P3 has note
| - This box contains a set of four more boxes made to contain the counters necessary for playing a card game, probably <i>reversis</i>. This was an old Italian card game, the basis for two very popular 18th-century games, <i>hombre</i> and <i>quadrille</i>. Card playing was a necessary accomplishment for those hoping to take their place in polite society and all manner of people played at many levels of society. Such counter boxes would have been a luxurious and fashionable accessory for a card player of either sex. The outer box lid also features characters from the Commedia dell'arte; a singular Pierrot (the sad clown, pining for Columbine) at the bottom of the lid, with two sets of diametrically placed images of the lovers Harlequin and Columbine towards the centre. Centrally on the large box, and on either side of the ivory dial on each smaller box, are two central busts which may represent the Dauphin Louis Ferdinand and his second Dauphine Marie Josephe de Saxe.
The boxes and counters were colour coded to relate to the suits of a pack of cards. Green was for clubs, red for spades, yellow for diamonds and white for hearts. These boxes may have been made by, or in the workshop of, Mariaval. We know little about him, except that he obviously had a large trade in such items, as many sets survive. He may have been the son of the engraver to the king. (en)
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