Borso's court stopped with Trionfi notes in 1463 (for the Ortalli text, I remember, that we found a later note some years after this time from 1463), not in 1460. Other notes from later times exist (Milan, Naples, early 1470s).SteveM wrote:Another point in favour of the earlier dating is that records of Ferrara have numerous examples for production of painted trionfi decks for period 1442 to 1460, but none after 1460 (when purchases of printed decks were the norm, occassionally with use of painters to paint heraldic devices on them, but not completely hand-painted decks). The ease with which printed decks could be obtained at a far cheaper price for what are after all emphemeral items meant there was no need for high cost hand-painted playing cards. Also, there is no indication that any of the numerous painted decks produced for the d'Estes prior to 1460 was made to commemorate anything, such as weddings, but were simply produced for the card playing members of court. The period for Leonello d'Este and Maria d'Aragon falls in the range when hand painted cards were being produced for the court, according to available records; that of Ercole and his Aragon wife is a period far later than any hand painted decks are known to have been produced for the court.
We have generally not so much notes of 1466-1500 as we have from 1440-1465, and especially we have not much prices. So the chances to compare the times are very limited.
But here ...
Ferrara (or Modena ?) 4th November 1469: "A Federico di Bonacossi per pagamento de uno paro de carte da triomphi ... Lira Marchesana 11.04"
(11 Lira Marchesana 4 Soldi paid to Federico di Bonacossi for delivering a pack of Trionfi cards).
http://trionfi.com/0/e/29c/
That's more than the average price paid by Borso. So we may conclude from this, that in 1473 the price for luxury decks (probably) wasn't (much) less than 10 years before.