A playing card is a typically hand-sized rectangular (in India, round) piece of heavy paper or thin plastic used for
playing card games. A complete set of cards is a pack or deck.
Playing cards are often used as props in magic tricks, as well
as occult practices such as cartomancy, and a number of card games involve (or can be used to support) gambling. As a result, their use sometimes meets with disapproval from some religious groups. They are also a
popular collectible (as distinct from the cards made specifically for
collectible trading card games). Specialty and novelty
decks are commonly produced for collectors, often with political, cultural, or educational themes.
One side of each card (the "front" or "face") carries markings that distinguish it from the others and determine its use under
the rules of the particular game being played, while the other side (the "back") is identical for all cards, usually a plain
color or abstract design. In most games, the cards are assembled into a "deck" (or "pack"), and their order is randomized by a procedure called "shuffling" to provide an element of chance in the game.
Early history
The origin of playing cards is obscure, but it is almost certain that they began in China after the invention of paper. Ancient Chinese "money cards" have four
"suits": coins (or cash), strings of coins (which may have been misinterpreted as sticks from crude drawings), myriads of
strings, and tens of myriads. These were represented by ideograms, with numerals of
2-9 in the first three suits and numerals 1-9 in the "tens of myriads". Wilkinson suggests in The Chinese origin of playing cards (http://www.ahs.uwaterloo.ca/~museum/Archive/Wilkinson/Wilkinson.html) that the first cards
may have been actual paper currency which were both the tools of gaming and the stakes being played for. The designs on modern
Mahjong tiles and dominoes
likely evolved from those earliest playing cards. The Chinese word p'ai is used to describe both paper cards and gaming
tiles.
The time and manner of the introduction of cards into Europe are matters of dispute. The 38th canon of the council of
Worcester (1240) is often quoted as evidence of cards having been known in England in the middle of the 13th century; but the
games de rege et regina there mentioned are now thought to more likely have been chess. If cards were generally known in Europe as early as 1278, it is very remarkable that Petrarch, in his dialogue that treats gaming, never once mentions them. Boccaccio, Chaucer and other writers of that time
specifically refer to various games, but there is not a single passage in their works that can be fairly construed to refer to
cards. Passages have been quoted from various works, of or relative to this period, but modern research leads to the supposition
that the word rendered cards has often been mistranslated or interpolated.
It is likely that the ancestors of modern cards arrived in Europe from the Mamelukes of Egypt in the late 1300s, by which time they had already assumed a form very close to those in use today. In
particular, the Mameluke deck contained 52 cards comprising four "suits": polo sticks, coins, swords, and cups. Each suit
contained ten "spot" cards (cards identified by the number of suit symbols or "pips" they show) and three "court" cards named
malik (King), nā'ib malik (Viceroy or Deputy King), and thānī nā'ib (Second or
Under-Deputy). The Mameluke court cards showed abstract designs not depicting persons (at least not in any surviving specimens)
though they did bear the names of military officers. A complete pack of Mameluke playing cards was discovered by L.A. Mayer in
the Topkapi Sarayi Museum, Istanbul, in 1939; this particular complete pack was not made before 1400, but the complete deck
allowed matching to a private fragment dated to the twelfth or thirteenth century. There is some evidence to suggest that this
deck may have evolved from an earlier 48-card deck that had only two court cards per suit, and some further evidence to suggest
that earlier Chinese cards brought to Europe may have travelled to Persia, which then influenced the Mameluke and other Egyptian
cards of the time before their reappearance in Europe.
It is not known whether these cards influenced the design of the Indian cards used for
the game of Ganjifa, or whether the Indian cards may have influenced these. Regardless, the Indian cards have many distinctive
features: they are round, generally hand painted with intricate designs, and comprise more than four suits (often as many as
twelve).
Spread across Europe and early design changes
In the late 1300s, the use of playing cards spread rapidly across Europe. The first widely accepted references to cards are in
1371 in Spain, in 1377 in Switzerland, and, in 1380, they are referenced in many locations including Florence, Paris, and
Barcelona. A Paris ordinance dated 1369 does not mention cards; its 1377 update includes cards. In the account-books of Johanna,
duchess of Brabant, and her husband, Wenceslaus of Luxemburg, there is an entry dated May 14, 1379 as follows: "Given to Monsieur
and Madame four peters, two forms, value eight and a half moutons, wherewith to buy a pack of cards". An early mention of a
distinct series of playing cards is the entry of Charles or Charbot Poupart, treasurer of the household of Charles VI of France, in his book of accounts for 1392 or 1393,
which records payment for the painting of three sets or packs of cards, which were evidently already well known.
It is clear that the earliest cards were executed by hand, like those designed for Charles VI. However, this was quite
expensive, so other means were needed to mass-produce them. It is possible that the art of wood engraving, which led to the art
of printing, developed because of the demand for implements of play. If the assumption is true that the cards of that period were
printed from wood blocks, the early card makers or cardpainters of Ulm, Nuremberg, and Augsburg, from about 1418 to 1450, were
most likely also wood engravers.
