​​my playing card collection

The Paris pattern was established as such around the middle of the seventeenth century (based, perhaps, on the cards of Hector of Troyes). See World of Playing Cards

 

This region took in the whole of the north of France including the towns of St. Omer, Pas de Calais, Rouen, Brest, Nantes on the west coast, Tours, Troyes and Lille. The cities of Epinal, , Metz and Nancy as well as Strasbourg on the German frontier were added later, in 1751.



The most notable feature of this design is that all the members of the royal household have large bodies. The King of Hearts has an imperial eagle hidden in the folds of his cloak. The King of Clubs is accompanied by a small animal which is said may be a lion. The King of Diamonds has a shell-shaped panel let into his cloak and the King of Spades leans against a harp. Each of the Queens wears a crown and holds a flower. The Queen Spades, like the King of Diamonds, has a shell-like panel on her cloak. The Queen of Diamonds, from about 1751 on, carries in her left hand a bag embroidered with a ‘thought’. The Knave of Diamonds is drawn in profile but the Heart in full face. The Knave of Clubs leans on a halberd and the Knave of Spades wears a hat with a feather and is accompanied by a dog.

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The playing cards of this region, particularly those of Rouen, were exported all over Europe. They were especially popular in Flanders, but were also well known in Spain, Russia, England, Switzerland, Sweden and Denmark.

 

The cards had single-figure courts until around 1830 when the double-ended version came into use. The court cards are usually named, and the exact reason for, or origins of, these names is still open to debate but they seem to derive from epic narratives from the age of chivalry or heroes of antiquity. See images below from an 1853 Gatteaux deck based on the Paris Pattern.