The Winterthur Library

 The Joseph Downs Collection of Manuscripts and Printed Ephemera

Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, Winterthur, DE  19735

302-888-4600 or 800-448-3883

OVERVIEW OF THE COLLECTION

Creator:          Tuttell, Thomas, ca. 1674-1702                                   

Title:               Playing cards

Dates:             1701

Call No.:         Col. 220

Acc. No.:         71x216, Ph 1295

Quantity:        48 items

Location:        38 / F / 2

BIOGRAPHICAL STATEMENT

Thomas Tuttell was a British mathematical instrument maker who flourished from 1695‑1702.  The son of William Tuttell, a member of the Cordwainers' Company of London, and a former apprentice to Henry Wynne, Tuttell was a member of the Clockmakers Company and in 1700, was appointed Instrument Maker to the King of England.  In his shops in London and Westminster, he taught all aspects of mathematics, including the use of instruments.  Tuttell was particularly noted for his quality work in silver, brass, ivory, and wood.  Several examples of his products including dials, cross‑staffs, back staffs, and an ivory Gunter's scale survive in British museums.  In 1698,  Tuttell issued The Description and Uses of a New Contriv'd Eliptical Double Dial, which described a form of an analemmatic sundial that he had created.  In the 1701 edition of Joseph Moxon's Mathematical Dictionary, Moxon and Tuttell included a lexicon of mathematical instruments.  As hydrographer to the king, Tuttell drowned on January 22, 1702 while surveying the river Thames.

SCOPE AND CONTENT

This set of engraved playing cards dates from 1701.  The cards depict mathematical instruments and their use in various occupations.  The upper right hand corner contains a likeness of a small playing card.  The remainder of the card contains the illustration, caption, and description.  Instruments shown include "dyals," cross‑staffs, compasses, scales, bows, surveying wheels and chains, theodolites, protractors, quadrants, etc.  Such occupations as millwrights, bricklayers, shipwrights, and architects are portrayed, and their description includes a mention of the mathematical instruments most commonly used in their trade.

Four missing cards (Ace of Spades, Five of Hearts, King of Diamonds, and Jack of Diamonds) are represented by copies.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

E.G.R. Taylor.  Mathematical Practitioners of Tudor and Stewart England. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1954.

H. K. Higton. “Tuttell, Thomas (c.1674–1702),” in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford, Eng.: Oxford University Press, 2004.

PROVENANCE

Purchased from Timothy Trace, October 1971.

ACCESS POINTS

Playing cards. 

Mathematical instruments --18th century --Pictorial works. 

Scientific apparatus and instruments --18th century --Pictorial works. 

Occupations --Early works to 1800. 

Navigation --Equipment and supplies --18th century. 

Carpentry --Tools. 

Astronomical instruments --18th century --Pictorial works. 

Weights and measures --18th century --Pictorial works. 

Meteorological instruments --18th century --Pictorial works. 

Engraving --18th century --Specimens. 

Measuring instruments --18th century --Pictorial works. 

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Ace of Spades:

Bookes & Instrumts for Navigation. 

Quadrant, Fore & back staffe, Double Guntor, Plain Seale, Noctournall, Sliding Guntor, Sinical Quadrant, Universal Dyal, Aequinoctial Dyal, 2 pce of Compasses, a pce, of draught Compss., 2 pce of dividers, a pce of Globes, Aximuth Compass, Navigation Sector, Sr. Ian Moors Worke, Newhouse’s Pr. Naviga, Sturiny’s Magazine, Seaman Practice, Mariner Kalendar, Norwood’s Sisteme, Epitome, Trygonometrs, Atkinsons Epitome, Tuttells Use of the Universal Aequinotial Dyal, Journal Bookes, Sea Charts & Platts, Slate & penns, Use of ye Globes, Tellescope.

Two of Spades:

Charts

The plain Chart has the degrees of Latitude and Longitude Equal, Mercator ye deg. of Longitude Equal, but those of Lat: unequal, both useful in Navigation.

Three of Spades:

Tryangular Quadrant

An Instrument capable of many improvements, well contrived to hold much usefull Worke & very portable.

Four of Spades:

Quadrant

An Instrument Several ways contrived to find ye Hour & Azimuth, & for solveing most propositions of ye Globe, & for takeing the height of Trees, Steples, Towers, &.