Many early woodcuts were colored using a stencil, so it would seem that the art of depicting and coloring figures by means of
stencil plates was well known when wood engraving was first introduced. No playing cards engraved on wood exist whose creation
can be confirmed as early 1423 (the earliest-dated wood engraving generally accepted). However, in this period professional card
makers were established in Germany, so it is probable that wood engraving was employed to produce cuts for sacred subjects before
it was applied to cards, and that there were hand-painted and stencilled cards before there were wood engravings of saints. The
German Brief maler or card-painter probably progressed into the wood engraver; but there is no proof that the earliest
wood engravers were the card-makers.
The Europeans experimented with the structure of playing cards, particularly in the 1400s. Europeans changed the court cards
to represent European royalty and attendants, originally "king", "chevalier", and "knave" (or "servant"). Queens were introduced
in a number of different ways. In an early surviving German pack (dated in the 1440s), Queens replace Kings in two of the suits
as the highest card. Throughout the 1400s, 56-card decks containing a King, Queen, Knight, and Valet were common. Suits also
varied; many makers saw no need to have a standard set of names for the suits, so early decks often had different suit names
(though typically 4 suits). The cards manufactured by German printers used the suits
of hearts, bells, leaves, and acorns still present in Eastern and Southeastern German decks today used for Skat and other games. Later Italian and Spanish cards of the 15th century used swords, batons, cups, and coins.
It is likely that the Tarot deck was invented in Italy at that time, though it is often
mistakenly believed to have been imported into Europe by Gypsies. While originally (and still in some places, notably Europe)
used for the game of Tarocchi, the Tarot deck today is more often used for cartomancy and other occult practices. This probably came about in the 1780s, when
occult philosophers mistakenly associated the symbols on Tarot cards with Egyptian hieroglyphs.
The four suits (hearts, diamonds,
spades, clubs) now used in most of the world
originated in France, approximately in 1480. These suits have generally prevailed because
decks using them could be made more cheaply; the former suits were all drawings which had to be reproduced by woodcuts, but the French suits could be made by stencil. The trèfle, so named for its resemblance to the trefoil leaf, was probably copied from the acorn;
the pique similarly from the leaf of the German suits, while its name derived from the sword of the Italian suits. It is
not derived from its resemblance to a pike head, as commonly supposed. In England the French suits were used, and are named
hearts, clubs (corresponding to trèfle, the French symbol being joined to the Italian name, bastoni), spades
(corresponding to the French pique, but having the Italian name, spade=sword) and diamonds. This confusion of names and
symbols is accounted for by Chatto thus:
"If cards were actually known in Italy and Spain in the latter part of the 14th century, it is not unlikely that the game was
introduced into this country by some of the English soldiers who had served under Hawkwood and other free captains in the wars of
Italy and Spain. However this may be, it seems certain that the earliest cards commonly used in this country were of the same
kind, with respect to the marks of the suits, as those used in Italy and Spain."
Court cards have likewise undergone some changes in design and name. Early court cards were elaborate full-length figures; the
French in particular often gave them the names of particular heroes and heroines from history and fable. A prolific manufacturing
center in the 1500s was Rouen, which originated many of the basic design elements of
court cards still present in modern decks. It is likely that the Rouennais cards were popular imports in England, establishing
their design as standard there, though other designs became more popular in Europe (particularly in France, where the Parisian
design became standard). Rouen courts are traditionally named as follows: the kings of spades, hearts, diamonds, and clubs are
David, Alexander,
Caesar, and Charles (Charlemagne), respectively. The knaves (or "jacks"; French "valet") are Hector (prince of Troy), La Hire (comrade-in-arms to Joan of Arc),
Ogier (a knight of Charlemagne), and Judas Maccabeus (who led the Jewish rebellion against the Syrians). The queens are Pallas (warrior goddess; equivalent to the Greek Athena or Roman Minerva), Rachel (biblical mother of Joseph), Argine (the
origin of which is obscure), and Judith (from Book of Judith). Parisian
tradition uses the same names, but assigns them to different suits: the kings of spades, hearts, diamonds, and clubs are David,
Charles, Caesar, and Alexander; the queens are Pallas, Judith, Rachel, and Argine; the knaves are Ogier, La Hire, Hector, and
Judas Maccabee. Oddly, the Parisian names have become more common in modern use, even with cards of Rouennais design.
Later design changes
In early games the kings were always the highest card in their suit. However, as early as the late 1400s special
significance began to be placed on the nominally lowest card, now called the Ace, so that it sometimes became the highest card
and the Two, or Deuce, the lowest. This concept may have been hastened in the late 1700s by the French Revolution, where games began being played "ace high" as a symbol of lower classes rising in
power above the royalty. The term "Ace" itself comes from a dicing term in Anglo-Norman language, which is itself derived from the Latin as (the smallest unit of
coinage). Another dicing term, trey (3), sometimes shows up in playing card games.
