my playing card collection
france
By the late 14th century playing cards were in widespread use right across Europe and card-making shops were emerging everywhere. By the 1480s the French had turned to producing Hearts, Clubs, Spades and Diamonds.
By the beginning of the Eighteenth century, war, and no doubt extravagance, had drained France's national treasury to little more than copper coins in a tin pot. In 1701 a new duty was imposed on playing cards of 18 deniers a deck. In order to collect the new tax, the country was divided into nine manufacturing regions. Each manufacturer was required to submit a design block to the ‘Recettes generales’.
The nine regions designated under this tax regime were Paris, Bourgogne, Lyonnais, Auvergne, Daulphiné, Provence, Languedoc, Guyenne and Limousine. These remained in place until the 1790s when the tax was repealed by the States General.
By the 1780s, many of the regional patterns were fading away, and the Paris pattern rose to pre-eminence as the general pattern throughout France.