Playing cards used by King Charles II sell for £10k

The king was believed to have used the rare set of 17 Century cards at the home of MP Jeffery Amherst

A rare set of 17th Century playing cards used by King Charles II that were found in an attic in Norfolk have sold at auction for more than three times their expected value.

The collection sold for £10,700 at auctioneers Woolley and Wallis in Salisbury, Wiltshire.

A spokesperson for the company described the sale as “quite remarkable” saying that the buyer, a private UK collector, planned to one day donate them to the Worshipful Company of Makers of Playing Cards.

The king is believed to have used the cards at the home of MP Jeffery Amherst, in Riverhead, Kent, on his way to the spa waters at Tunbridge Wells.

The Stuart monarch believed the waters would improve the fertility of his Portuguese wife.

The cards were unearthed in an attic in Blakeney upon the death of a descendent of the MP.

They were found along with a late 18th Century note inscribed: "Cards that King Charles & Queen Catherine played with at my great Grandfather's, Mr Amherst of Riverhead on their way to Tunbridge Wells."

'Fine condition'

Mark Yuan-Richards, from Woolley and Wallis, previously described them as "true museum pieces".

He said: "The fine condition of these cards, and the fact that it is a complete set, suggests that they may have only been used by the royal couple and then put away for posterity.

"The vendor inherited the set from his great-aunt, who kept them boxed away in her attic.

"We can trace her family back through eight generations to Jeffery Amherst so the set has clearly been passed down over the centuries and treasured all that time."