The Knights (and The Chariot) were one area of the deck where I had a surfeit of options for base art. Riding on horses and in carriages was such a part of Victorian life that the cartoonists of Punch magazine regularly drew Mister Punch on horseback or driving a cart. I had, literally, twice as many potential base images to choose from as what I needed, and all of them were kind of wonderful in their own way. In the end, the decisions kind of made themselves: Punch in his speeding carriage with the high wheels was a natural for the Knight of Pentacles, and this young master Punch mounted on his playroom hobby-horse is, I think, a natural for the Knight of wands. To tie him even more to the rest of the suit, I gave him the Mister Punch wooden club that appears throughout the minors. The wallpaper of his playroom is, a believe, an authentic Victorian wallpaper (though further artified by me), while that cobalt blue paint on the wainscoting was a popular color of the time.
--Frede.
