Queen of Hearts

This jug is decorated with a repeating diamond pattern drawn from the visual language of traditional playing card decks. Within the red and black shapes appear symbolic motifs including a flaming heart, a rose and a serpent, referencing the imagery associated with the Queen of Hearts. Playing cards developed in Europe during the fifteenth century after arriving from earlier Islamic and Asian card traditions, gradually evolving into the four suit system of hearts, diamonds, clubs and spades that became standard in French and English decks. Court cards such as queens were often imagined as allegorical figures representing love, power or fortune. The flaming heart at the centre of the design evokes the passionate symbolism long associated with the Queen of Hearts, whose image in popular culture has come to represent both romantic devotion and dramatic emotional intensity.