Five of Spades:

Platonicke Bodys

Are 5 regular Solids Usefull to informe all Students to a right conception of their Nature, and being furnished wth Dyals (that set themselves) are of great Use and Ornament

Six of Spades:

Carpentor

Cheifly uses the two foot and 18 Inch Rules with Squares, Bevels, Levels, and a Case of Instrumts wth Sector Scales, Compasses &a for Draughts.

Seven of Spades:

Magnet or Loadstone

A treasure of hidden vertues which has made our Navigation great, our Comerce general, our Charts, & Globes, much more Accurat & exact.

Eight of Spades:

Gardner

makes Use of the Leavel, and Station Staffes, Protractors, Chains, Scales, Compasses, drawing Table, and all Surveying Instruments.

Nine of Spades:

Pocket Cases

Are Contrived to hold the Instruments generally Used in Mathematicks made in Silver, Steell, Brass, Ivory, & Wood fit for all Artists.

Ten of Spades:

Tellescope

An Instrument of vast information to our Sences, by being well applyed to Astronomical, & many other Mathematical Instruments.

Jack of Spades:

Leavel

An Instrument used, in dreining Boggs & Mines, unwatering Fenns, making Rivers Navigable, Supplying Townes wth water &.

Queen of Spades:

Astronomical Quadrant

The application of Tellescopes & the more Minute divideing of Such Instruments, has given a more clear light of those Wonderful luminaries ye Sun, Moon, & Starrs.

King of Spades:

Spheres

the General Use of Spheres is to shew ye progress of the Wandering Starrs or Planets, both as to their Dyurnal and Anual Motions.

Ace of Diamonds:

Mathematical Instruments

Curiously fram’d, very exactly and minutely divided (by the Contrivance of our modern Artists) both for Observation & Operation to the great improvement of Arts & Sciences

Two of Diamonds:

Imperial and Plain Table

Are Instrumts contrived to contain all other Surveying Instrumts very ready to take Enclosures, & gives a very good demonstration of the practical part of Surveying

Three of Diamonds:

Gauger

The 4 foot Gaugeing Rod & Semicircle, ye long Slideing Calipers, & the various Sorts of Slideing Rules in Canes and for the Pocket are ingeniously apply’d.

Four of Diamonds:

Almanacke

[perpetual calendar]

To find what day of the Month is the first Monday in Jan 1701

Over ye Year you find E, against Jan over E, you find ye first Sunday the 5^th & counting on ye next Collumn, Monday the 6^th, &.

Five of Diamonds:

Architect

Drawing Tables, Te’s or double Squares, Sectors, Scales, Compasses, and drawing pens ought to be most accurately made for these uses.

Six of Diamonds:

Circumferentor

An Instrumt for taking a large Mannor, County, or Lordship, or where tis requisite to have ye Bearing. Well approved, & much used by our Surveyors.

Seven of Diamonds:

Shipwright

Uses the drawing Table, Tees, drawing pens, Scales, Compasses, and large Bows.

Eight of Diamonds:

the Compass

This rarity is Said to be handed to ye World near 400 Years agoe to the mighty improvemt of trade & Navigation, also Surveying, Minening Dyaling &a

Nine of Diamonds:

Dyals

That Set themselves, Are double Horizontal, ye Universal Aequinoctial, & the Eliptical double Dyals which have found a general Acceptance among all Artists.

Ten of Diamonds:

Bricklayer

Their most usefull Instruments are ye two foot Rule, 18 Inch Rule & Square, Slideing Rules, Compasses, Scales & Leavels.

Jack of Diamonds:

Parrallellogram

An Instrument to Augment or diminish any Draught of Fortification, Shipps, Lands, Buildings &a in any Proportion, Useful to Ingeneers, Surveyors, Gardners, &a

Queen of Diamonds:

Projections of the Sphere

Are either Orthographicke (wch Supposeth ye Eye at an infinite distance) or Stereographicke wch placeth ye Eye on the Sphere at right Angles to the plain of that great Circle on which the Sphere is projected

King of Diamonds:

Globes

The most pleasant & easy introduction to Astronomy & Geography, is rightly to Know the Use of both Globes.

Ace of Clubs:

Dyaling Globe

An Instrumt (wth a moveing Horizon & Index) wch gives ye true Idea or Nature of Dyaling & Shews readily to draw the Furniture & Ornaments on Dyals.

Two of Clubs:

Theodlet & SemiCircle

The Theodlet is a Whole Circle divided into 360 deg. The Semi-circle into 180 deg both very excellent Instruments in Surveying, to take Heights & distances.

