Sonet-Morin Jeu de Patience

The Dusserre Sonet-Morin “Jeu de Patience” deck intrigues me. It is a deck which it is virtually impossible to discover anything about, except the fact that it dates from 1850. Or 1860 (cerca, I should add). And has scenic Aces, with images of familiar French landmarks. And was printed in Paris. The two deck set has different backs, so if you wanted to use only one of the decks it would be easy to seperate them (one deck has pale blue backs with squiggles, the other has pink backs with squiggles). All else that is left is for us to sketch in some fanciful details and hope that perhaps they might ring true. Like the fact that they were probably used by bored widows of the Faubourg Saint-Germain while biding away endless hours in stuffy drawing rooms waiting for visitors that perhaps never came. Heavily ringed fingers would lay out the cards onto brocade tablecloths, some elaborate, sumptuous spread; (perhaps La Forteresse, which would later appear in Lady Adelaide Cadogan’s Illustrated Games of Patience in the 1870s). The hours would pass interminably, the cards would be scooped up with a sigh, defeated yet once more. It is such an exquisite deck; such delicately rouged cheeks on the court cards, and elaborate, voluminous costumes, stiff cardstock. It really is the most perfect patience deck available, one worth hunting down and treasuring.

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