Flemish Hunting Deck / The Cloisters Playing Cards / Hofjaren Jachtpakket (unknown, south Netherlands or Flanders)

Flemish Hunting Deck / The Cloisters Playing Cards / Hofjaren Jachtpakket. Unknown, south Netherlands or Flanders. Full, regular deck, 52 cards. Size: 70mm x 132mm.

Deck make-up:
Hunting horns, dog collars, hound tethers, game nooses: 1-10, jack, queen, king.

The Flemish Hunting Deck (also known as The Cloisters Playing Cards) or, in Dutch, Hofjaren Jachtpakket, is the earliest known existing complete regular (as opposed to tarot) deck of playing cards. It was most likely made in the south Netherlands or Flanders sometime between 1475 and 1480. The deck consists of four suits, with a king, queen, jack and ten pip cards in each. The appearance of only three court cards is unexpected – four (with two jacks/knaves) would have been more typical of the period. The suits are based on hunting items: dog collars, hound tethers, game nooses and hunting horns.

There is disagreement over the attire of the figures depicted. Some sources say the deck displays fashions of the era, with abbreviated jackets, short-cut hair and pointed shoes. Others suggest the dress is anachronistic and is a lampoon of extravagant Burgundian court fashions.

The cards are hand drawn and painted on pasteboard in pen and ink, opaque paint, and glazes, with applied silver and gold. The deck is in very good condition, indicating it was used very little or not at all. Since cheaper printed playing cards had already appeared, it is possible that the Flemish Hunting Deck was conceived as a collector's curiosity rather than a deck for play.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, bought the set of cards in late 1983 from a Dutch antiques dealer for US$143,000; it is now part of The Cloisters Collection.

Click on any card to explore the design.

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Card image size, below:     

Hunting horns

Dog collars

Hound tethers

Game nooses

Note the jester muscling his way in as the jack/knave of this suit.

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