FRANCIS BARLOW'S SKETCHES FOR THE MEAL TUB PLOT PLAYING CARDS
About Francis Barlow's Sketches for the Meal Tub Plot Playing Cards
60 copies remaining of First Edition of 200
Hardback, 10 x 7.75 inches
44 pages
40 illustrations of pen-and-wash sketches
Wayland Playing Card Monographs No. 2. Privately printed for Virginia and Harold Wayland by Grant Dahlstrom, the Castle Press, Pasadena, California, 1971.
A fascinating disquisition on the original sketches for a deck of playing cards issued in England in 1679 and 1680 that comprised a series of political cartoons tracing the "Meal Tub Plot." This purported plot accused the Pope and his Catholic minions of planning to kill the Protestant King Charles II. The authors provide a summary of the political climate of the times and trace the resulting political intrigues and persecutions of Catholics. The sketches are confidently attributed to Francis Barlow, a well-known artist of the time, with the illustrations reproduced from the originals preserved in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum.
The book was originally sold with an accompanying replica pack of the cards now housed in the Guildhall Library of the Worshipful Company of Makers of Playing Cards, London. These packs are all sold and are not part of this offering of the book.
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