Corner and edge indices appeared in the mid-1800s, which enabled people to hold their cards close together in a fan with one
hand (instead of the two hands previously used). Before this time, the lowest court card in an English deck was officially termed
the Knave, but its abbreviation ("Kn") was too similar to the King ("K"). However, from the 1600s on the Knave had often
been termed the Jack, a term borrowed from the game All Fours where the
Knave of trumps is termed the Jack. All Fours was considered a low-class game, so the use of the term Jack at one time was
considered vulgar. The use of indices changed the formal name of the lowest court card to Jack.
This was followed by the innovation of reversible court cards. Reversible court cards meant that players would not be tempted
to make upside-down court cards right side up. Before this, other players could often get a hint of what other players' hands
contained by watching them reverse their cards. This innovation required abandoning some of the design elements of the earlier
full-length courts.
The joker is an American innovation. Created for the Alsatian game of Euchre, it
spread to Europe from America along with the spread of Poker (although its use in poker
has largely faded). Although the joker card often bears the image of a fool, which is one of the images of the Tarot deck, it is
not believed that there is any relation. In contemporary decks, one of the two jokers is often more colorful or more intricately
detailed than the other, though this feature is not used in most card games. The two jokers are often differentiated as "Big" and
"Little," or more commonly, "Red" and "Black." In many card games the jokers are not used. Unlike face cards, the design of
jokers varies widely. Many manufacturers use them to carry trademark designs.
Playing cards today
The primary deck of fifty-four playing cards in use today, called Anglo-American playing cards, includes thirteen ranks
of each of the four English suits, spades (♠), hearts (♥), diamonds (♦) and clubs (♣); reversible Rouennais court cards; and two
often distinguishable Jokers, with one being more colorful than the other. Each suit includes an ace, depicting a single symbol of its suit; a king, queen, and jack, each depicted with a symbol of its suit; and ranks
two through ten, with each card depicting that many symbols (pips) of its suit. Modern playing cards carry index labels on
opposite corners (rarely, all four corners) to facilitate identifying the cards when they overlap.
The fanciful design and manufacturer's logo commonly displayed on the Ace
of Spades began under the reign of James I of England, who
passed a law requiring an insignia on that card as proof of payment of a tax on local
manufacture of cards. Until August 4, 1960,
decks of playing cards printed and sold in the United Kingdom were
liable for taxable duty and the Ace of Spades carried an indication of the name of the printer and the fact that taxation had
been paid on the cards. The packs were also sealed with a government duty wrapper.
Though specific design elements of the court cards are rarely used in game play, a few are notable. The jack of spades and
jack of hearts are drawn in profile, while the rest of the courts are shown in full face, leading to the former being called the
"one-eyed" jacks. When deciding which cards are to be made wild in some games, the phrase, "acey, deucey, one-eyed jack," is
sometimes used, which means that aces, twos, and the one-eyed jacks are all wild. The king of
hearts is shown with a broadsword behind his head, leading to the nickname
"suicide king". The Ace of Spades, unique in its large, ornate spade, is
sometimes said to be the death card, and in some games is used as a trump card.
Playing cards are usually a standard size called bridge size. Some decks are somewhat wider and are called poker size. Larger
or smaller decks are available, but are used mostly for card tricks.
Some decks include additional design elements. Casino blackjack decks may include markings intended for a machine to check the ranks of cards. Many casino decks
have four indices instead of the usual two. Many decks have large indices, largely for use in stud poker games, where being able to read cards from a distance is a benefit and hand sizes are small.
German and Austrian suits may have different appearances. For instance, many German decks have yellow or orange diamonds and
green spades. Many southern Germans and Austrians prefer decks with hearts, bells, leaves, and acorns (for hearts, diamonds,
spades, and clubs), as mentioned above.
An Anglo-American four-color deck exists. It has different colors
for its suits, but it is not in wide use.
Spain has a special deck (called Brisca)
with four suits, but they are termed differently. The suits are called Bastos (clubs), Oros (gold) Espadas (sword) and Copa
(cups). This deck is used not only in Spain but in other countries where Spain maintaned an influence, (cf. The Philippines, Puerto
Rico)1 (http://www.pagat.com/class/latin.html).
When relevant, most modern card games follow the bridge ranking of suits,
i.e. spades are highest, followed by hearts, diamonds, and clubs. A common mnemonic
to recall this ranking is reverse alphabetical order.
When giving the full written name of a specific card, the rank is given first followed by the suit, e.g., "Ace of Spades".
Shorthand notation may list the rank first "A♠" (as is typical when discussing poker) or list the suit first (as is typical in listing several cards in bridge) "♠AKQ". Tens are sometimes
abbreviated to T.
500, and some other games, require extended standard decks
with extra spot cards (in the case of 500, 11's, 12's, and red 13's).
The standard 54-card deck is also commonly known as a poker deck or—in
Japan—a Trump deck, to differentiate it from "dedicated" card
games such as UNO or Froop!, or other dynamic card decks like Hanafuda.
Playing card symbols in Unicode
The Unicode standard defines 8 characters for card suits, from U+2660 to
U+2667:
♠ ♡ ♢ ♣ ♤ ♥ ♦ ♧
Reference
External links
|
