I have a deck of these cards. They are uniquely beautiful, truly a work of art, and no, we aren’t going to break them out in one of my Saturday night games. 🙂

To view the entire set of face cards, door card, jokers, etc., visit here.

The following information is courtesy of of this site.

The Deck

In 1955, French playing card publisher Editions Philibert produced what was to become regarded by many as one of the most beautiful decks of playing cards ever designed.

Artist Paul-Emile Becat took four years to design and create the memorable images in the deck, which was produced in a limited edition of 12,000 decks.

An article about the deck was published in the Spring, 1962 edition of Eros magazine, with the following information about Becat’s inspiration for the images:

“For many of his illustrations Becat drew upon a set of paintings by Renaissance masters which the monk Savonrola had destroyed in 1496 because they revealed too much of the intrigue and sordidness of Borgia family life. Savonrola was greatly beholden to the Borgias. Detailed descriptions of these paintings had been preserved, however, and it was from them that Becat was able to paint a number of his miniatures. The balance of his pictures he based on other Florentine themes.”

Below is a list of the illustrated cards from the deck, and the names Becat gave them: