Antique French Hand-Colored No Indices Playing Card Deck with 1853 Mark, 51 Cards carved stone boot and a dark horizontal stain

and a dark horizontal stain near the top

with a measure mark on one side

I think they're a pretty brilliant expression of the skill and creativity of their makers

and much cuter

(And certainly one might add a few more favorite little animals to the mix

Antique French Hand-Colored No Indices Playing Card Deck with 1853 Mark, 51 Cards carved stone boot and a dark horizontal stainIt's been a long time since I've found a beautiful 19th century deck of cards, despite looking for them all of the time. This one is missing one card the seven of clubs but more than makes up for it I think with the unusual Jack of Hearts, which shows a unique error in coloration the red is much darker than the rest but was kept in the deck anyway! There is an 1853 Gatteaux duty mark on the Jack of Clubs but no addition duty stamp, meaning this deck