1567 Antique Ganjifa Playing Cards - Telugu

Framed Old Painted Ganjifa Playing Cards - Old Telugu / Gold Illuminated

Rare opportunity to acquire a set of 70 gold-illuminated Dashavatara Ganjifa Cards with inscriptions on court cards from Southern India.

Of these 16 are  court or face cards.

Inscription language appears to be an older defunct version of Telugu

This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to acquire such a large number as even finding a single one from South India is an blessing.

Stiffened & Lacquered with a thick layer of lacquer that makes it thick and hard-plastic-like.

The base is probably layered & handmade paper.

Appear to have been painted on warak that gives it the iridescent effect and then lacquered.

Gold illuminated with warak to an unseen-before extent

Has inscriptions on the Court or Face Cards.

The Jayalakhmi Wodeyar Palace Museum has one group of 150 dispersed cards that are kept in the treasury and viewing is by prior request only.

This set is believed to have been a gift from the royalty to an important colonial ruler. The roman characters on the cards are evidence that the intended recipient was a foreigner.

Each card is 5cm diameter. Has gold illumination - probably precious metal warak.

This is not a complete set.

Acquired from a UK auction house.

Of all the categories of Ganjifa cards, Mysore cards are rarer and perhaps the only ones with inscriptions.

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This item has spent a lifetime being used for the purpose of its creation with the original artist/user. Signs of this life lived heartily may be present on the piece in the form of stains, thread loss, loose threads, holes, tears, color run and other imperfections. Therefore the condition must be assumed to be “not” perfect. More photos of such imperfections will be provided on request.

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