Beschreibung:

A part pack of Horrid Popish Plot playing cards, Robert Walton, circa 1679, together twenty-three copper engraved pictorial playing cards, after a design by Francis Barlow comprising: clubs - pip cards 1-6, knave, queen; hearts - pip cards 3-10, knave, queen, king; diamonds - pip cards 1-4, somewhat toned and dust-soiled, plain versos, slightly rounded corners, 90 x 54mm (3.5 x 2ins), together with manuscript note on a piece of thick card the same size: 'English Politics - Historical. Last Quarter of 17th Cent. London. 1679? Popish Plot. Incomplete Pack of 40 out of 52. Nyburg March. 1921. ' Schreiber, English, 57 (lacking 3 of hearts); Whiting, A Handful of History, pp.50-63. There are several slightly differing issues of these cards, these being without the medallion portraits on the court cards. Although sadly diminished in number since 1921, complete packs are rare and even part packs are uncommon. Political packs of playing cards were popular at the end of the seventeenth century, this one depicting the fictitious Catholic conspiracy to kill Charles II which Reverend Titus Oates claimed to have uncovered in 1678. The cards, with illustrations and text below, tell the story of the plot and the consequences for the alleged Roman Catholic enemies of the state, e.g.: 'The Execution of the 5 Jesuitts'; 'Reddin standing in ye Pillory'; 'Dr. Oates discovereth ye Plot to ye King and Councell'. Francis Barlow's original drawings for the deck are in the British Museum. (1)