Gaming purse

This is a special purse for use at the gaming table, to hold money or counters. Its style is quite different from other 17th-century purses. The flat, circular base with sides gathered on a drawstring prevented spilling or revealing the contents, and the coat of arms on the bottom identified the owner.

This gaming purse is made of velvet dyed a bright orange-red, a colour known in the 18th century as ‘tawny’. It is embroidered with fleur-de-lys in silver thread on the sides. The coat of arms of Cardinal Duke de Matignon are embroidered in silk and silver gilt on the bottom.

Playing and betting on card games was a socially acceptable pastime for the wealthy in the later 17th century. Along with dancing, riding and the theatre, it was an amusement for those classes that did not have to work. The coat of arms identify the owner of the purse as Jacques de Goyon de Matignon who was consecrated Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church in Paris in 1673. The evidence that he regularly played and gambled on cards is appropriate to his aristocratic birth. Unlike certain sects of the Protestantism in the 17th century, the Roman Catholic Church did not oppose this popular entertainment.