The Maker

Little is known about Andreas Benedict Göbl, apart from that he produced playing cards in Munich during the eighteenth century. Using the French, Spanish and German suit systems, his cards spanned a range of themes, designs and patterns, from animals to nuptuals, as here.

The Cards

Using the French suits of Clubs, Diamonds, Hearts and Spades, this is a tarock deck consisting of 22 trump cards (I to XXI and a Fool, known as the Excuse in French and the Skiz in German), four court cards (King, Queen, Cavalier and Jack) and finally the Ace of each suit. The court cards show the full-length royal characters, Cavaliers mounted on horses and Queens holding flowers, while on the numbered trump cards a procession scene is shown.

It represents the ill-fated wedding day of Emperor Joseph II and Maria Josefa of Bavaria, forced by Empress Maria Theresa in 1765. Herself a grandaughter of Emperor Joseph I, Maria Josefa was described by contemporary sources as warm and good-natured but sadly unattractive and lacking in wits. She thus failed to gain her husband's affections, and it is believed that the marriage was probably never consummated. Worse yet, Maria Josefa died only two years later when a smallpox epidemic afflicted the Viennese court to which she had been sent. The unhappy couple are shown riding - and simultaneously feasting! - in a horse-drawn carriage, followed by a number of officials, noblemen, and finally commoners. German inscriptions beneath each illustration describe the people and scenes shown.