91ÇÑ×Ó

Before the advent of woodblock printing, playing cards were hand-painted and so affordable only by the wealthy. During this early period, there were no standardised packs of the kind we know today; the names of the cards, the signs and even the total number in a pack differed from one example to another.

The three ¡°court¡± cards of royal characters in English packs show figures dressed in costumes like those worn in the court of Henry?VII. The knave displayed here is a rare survival of a hand-painted court card from the time of Lady Margaret Beaufort (1443-1509), the mother of Henry?VII and, in 1505, the founder of Christ¡¯s College. The other cards date from around 1515. Popular card games in Lady Margaret¡¯s time and throughout the Tudor period included piquet and ¨¦cart¨¦.

Send suggestions for this series on the treasures, oddities and curiosities owned by universities across the world to matthew.reisz@tsleducation.com