Portugal

[dazzleguts]

Portuguese Dragon Cards

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This deck is a facsimile of a stencil coloured deck made around 1860. It was reproduced by/for the Fournier Museum in 2004, from the original deck which is in their collection.

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Portuguese cards use the Latin suits of Coins, Cups, Swords and Clubs. The coat of arms of Portugal features a seprentine dragon which appears holding the pips on the aces of Portuguese playing cards (shown at bottom right of all suits). They are further characterised by having long straight interlaced swords in the pip cards of the Swords suit, and the same treatment for the Clubs.

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Features shared between Portuguese and contemporary Spanish style cards are the reduction from 52 to 48 cards, through removal of the tens, and the name Sota for the lowest, and often female, court card, meaning “knave” or “servant” (without regard to gender).

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The Portuguese were great travellers and traders. Early examples of these cards have been unearthed as far afield as The Netherlands and Peru, and their influence is seen in Japan, Java, Indonesia and Brazil.[/color]

[dazzleguts]

Portuguese Institute of Architectural Heritage
Instituto Portugues do Patrimonio Arquitectonico 1992 - 2007

This is an odd little deck that I came across in a thrift store. It has custom courts, aces, and jokers. The jokers look like Bob Hope, but I have no way of knowing if they actually are.

The cards are very flexible and flimsy feeling, even though the deck is the same thickness as standard decks. They feel uncoated on the faces and a little toothy on the backs, perhaps from the amount of ink used for the dark backs.

I have not been able to find any information on this particular deck, who the people are that the courts may be based on and why they used them. The K of D looks like George Washington but what would he be doing in a Portuguese architecture deck?

I did find out what the name on the box means.
The following info is taken from an online translation from Portuguese and may not be entirely accurate language.

The Portuguese Institute of Architectural Heritage was a public institution that for 15 years (1992 - 2007) regulated the classification of Portuguese heritage buildings, as well as the approval of the level of protection given.

Due to budget cuts the Architectural Heritage Institute and the Portuguese Institute of Archaeology were combined into one institution. For a short time they continued to use both names, and there is at least one deck of cards with both names attached to it (see link below). In 2007 the new institution was given the name of Management Institute of Architectural and Arhcaeological Heritage.

The World Web Playing Card Museum has 3 decks from this institution and none of them have these courts or this card back, though one does have the same jokers. See the 3 decks at the bottom of the page at the following link:[/color]

http://a.trionfi.eu/WWPCM/WWPCM/portugal/portugal.htm

[Eoghann]

That is an interesting deck! Maybe it's just depicting some of the most influential people in different areas of history?

I do recognize Shakespeare, Christopher Columbus, possibly Julius Ceasar, Socrates and Goerge Washington. Not sure who the other ones are. I'd like to say Elizabeth I and Marie Curie.

[dazzleguts]

You're right of course. They are figures from history, I guess I just find the choices a little surprising.

[Eoghann]

I've got it!

Freemasonry!

That's the only way this makes sense! It just dawned on me thinking what these guys could have in common with architecture. There are extensive accounts that Washington was a Freemason, and I've dug up several articles where it's implied Bob Hope, Shakespeare, Columbus and Socrates could have been Freemasons.

Time to get Dan Brown on the case.

Just grasping at straws here, but who knows.

[Smocito]

Replica 1770 Portuguese Cards Deck Review