Three of Clubs:

Protractor

An Instrumt that readily makes & measures any Angle on Mapps or draughts, Used in Surveying to make the Plott, after the Angles are taken.

Four of Clubs:

Sinical Quadrant

An Instrument that Solves by inspection all right angle’d plain tryangles, & Used by Mariners to Answer all Questions in plain Sailing.

Five of Clubs:

Thermometre

An Instrumt that measures ye unperceive-able alterations of ye Weather as to heat & Cold. also fit for Bagnio’s, Greenhouses, & many usefull Experiments.

Six of Clubs:

Barometre

An Instrument shewing the gravitation of ye Air (invented by Torricellus) being altered by the different compressions of ye Atmosphere it foretels (rising) Fair or Frost, (falling) Rain Snow, wind, or Stormes.

Seven of Clubs:

Noctournal

An Instrumt use’d at Sea to find ye Altitude or the Depression of ye North Starr in respect of ye Pole it selfe in order to find ye Latitude and nearly ye Hour of ye Night

Eight of Clubs:

Stone carver

Rules, Bevels, Squares, Levels, Compasses, & other Instrumts for drawing are of great use to such Artists.

Nine of Clubs:

Glasier

Sliding Rules perticularly adapted to ye Glasiers worke & all other Instruments that measure Superficies are often used & well approved.

Ten of Clubs:

Sector & Scales

Excellently composed for Dyaling, Surveying, Navigation, and all ye Practical parts of Mathematickes contrived to be very portable.

Jack of Clubs:

Paintor

Pavior

Turner

Smith

Uses 2 foot Rules, Yards, Squares, Compasses, Bevels, & Calipers.

Queen of Clubs:

Drawing Table

An Instrument with a Tee for Draughts of Buildings Gardens, Ships, Fortifications, and Wherever Protraction is requisite.

King of Clubs:

Building is almost as ancient as ye world it arrived to its greatest beauty & perfection under the Grecian monarchy from thence it was translated to ye Roman ye vestigias of whose august buildings still remain in Italy.

Ace of Hearts:

Mathematicks

By the Assistance of a Master are made so delightfull & pleasant & of Such general use, that they aggrandize a Man for all Conversation & make him Capable of any Employ.

Two of Hearts:

Cross-staffe

An Instrument much use’d at Sea for takeing ye Altitude of ye Sun, or Starrs, in order to find ye Latitude.

Three of Hearts:

Plows & Bows

These Instruments if well made, are yet in esteem amongst many Navigators their description & Use may be found in Guntor, Sr. Jonas Moor, &a.

Four of Hearts:

Sea Quadrant

An Instrument containing ye 4^th part of a Circle or 90 deg; well contrived for ye Mariners use ye great Arch plac’t at a Convenient distance for ye Eye ye lesser for ye Shadows.

Five of Hearts:

Cone

Admits of 5 Sections vizt Parabloa, Hyperbola, Elipsis, Tryangle, & Circle of many Uses in Mathematicks, perticularly drawing ye furniture on Sun dials.

Six of Hearts:

Miner

Generally Uses a good Leavell (to bring home his Soughs) for dreining Mines, a Compass box and Needle to take his bearings & a Universal Dyal

Seven of Hearts:

Bow

An Instrument to draw large Arches where their Centors are at a great distance used in Projecting of the Sphere

Eight of Hearts:

Millwright

In a Mathematical proportion adapts his Engines to Dreine Mines, Unwater Fenns, raise Water (to Supply Townes) And many other great Uses, by Water, Wind, Horse, or Man.

Nine of Hearts:

Scales

Are diverse lines of equal parts, dyagonally or otherwise divided, Generally used in Surveying or wherever protraction is required.

Ten of Hearts:

Compasses

There are great variety of these Instruments vizt Eliptical, Tryangular, halfe & whole, Proportional, Compasses for Draughts & for ye Pocket &a.

Jack of Hearts:

Surveying Wheel & Chains

the Wheel an Expedious Instrumt to Measure Roads, Rivers &a either for Walking or apply’d to a Coach, Guntors, Rathborne, Wings & ye 50 foot Chains, are of great Use in Surveying.

Queen of Hearts:

Shipp

Our Glory, safety, trade, & Navigation, wholly depends on our Ships, they depend upon Art, which not only inrich, but affords ye greatest defence

King of Hearts:

Fortification & Gunnery

Sr. Jonas Moors Sector, Scales & Parrallell rulors, Parrallel-Lograms, Callipers, Heights, mouth peices, Quadrants, &a use’d by the Ingeneers.