The artwork on English court cards appears to have been largely influenced by designs produced in Rouen, Belgium, which produced large amounts of playing cards for export. They include details such as kings with crowns, flowing robes, beards, and longish hair; queens holding flowers and sceptres; and knaves that are clean-shaven, wearing caps, and holding arrows, feathers or pikes. But whatever variety was present, slowly disappeared as a result of the industrious efforts of Briton Thomas de la Rue, who was able to reduce the prices of playing cards due to increased output and productivity.
This mass production he accomplished in the s gave him a position of dominance in the industry, and the smaller manufacturers with their independent designs eventually were swallowed up, leading to the more standardized designs as we know them today. De la Rue's designs were first modernized by Reynolds in , and then again by Charles Goodall in , and it is this design that effectively still used today.
It was also around this time that double-ended court cards became common to avoid the need to turn the cards, thereby revealing to your opponent that you had court cards in your hand and the existing full-length designs were adapted to make them double-ended.
The Americans are late companions to our historical journey, because for a long time they simply relied on imports from England to meet the demand for playing cards.
Due to the general public's preference for goods of English origin, some American makers even printed the word "London" on their Ace of Spades, to ensure commercial success! From the earliest days of colonization there are even examples of native Americans making their own decks with original suit symbols and designs, evidently having learned card games from the new inhabitants. Among American manufacturers, a leading name from the early s is Lewis I.
Cohen, who even spent four years in England, and began publishing playing cards in In he invented a machine for printing all four colours of the card faces at once, and his successful business eventually became a public company in , under the name the New York Consolidated Card Company. This company was responsible for introducing and popularizing corner indices to the English pack, to make it easier for players to hold and recognize a poker hand by only fanning the cards slightly. Another printing company had already printed decks with indices in Saladee's Patent, printed by Samuel Hart , but it was the Consolidated Card Company that patented this design in First known as "squeezers", decks with these indices were not immediately well received.
A competing firm, Andrew Dougherty and Company initially began producing "triplicates", offering an alternative that used miniature card faces on the opposite corners of the cards. But new territory had been won, and indices eventually became standard, and today it is hard to imagine playing cards without them. One final innovation that we owe to the United States is the addition of the Jokers. The Joker was initially referred to as "the best bower", which is terminology that originates in the popular trick-taking game of euchre, which was popular in the midth century, and refers to the highest trump card.
It is an innovation from around that designated a trump card that beat both the otherwise highest ranking right bower and left bower. The word euchre may even be an early ancestor of the word "Joker". A variation of poker around is the first recorded instance of the Joker being used as a wild card. Besides these changes, America has not contributed any permanent changes to the standard deck of cards, which by this time already enjoyed a long and storied history, and had become more and more standardized.
However the United States has become important in producing playing cards. Besides the above mentioned companies, other well-known names of printers from the late 19th century include Samuel Hart and Co, and Russell and Morgan, the latter eventually becoming today's industry giant: the United States Playing Card Company. American manufacturers have been printing special purpose packs and highly customized decks of playing cards throughout their history, but the USPCC's Bicycle, Bee, and Tally Ho brands have become playing card icons of their own.
The USPCC has absorbed many other playing card producers over more than a century of dominance, and they are considered an industry leader and printer of choice for many custom decks produced today. The true history of playing cards is a long and fascinating journey, one that has been enmeshed with many romantic interpretations over time, not all of which have a historical basis.
What will the future hold for the fate of the humble playing card, and what will be the lasting contribution of our own era be to the shape and content of a "standard" deck? Only time will tell, but meanwhile you can enjoy a modern deck today, knowing that it has striking similarities with the playing cards of 15th century Europe, and that playing cards have been an integral part of life and leisure across the globe for more than years!
Where to get them: Do you want to pick up some historic looking cards from PlayingCardDecks. Start by looking at this contemporary 40 card Spanish deck. Alternatively, check out the entire range of vintage playing cards. Caldwell, Ross Gregory. MacPherson, Hugh. Wilkinson, W.
It may even decrease your chances of burn-out and depression. Games distract your mind and allow your brain the rest it so desperately needs. Playing cards and board games creates strong bonds among friends and families. Discover why exactly playing is so important. Cardistry is the non-magical manipulation of playing cards to display creativity, performance art, and skill. Learn a short history of magic and find more information on this fascinating and entertaining art.
Somewhere in Southwestern Germany during the 15th century, the first playing card artist created his masterworks. Court cards designed in the 16th Century in the manufacturing centre of Rouen became the standard design in England, while a Parisian design became standard in France.
Both the Parisian and Rouennais court cards were named after historical and mythological heroes and heroines. The Parisian names have become more common in modern use, even with cards of Rouennais design. Symbolism Popular legend holds that the composition of a deck of cards has religious, mystical, or astrological significance.
Thus each suit of 13 cards represents the 13 months of the lunar year. Since the Sidereal lunar month may be approximated to 28 days, each suit is equal to days of the year. Similarly the whole deck of the 52 cards represents the 52 weeks of the year. Therefore the whole deck is also equal to days of the year. To continue reading an in-depth history of the Playing Card, please click on the Wikipedia link below.
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We are also on. Card names, colors, emblems, and designs change according to their provenance and the whims of card players themselves. They are cultural imprints that reveal popular custom.
The birthplace of ordinary playing cards is shrouded in obscurity and conjecture, but—like gunpowder or tea or porcelain—they almost certainly have Eastern origins. Yet another hypothesis argues that nomads brought fortune-telling cards with them from India, assigning an even longer antiquity to card playing.
In medieval Europe, card games occasioned drinking, gambling, and a host of other vices that drew cheats and charlatans to the table. Card playing became so widespread and disruptive that authorities banned it. In his book The Game of Tarot , the historian Michael Dummett explains that a ordinance forbade card games on workdays in Paris. Everybody played cards: kings and dukes, clerics, friars and noblewomen, prostitutes, sailors, prisoners. But the gamblers were responsible for some of the most notable features of modern decks.
Historically, pips were highly variable, giving way to different sets of symbols rooted in geography and culture. From stars and birds to goblets and sorcerers, pips bore symbolic meaning, much like the trump cards of older tarot decks. Unlike tarot, however, pips were surely meant as diversion instead of divination. Even so, these cards preserved much of the iconography that had fascinated 16th-century Europe: astronomy, alchemy, mysticism, and history.
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