Piquet. France Cartes, France (corporate deck made for Banque Fédérale Mutualiste). Stripped regular deck, French suited, 32 double-headed cards. Size: 55mm x 84mm.
Deck make-up:
Hearts, clubs, diamonds, spades: 1, 7-10, jack, queen, king.
This is the deck used in the two-player game piquet, which dates back to the 16th century. Games played with a piquet deck (or the equivalent German- or Swiss-suited decks) are still among the most popular in some parts of Europe. This includes belote and klaverjas (the national games of France and the Netherlands, respectively) and skat (the German national game, which is also played with the equivalent German-suited decks in some regions). Bezique is played with two piquet decks.
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Card image size, below:
The court cards in this pack are interesting as the corner indices seem to be overwriting some text (quite probably dating from when the deck had no, or just two, corner indices). The text is the names of the characters depicted on the cards. For hearts, these are (in order): Lahire, Judith, and Charles. La Hire was a French military commander during the Hundred Years War – a comrade-in-arms to Joan of Arc and a member of Charles VII's court. Judith is a book from the Catholic Bible. Charles is Charlemagne, king of the Franks from 768.
The corner indices on the courts are: V – valet, D – dame (Lady, rather than reine for queen as then the initial would clash with the king), R – roi (king).
The characters on the courts are: Lancelot, Argine, and Alexandre. Lancelot du Lac (meaning Lancelot of the Lake) was one of the Knights of the Round Table in the Arthurian legend. Argine is possibly an anagram for regina, Latin for queen. Another possibility is Argea (a name borne by four minor characters in Greek mythology). Alexandre is probably Alexander the Great, Greek king of the ancient kingdom of Macedon.
The characters on the courts are: Hector, Rachel, and Cesar. Hector was a Trojan prince and the greatest fighter for Troy in the Trojan War. Else it might be a reference to Hector de Galard, grand marshal of the court of Louis XI and companion of Joan of Arc. Rachel – from the Bible and favourite wife of Jacob. Cesar is Roman emperor Julius Caesar.
The characters on the courts are: Hogier, Pallas, and David. Pallas Athena is a goddess from Greek mythology. King David – from the Old Testament. Hogier is probably a reference to Ogier the Dane, a knight of Charlemagne's.