[Complete deck of Aluette cards]

France, 1890. 48 playing cards on thick stock. 86 x 56 mm. Wood engraved designed with stencil color, versos alike with wood engraved grid fields. Excellent condition. A fine deck of cards for the game of Aluette, a trick-taking game commonly played in France. Made up of four suits—batons, coins, swords, and cups—the deck is dealt to players clockwise and played in “tricks”; the highest card wins and the player who threw it take the rest of the pile.
Although it is a French game, Aluette uses Spanish suits, indicating that the game may be older than the creation of French playing cards. It is also called “La Vache” in some circles because one of the cups cards features a cow. B.P. Grimaud was the primary producer of Aluette decks, but not that offered here. However, the basic imagery on the cards closely follows Grimaud’s of the mid-late 19th century.