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The Ambraser Hofjagdspiel (Court Hunting Pack of Ambras), also called the "Ambras falconer cards", is a pack of cards painted around 1440–1445 and attributed to the engraver Konrad Witz from Basle,
''Ambraser Hofjagdspiel''
at piatnik.com. Retrieved 18 Feb 2022.
The Ambraser Hofjagdspiel (Court Hunting Pack of Ambras), also called the "Ambras falconer cards", is a pack of cards painted around 1440–1445 and attributed to the engraver Konrad Witz from Basle, Switzerland
). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
. It originally consisted of fifty-six cards from which only 54 survive, all distributed in four suits, falcons, lures, hounds and heron
The herons are long-legged, long-necked, freshwater and coastal birds in the family Ardeidae, with 72 recognised species, some of which are referred to as egrets or bitterns rather than herons. Members of the genera ''Botaurus'' and ''Ixobrychus ...
s, symbols related to hunting. Each suit contained ten pip cards with the 10s being represented by a banner like many old German playing cards and modern Swiss playing cards
Parts of Swiss German speaking Switzerland have their own deck of playing cards referred to as Swiss-suited playing cards or Swiss-suited cards. They are mostly used for Jass, the "national card game" of Switzerland. The deck is related to the vari ...
. There are four face cards per suit: the Unter, Ober, Queen, and King. It was found in a collection at the Ambras Castle, in Innsbruck
Innsbruck (; bar, Innschbruck, label=Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian ) is the capital of Tyrol (state), Tyrol and the List of cities and towns in Austria, fifth-largest city in Austria. On the Inn (river), River Inn, at its junction with the ...
, Austria, in the sixteenth century, and now figures as a precious item in the collection of cards of the Kunsthistorisches Museum
The Kunsthistorisches Museum ( "Museum of Art History", often referred to as the "Museum of Fine Arts") is an art museum in Vienna, Austria. Housed in its festive palatial building on the Vienna Ring Road, it is crowned with an octagonal do ...
(Museum of Art History) in Vienna.
Facsimile
A facsimile of the pack was produced as a boxed set in 1995 by Piatnik in conjunction with the Kunsthistorisches Museum. It makes no attempt to reproduce the missing two cards of the original pack.at piatnik.com. Retrieved 18 Feb 2022.
See also
*Flemish Hunting Deck
The Flemish Hunting Deck, also known as the Cloisters set of fifty-two playing cards and Hofjaren Jachtpakket (in Dutch), is a set of fifty-two playing cards owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, United States. It is significant in th ...
, another 15th-century hunting deck
*Stuttgarter Kartenspiel
The Stuttgart pack or Stuttgart Cards (german: Stuttgarter Kartenspiel) is one of the most valuable collections of the Landesmuseum Württemberg. It is a hunting-themed deck of playing cards painted on gilded pasteboard dating to around 1430.Wintl ...
, another 15th-century hunting deck
*Hofämterspiel
Hofämterspiel ("Courtly Household Cards"), one of the earliest packs of playing cards on record preserved in its entirety with all 48 cards intact, is a major 15th-century medieval handmade deck commissioned by Ladislaus the Posthumous, King of H ...
, a deck found together with the Hofjagdspiel in Ambras Castle
References
{{Reflist History of card decks Paintings in the Kunsthistorisches Museum 15th-century prints