member since February 01, 1996
Founder and editor of the World of Playing Cards since 1996. He is a former committee member of the IPCS and was graphics editor of The Playing-Card journal for many years. He has lived at various times in Chile, England and Wales and is currently living in Extremadura, Spain. Simon's first limited edition pack of playing cards was a replica of a seventeenth century traditional English pack, which he produced from woodblocks and stencils.
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