The originals of the annexed four cards, representing the Valets, or Knaves, of the four suits known in England as Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs, and Spades, are, in my opinion, of, at least, as early a date as the cards containing the names Coursube and Apollin. Mons. Duchesne and Mons. Leber, judging from the costume of the last-named cards, agree in supposing, or, rather, confidently asserting, that they were executed about 1425, in the reign of Charles VII. Conclusions, however, drawn from the costume displayed on cards are not of much weight in the determination of a date, seeing that persons supposed to be well acquainted with the subject of costume have not been able to determine, from that alone, the date of any old drawing, even within fifty years. To whatever period the costume of the "Coursube" cards may belong, that of the four Knaves may be fairly presumed to be of as early a period; but yet, looking at the costume of the latter, and the style of their execution, I should not take them to be of an earlier date than 1480. Supposing them to be of that date, I think it will be generally admitted, by all acquainted with the subject, that, in point of drawing, as expressive of action and character, they may fairly rank with the best specimens of wood-engraving executed previously to that period.
Those four Knaves, which are now in the print-room of the British Museum, were discovered by the writer, in the covers of an old book, which he bought of Mr. Robert Crozier, bookseller, 27, Bow Street, about the latter end of December, 1841. The book, which is a small quarto, had formerly belonged to the Cathedral Library of Peterborough, [246] and its subject is the Sermons of St. Vincent de Ferrer, a Spanish friar, of great repute in his day, who died in 1419: it wanted both the title-page and the last leaf, and, consequently, had no date; but, looking at the character of the type,—old Gothic—and the rude execution of the initial letters, I should conclude that it was printed in France, within the last ten years of the fifteenth century. The other leaves forming, with the cards, the "boards" of the cover, were portions of the gloss, or commentary, of Nicholas de Lyra, on the Old Testament; which leaves, apparently, are of a date somewhat older than the volume. Seeing that old cards have so often been found in the covers of old books, it might be conjectured that certain pious persons had made it a point of conscience to thus employ them, for useful purposes; this supposition is, however, rendered untenable by the fact of those cards being intermixed with the pious lucubrations of Nicholas de Lyra. Besides the two squares of paper containing the four Knaves, there were also two other squares, consisting of "pips" of Diamonds and Hearts, which were so arranged that each square of paper might be cut into four cards: the low cards on one square were, the Nine, Four, Five, and Seven of Diamonds; and those on the other, the Ten, Four, Five, and Eight of Hearts. The "pips" on those low cards were evidently impressed by means of a stencil.