Indian Bone Playing Card

Two men in long coats wrestle with a huge drum and have different opinions about it.

This painted bone playing card is from India, and dates to the early 20th century. It is pigment & bone. Painted playing pieces often show gods, kings, animals and patterns drawn in mineral and plant pigments, and each suit usually has its own colour and symbols. Round black panel with a beaded gilt rim and white grass tufts. One man in a red striped coat and one in a grey robe with an orange sash flank a big white-faced drum on a wicker stand. It is 1.75 inches in diameter.

Loud subject, quiet little disc, very steady brushwork.