| Suit System: | F |
| Recommended Name: | the Trente et Quarante pattern, this being the name of a casino gambling game for which these cards are used. |
The name is often found on wrappers or boxes. Formerly illustrated, in JPCS Vol. VIII No.2, erroneously, as an example of F-1.41 XP6 (XP for eXpatriate Paris).
On a sample sheet in the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe in Hamburg, an example
by C.L. Wüst, there estimated (probably optimistically) to be c.1820, is labelled
in pencil "Trente et Quarante - Hamburg Wiesbaden Ems Monaco etc", these being
the names of places with casinos. This example uses the traditional palette of red, yellow
and blue. Later examples by other makers use red, yellow and green (similar to that
commonly used for the Genoese pattern), probably following a lead set by B.P. Grimaud in
c.1890. By c.1928 John Waddington of Leeds was making packs copied from Grimaud's design,
including the name F. SIMON on the shield of J
.
Packs of this pattern, packaged as Casino Series No. 4444, were exported to a Milanese
importer (along with a Baccarat pack based on the Genoese pattern). Cards of this type
were later packaged for use in England during World War II as "Unique Style Playing
Cards", with a legend on the box assuring English players that the cards were usable
for normal games, despite the unusual courts. The design was being produced in Italy in
the 1980s, and presumably is still.
The cards are smaller than usual: 80x50mm. All cards have a double line frame. No indices (except in Waddington's "Unique Style" packs). Packs often have plain backs - a further sign of casino use.
Compared with the typical version of XP6, the changes in design are small, but seem
to have become set in the Grimaud mould. K
grasps the front edge of the frame of his harp, while
K is a mirror-image,
with his free hand clearly shown.
Q
is also in mirror-image,
and is a re-designed figure showing her free hand.
J now has
his head turned, facing three-quarters to the viewer's left.
The earlier version is best exemplified by an example in the Cary collection, HOL 5,
which is assigned to Holland because the tax-stamp has been wrongly identified. It is
actually German, dating from 1809-66; the letters H N C W C on it represent
Herzoglich-Nassauische Civil-Witwen Casse. The chief town of Hesse-Nassau was Frankfurt,
which is in keeping with the visual evidence that the pack is by Wüst. The pack has
the changes to K
K
Q and
J as described
above, but the figures of J
and J are interchanged.
The Hamburg example retains the shield-less
J figure as
J, but its
J uses another similar
J figure from a
different Wüst design also in the same reduced size. That design has a quite
different K
holding a long sceptre aslant over one shoulder. Boris Mandrovsky (in the Papers of
Leinfelden) described this design and labelled it XP6a, as a candidate for standard
status. It is now clear that the only three known versions were all due to Wüst.
An anonymous example is identical to that of Wüst. One bearing the names of
Steinberger and Müller is a trivial alteration of Wüst's plate; Steinberger
had been apprenticed to Wüst. On this evidence XP6a does not qualify as a standard
pattern.
King, Queen, Jack and numerals. Plain aces. 52 cards.
Viuda de B(raulio) Fournier, Burgos, 1920-5. Modiano, Trieste, 1966; Dal Negro, Treviso, 1967; Italcards, Bologna, 1987.
| Above: Trente et Quarante by B P Grimaud, c.1940.
For comparison below is an anonymous example of the once so-called XP6a, which does not qualify as a standard pattern in its own right because the only known versions appear to have stemmed from Wüst about 1860. (Both from the collection of John Berry). |
| The International Playing-Card Society | 6/1997 JB |