BASSET, or Bassette, a French game of cards played by five persons with a pack of fifty-two cards. Once very popular, it is now practically obsolete. It is said to be of Venetian origin and to have been introduced into France by Justiniani, the ambassador of Venice in the second half of the 17th century. It resembles lansquenet (q.v.) in a general way, in that it is played between a banker and several punters, the players winning or losing according as cards turned up match those already exposed or not.