Indian Bone Playing Card

Rider in a plumed cap trots across a rust-red field with perfect posture.

This painted bone playing card is from India, and dates to the early 20th century. It is pigment & bone. Bone is a hard, smooth material that takes pigment well, and it has long been cut into small pieces for gaming, inlay and decoration. Small plate with softly rounded corners and a brick-red ground. A man in a tall cap sits upright on a dark horse with a patterned saddle cloth. Paint is thin and rubbed, and the edges show bare brown. It is 1.5 inches wide and 1.75 high.

Well mounted and wearing his hat with total conviction.