PLAYING CARDS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 171, 21 July 1928, Page 10 (Supplement)

PLAYING CARDS.

A MIXED GENEALOGY. ORIGINATED IN THE ORIENT. MANY CHANGES IX FORM. s Three packs of cards were made for each man, woman and child in the United k States last year, according to R. S. Foster. tlie bridge authority. Furthermore, j ten times as many cards are manufacsjtured to-day as were turned out twenty j years ago. -i 1 lie familiar story is that playing ii j cards were invented by -Jaetpiemin Grin-, j- • gouneur to amuse Charles VI., the insane j King of Franco, in 1392. But that is pure legend, for they are mentioned in the e I Annals of Provence as early as 1301, and - John I. of Castile issued an edict against s them in 1387. A manuscript by a Swiss monk, Johannes, wliich is in the British; Museum, says that the game of card.;, was introduced into Switzerland in 1377.' Germany and Italy also lay claim to) fourteenth century dates for their lirsc. "pasteboards." 1 China's Paper Tickets. 1 China had cards about 1100 A.D., with dots for symbols. They were called t Che-pae, or paper tickets. Thirty cards, were in a pack, three suits of nine cards) each and three independent cards superior' to the rest. One of these superior cards j ' was called "the M bite tlouei." Potl ic | terms were used fur the ot hers—"the 1 t nine myriads of string- of beads.'* "the' . nine units ot cakes," "i be nine units ■»f] chains,' and so on. The Chinese cards' t - were red angular. Farly India u.-ed circular cards. Ihe ( f Hindus usually made them of canvas.j , stiflly varnished. There were ninet v-six I f cards in a pack. As with our own, the , , numerals ranged from one to ten, but | t there were eight stilts, divided into fourj "superior"' and four "inferior." Each of j the eight suits lias a colour of its nw.i green, blue, red, yellow, black, brown. I I white or fawn. Hindu cards had no] : queen, but there was a king, and he had j , his prime minister. j Trumps From Venice. Our own familiar pack of fifty-two. | cards descends from a larger aggregation. l . \ en ice. at the beginning of the fifteenth! century, played with a pack of seventv-1 eight cards. Of these lift}-six numerals and the figures of the king, queen, chevalier and valet. There were four suits, with four of the court cards in each. The numerals were from one to ten. The twenty-two other cards in the pack mere emblematic; they were held to ha\t> sunived from remote times and j to have been used for divination. These j were of highest value in the game and! were called "trumps." In those d?ys I such a pack of cards was called a pack! of "tarots." because they were "larote."! or marked with diagonal crossings on® the back. Gradually the emblematic cards were l eliminated, as well as one of the court j cards in each suit , leaving the pack w'th ' lifty-two. Then came variety in the; symbols used. The Italian, French and I Spanish suits comprised swords, cups.' j batons and money, while the old English ( and German cards showed hearts, bell#, acorns and leaves. Origin of the Suits. f On the present-day playing cards the; spade derives its form from the symbol! of the German leaf and its name from t tic I Italian "s]>ada." which "vsas the name given in Italy to the suit of swords. '1 he club takes its shape from the German J acorn and its name from the translation! of the Italian "bastoni.'' The German j heart remains, though at times it was a chalice or a bell. The sword svmbolj through French adaptation, became ttie "pique.' or laneehead. then the diamond. Such is the mixed-up genealogy of tincards of our time. Engravers of the sixteenth century designed and executed playing cards of j great artistic merit, and those of -Jest j Amman, engraved on wood in Xur'.m- j berg in 158S, are supreme examples of | the kind. That city was long the chief! centre of card manufacture. In 1452 j John Capistran preached there for three hours against the card habit, and wrought up public feeling to such a pitch that •! j huge bonfire of cards, backgammon i boards and dice resulted. Bologna, too.' once witnessed such a scene. : In the seventeenth and eighteenth .-•en-j turies it was customary to satirise poli- j tical, historical and social events on p'.?\ -• ing cards by means of cartoons. The! French Revolution offered a particularly tine opportunity to the republican draftsmen to show their contempt! for kintrs and queens. i From Servants' Hall to Salon. One American pack of cards rs a rare 1 item for the collector. It commemorates; the war with in IS4S, and in the' place of kings appear the Generals ot the' military campaigns. On the aces are ! shown well-known country places of the' time, including Washington's head-quar-; ters at Newburgh. The engagement be-' tween the Monitor and Merrimac in 18l>o ! was also recorded on a pa;k of cards. i Bridge enthusiasts may be saddeDed to' know that the original of their game.J wliist, was long looked upon as only a; pastime for servants and the "lower orders" generally. By 1739 it had taken 1 hold on the "upper crust" to such an evtent that even children gave wlistl parties, greatly to the horror of conser- j vative persons. j