Indian Bone Playing Card

Rider balances on a camel with legs like stilts and arms stretched wide.

This painted bone playing card is from India, and dates to the early 20th century. It is pigment & bone. Playing cards reached India in the early modern period, and the best-known Indian form is the circular ganjifa, traditionally painted by hand in sets of eight or twelve suits. Red-ground plate with rounded corners and a lightly raised outline. A figure with outstretched arms perches on a tall-legged camel with a round decorated blanket. The paint is crackled and worn, with white and orange touches on the feet. It is 1.5 inches wide and 1.75 high.

The camel looks calm, the rider looks committed.