A very scarce Italian playing card of Africa

Anonymous.

XIX Africa.
Bologna: Tipografia de' Franceschi alla Colomba?, c.1790. Engraved playing card, sheet 115 x 60mm, with red woodcut design on reverse.

A miniature map of Africa, depicted on a tromp l'oeil scroll. It was one of 78 cards in a geographical game played following the same rules as tarocchi (tarot).
This was one of the 21 map trump cards; the suits were North, South, Central and Islands, each with ten letterpress descriptions of counties in those regions and four court cards with a woodcut armorial and a letterpress text.
The woodcut pattern on the back of the card is a red flower design with the address 'Alla Colomba' (At the Dove). This was the address of Tipografia de' Franceschi in Bologna from the 1790s until at least 1860.


Stock ID : 24229