Flemish Hunting Deck

The Flemish Hunting Deck, also known as the Cloisters set of fifty-two playing cards and Hofjaren Jachtpakket[dubious – discuss] (in Dutch), is a set of fifty-two playing cards owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, United States.

[3] The cards are hand-drawn and painted on pasteboard, with highlights of gold and silver, in the contemporary technique for illuminated manuscripts.

[6] In the auction catalogue it was mentioned as an incomplete set of tarot cards dating from the sixteenth century.

[2] Kenter kept the set for some years, even cycling with it in his coat pocket through Amsterdam, which his insurance company later prohibited him from doing.

[2] The Metropolitan Museum of Art bought the set of cards and it is now part of The Cloisters collection.

[1] The suits are based on hunting items, consisting of game nooses, hound tethers, horns, and dog collars.

[1] This particular deck, due to its bright colors painted on a background of ivory, differs from most cards of its time.

[1] One of the identified watermarks on the card appears with a Gothic style "p", capped with an ornament, cropped on the edge of the sheets.

[3] The fork-tailed "p" can be found in cards such as the 2 of Nooses and the 2 of Dog Collars surrounded by a four-leaf clover shape.

[3] The figures appear with rounded faces, small lips, and circle shapes with dots in the center as eyes, and overall, the facial expressions are very limited.

[3] The fashion of the kings and queens is not representative of a singular time or event, but rather, a mix of the different decades of the 15th century.

[3] The cards are perhaps making a statement about the over-the-top fashion of the Burgundian court with the exaggerated clothing, hence the mix-matched yellow and black shoes of the King of Nooses.

[5] In 1995, Piatnik in conjunction with the Metropolitan Museum of Art produced a facsimile of the Flemish hunting pack as a boxed set with a booklet where they were known as the Flämisches Jagdkartenspiel.

7 of Collars, from The Cloisters Playing Cards, with the red also seen in the horn pip cards MET DP354535
10 of Tethers, from The Cloisters Playing Cards, with the blue also seen in the nooses pip cards MET DP354511
King of Collars, from The Cloisters Playing Cards, with exaggerated fashion from the 15th century MET DP366851
Queen of Tethers, from The Cloisters Playing Cards, with exaggerated fashion from the 15th century MET DP354509
King of Nooses, from The Cloisters Playing Cards with exaggerated fashion from the 15th century MET DP354542