A RARE set of 337 year old playing cards, including one of the first to mention Bolton, sold for £15,000 at Sotheby’s in London, more than three times the estimate.

Each card represents a English or Welsh county and Bolton appears on the Lancashire card, which was issued as the three of clubs.

Each card features a map of a different county and that county’s principal towns and roads.

The cards were produced by cartographer and publisher, Robert Morden, in 1676.

The court cards have the King depicted as Charles II — in whose reign they were printed — and the Queen, his wife, Catherine of Braganza. A spokesman for Sotheby’s said: “For many counties, the Morden playing card is the earliest separate printed county map to show any roads.”

Catherine Slowther, maps and atlases expert at Sotheby’s, said: “The first set of playing cards bearing maps of English and Welsh counties was thought to have been produced by William Bowes in 1590.

“Morden produced a fine set of playing cards in 1676.

“As playing cards were normally a gambling device, one might not expect to find them adapted to educational uses. The output of playing cards was seriously curtailed during Cromwellian times, when both cards and play were regarded as sinful.

“This puritanical attitude resulted in the wholesale destruction of many fine sets of cards.

“The last edition of the Morden playing card, in 1770, has the suit mark removed, but more detail added.”

The cards were auctioned following the death on January 3 of the man who owned them — Jaime “Jimmy” Ortiz-Patino, who created the Valderrama golf course in Spain.

He was also the president of the World Bridge Federation between 1976 and 1986 and owned one of the greatest private collections of playing cards.

The cards were bought by an anonymous British collector.