[Transformation playing cards] [art original].

A collection of hand-drawn transformation playing cards using the suit symbols incorporated in the sketches of people in a variety of scenes, some clearly English, others continental. Two examples are a fireside scene illustrating a mother and child (and two others) seated in front of a fireplace with a hanging cauldron, and an illustration of an amorous couple enjoying a dance as a violinist plays stage left. The cards depict both black and white characters, all of whom are wealthy or of high status, including soldiers, bishops, and men and women in fashionable dress. At the top of one card above the head of a man who reads from a sheet as he addresses a woman who looks down demurely, are the words "Mio ben.". On the verso of two cards are inscriptions in English. The first shows a figure in Shakespearean-era costume on the front and on the back, a quote from Twelfth night (Act II, Scene 5): "Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.” A second shows a couple sitting across from each other with an empty table between and on the back three stanzas from William Cowper’s The Diverting History of John Gilpin, first published in 1782