Rowley & Co - “Monarchs of Europe”

Published September 19, 2013 Updated January 08, 2023

In around 1775 Rowley & Co attempted to reform the traditional court cards to portraits of the kings and queens of England, France, Spain and Russia.

1775 United Kingdom Rowley & Co. Courts Historical Royalty Suits

a pack of cards in which the antiquated and grotesque are rejected...

Perhaps following trends on the Continent, between 1774 and 1776 Rowley & Co. of London endeavoured to reform the traditional court cards in English playing cards with portraits of the kings and queens of England, France, Spain and Russia with their attendants as Knaves, and with the customary suit symbols changed to spearheads, chalices, trefoils, and topaz, coloured black, red, green and orange. Additional allegorical imagery on the Aces suggests “the four classes of men into which every kingdom is divided: the Nobles, the Clergy, the Citizens and the Peasantry”.

The Ace of Spades on English playing cards usually carried the maker's name, but did not carry the treasury duty until 1765. After this it also had a die number. In this example of Rowley & Co's pack the Ace of Spades is nameless and with no duty or die number, which is unusual. One explanation is that early editions may have had a nameless Ace of Spades; or it may have been a proof submitted to the Stamp Office for the real Ace to be made. Alternatively it may have been an attempt to evade paying the official duty. The rest of the pack appears to be perfectly legitimate.

Rowley & Co's copper-engraved “Monarchs of Europe” non-standard playing cards published c.1774-1776

Above: Rowley & Co's copper-engraved “Monarchs of Europe” non-standard playing cards published c.1774-1776. Rowley & Co operated at No.6 in the Old Bailey, London. Images courtesy Dan Dragojevich. Additional research courtesy John Sings and Ken Lodge.

“The designs are entirely new, the joint endeavour of several respectable artists, studious to please, and emulous to outvie everything of this kind which has appeared before. Upon the whole, they are submitted to the public as a pack of cards, in which the antiquated and grotesque are rejected, the misnomers explained and removed, and much of the original meaning of the inventor revived...”

Full explanation for the design of the pack...

Below is a typescript of an advertisement for Rowley's cards which contains a rationale for the design of the pack:

Rowley & Co's copper-engraved “Monarchs of Europe” non-standard playing cards published c.1774-1776
avatar
1,479 Articles

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.

Related Articles

1978 Doctor Who Trump Card Game

Doctor Who Trump Card Game

Game for two players in which Doctor Who and the Legendary Legion join battle with the Alien Hordes....

2025 Baraja de Juan Martín Zamorano

Baraja de Juan Martín Zamorano

Deck inspired by El Pendón de los Zamorano, a military pennant dating from 1501, published by Priego...

1992 Disney’s Aladdin playing cards

Disney’s Aladdin playing cards

Characters from the 1992 Disney film Aladdin.

2011 2011 Worshipful Company Pack

2011 Worshipful Company Pack

Celebrating the bicentenary of the birth of Charles Dickens, with characters adapted from drawings b...

2022 Jim Lyngvild playing cards

Jim Lyngvild playing cards

Photographs of Danish royalty as imagined by fashion designer Jim Lyngvild.

1926 Jockey Club de Buenos Aires

Jockey Club de Buenos Aires

Spanish-suited pack by Chas Goodall & Son Ltd for the Jockey Club, Buenos Aires.

1994 Jeu Numismatique

Jeu Numismatique

European coins of all periods replace the traditional courts and pips.

New interest in old games

New interest in old games

Games once fashionable are now eclipsed by quicker gratifications.

1999 Polygo™

Polygo™

Cards of irregular, four-sided shape for playing word and colour games as well as more traditional o...

1995 Treasures from the Bodleian Library

Treasures from the Bodleian Library

Rare books, manuscripts, music scores, portraits, maps, gospels, chronicles and other valuable artef...

1544 Virgil Solis

Virgil Solis

Remarkable pack of 52 animal-suited playing-cards designed and etched by Virgil Solis.

1863 Victorian grocer’s scale plate

Victorian grocer’s scale plate

Large flat plate decorated with highly coloured English cards and royal arms.

2024 Queen of Arts

Queen of Arts

A wide variety of women artists celebrated on cards with illustrations by Laura Callaghan.

1990 The Glasgow Pack

The Glasgow Pack

Issued to celebrate Glasgow’s reign as European City of Culture in 1990, with city views and works o...

2018 Cathedrals, Abbeys & Minsters playing cards

Cathedrals, Abbeys & Minsters playing cards

54 pictures of different famous cathedrals, abbeys and minsters in England and Wales.

2018 Christmas Carols

Christmas Carols

Christmas Carols playing cards illustrated by Stuart Dilks