Les Cartes Musiciennes musical playing cards by Bermann, Austria
Record status
Individual type · partial
Period
circa 1830
This set of 'Les Cartes Musiciennes' musical playing cards, published by Jeremias Bermann in Vienna, Austria, around 1830, is a complete Piquet deck comprising 32 etched cards.
The cards are uniquely designed to compose waltzes, with each card featuring a hand-coloured miniature French pattern playing card in the upper half and two staves of musical notation in the lower half. When any eight cards are arranged in specific order from king down to seven, they form a functional waltz, allowing for thousands of different musical combinations. The set includes an engraved title and instruction card detailing the method for generating the 'mille et une valses' (a thousand and one waltzes) for piano forte.
The cards, each measuring approximately 88 x 56mm, have plain versos and are stored in their original card box, which features a lift-off lid with an ornate decorative printed label, an embossed gold border, and a pink paper-lined interior.
Evidence at a glance
- Linked sources
- 1
- Photograph views
- 1
- Catalogue references
- 0
Counts describe this entry’s documentation, not authenticity, rarity or completeness. Photographs may show one specimen; check each caption and licence.
Physical characteristics
- Material
- paper
- Deck size
- 32 cards
- Box dimensions
- 71 x 100 x 18 mm
- Card dimensions
- 88 x 56mm
Technical characteristics
- Decoration
- hand-coloured
- Printing method
- etched
Design
- Motifs
- musical notation staves
- Pattern
- French pattern
Identification
- Source note
- Described from a single auction-house listing published on Invaluable (reproduced with Invaluable's permission). Details apply to that one example; other examples of the type may differ, and the listing is supplementary evidence, not authentication.
- Maker named in listing
- Jeremias Bermann
Catalogue references
No catalogue numbers recorded. Numbers are only published once transcribed from a verified edition of a standard catalogue — they are never inferred.