By Porter Lang
Open a Spanish deck and count. Forty cards, not fifty-two. No tens, no queens. Before you buy a deck as a keepsake, or a gift for someone who plays, it helps to know what you are looking at.
The layout
Wikipedia’s entry on Spanish playing cards says decks usually hold 40 or 48 cards, or 50 with two jokers. The suits are oros (coins), copas (cups), espadas (swords) and bastos (clubs). A 40-card deck has pip cards from 1 to 7 and three face cards: the sota (page), the caballo (knight) and the rey (king). The 48-card deck adds the 8 and 9. The 40-card deck is the one the page calls the stripped deck, with 8, 9 and jokers left out.
Check this when you handle a deck. If you find a queen or a ten, you are not holding a Spanish-suited deck as Wikipedia describes it.
Patterns, which are not the same as suits
The same four suits come in different artwork, called patterns. Wikipedia lists among others the Castilian, the Catalan, the Cádiz, the Madrid and the Sicilian, and notes historical regional patterns from Seville, Madrid, Toledo, Navarre, Valencia and Catalonia. It says Spanish-suited cards are also used in Hispanic America and in Italy.
Practical point: two decks can both be Spanish-suited and look quite different. Our reading: if a deck is for use, ask which pattern the players know, since the page gives no advice on this.
What the cards are used for
Wikipedia calls mus a very popular vying game and lists others, among them chinchón, cinquillo and siete y media. It gives no rules and no season for them. We give none.
Dates in order
- 1371: the earliest record of the word naip, in Jaume March II’s Valencian rhyming dictionary, according to Wikipedia. It gives no definition.
- 14th century or earlier: Wikipedia says playing cards had reached Mamluk Egypt by then, and later spread to the Iberian Peninsula.
- 1525 to about 1560: the Palace of Arrieta-Maestu, also called Bendaña, was begun by Juan López de Arrieta and built on, says Álava’s tourism office.
- 1870: the Spanish tourism board says Heraclio Fournier founded a major printing house in Vitoria this year.
- 1889: Wikipedia says Heraclio Fournier designed and published the Castilian pattern.
- 1916: Fournier died, and his grandson Félix Alfaro Fournier took control of the card factory, according to Álava tourism. Wikipedia’s museum page says the collection began as a private one in 1916 under Félix.
- 1970: the collection bought the Thomas De La Rue collection at auction, according to Álava tourism, adding some of the oldest cards preserved in Europe. It says the De La Rue collection had earlier been held by the British Museum.
- 1984: Wikipedia says the Álava provincial council bought the collection, then about 3,400 decks.
- 1994: Wikipedia says the museum moved into the Bendaña Palace.
Notice what the list does and does not show. The 1870 date describes a firm, the 1889 date a design. Wikipedia’s page on Fournier himself gives only his years, 1849 to 1916, and does not give a founding year.
The museum in Vitoria-Gasteiz
The Fournier Museum of Playing Cards sits in the old centre of Vitoria-Gasteiz, in the Basque Country. Álava’s tourism office says the permanent exhibition runs from the 15th century to the present and offers a historical, technical and thematic tour of how playing cards evolved. It holds decks from five continents.
How many? The sources differ.
- Álava tourism, and Wikipedia: over 20,000.
- An article in Onda Vasca, a Basque media outlet: more than 24,000.
We show both. Wikipedia says only a small selection is on permanent display.
The Onda Vasca article describes the visit as beginning in the courtyard, with printing methods from woodcut to offset, including metal matrices and lithography. It says the first floor holds older pieces, including a Provençal deck and a German sheet from the Upper Rhine, and the first lithographed decks in Spain. The second floor is arranged by theme: history, heraldry, costumbrismo, literature, geography, music, mythology, astronomy, fortune-telling, magic and tarot. Spain’s tourism board says the museum shows antique, bullfighting, satirical and parapsychological decks and gives special attention to the Spanish card.
The same board says the museum “probably” ranks first on the list of the world’s playing-card museums. That is the board’s promotional wording and we did not test it.
What kind of sources these are
An encyclopaedia, two tourism offices (Álava’s and the national board), and a regional media article. Wikipedia is the only source for the deck layout, the patterns, the games and the 1889 design. We found no museum or publisher page that states those facts.
Questions a buyer would ask
- Is it the same as a French-suited deck? No. According to Wikipedia the suits are coins, cups, swords and clubs, and the ranks it lists include a page, a knight and a king, with no queen.
- Does the maker’s name tell me the age? Our sources give no way to date a deck from a maker’s name, and we do not offer one.
- Where can I see old examples? The Vitoria museum, according to its tourism pages, though what is on display changes and we did not read a current list.
What we left out
Prices, opening hours, ticket details, contact details, and any named living designer or collector.
Quick answers
How many cards are in a Spanish deck? According to Wikipedia, usually 40 or 48, or 50 with two jokers. The 40-card deck has pips 1 to 7 plus sota, caballo and rey.
What are the four Spanish suits? According to Wikipedia: oros (coins), copas (cups), espadas (swords) and bastos (clubs).
How big is the Fournier museum’s collection? According to Álava’s tourism office, over 20,000 examples. A Basque media article says more than 24,000.
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Roam first. Shop later.