Cards. The positive history of playing-cards commences about five hundred years back. Many theories and assertions have been hazarded as to the earlier history and origin of cards; but with regard to all of them the verdict of 'not proven' must be returned. The three chief opinions which have been held as to the origin of cards are: (1) That they had their birth in the East, and were thence transported to Europe. (2) That though there is evidence pointing to the use of playing-cards in India and China at a remote period, the appearance of cards in Europe is due to an original invention and not to importation. (3) That there is no satisfactory evidence to show that the origin of cards was other than European.
The first opinion can claim only the respect due to antiquity. It is asserted that the Arabs, Saracens, or Moors introduced cards into Europe by way of Spain. Covelluzzo (end of 15th century) states that cards were first known in Viterbo in 1379, whence they came from the country of the Saracens; but he merely chronicles an opinion prevalent in Viterbo a century later than the time of which he speaks. Bussi, the historian, who quotes Covelluzzo, states that he was rather a credulous person. Further, cards being originally called naibi in Europe, and the Hebrew and Arabic words, nabi, naba, ncbaa, conveying the idea of prophecy, it is said that the name is derived from the Arabic, and that cards were first used for the purpose of divination. But no Arabic manuscript gives the meaning of playing-cards to the word naib. Dr Willshire (Catalogue of Playing Cards in the British Museum, 1877) says that 'the theories in support of the connection of cards with early eastern occult philosophy and thaumaturgy are of too recondite and shadowy a character to admit of satisfactory argument.'
The Indian theory is based on a supposed resemblance between chess and cards, chess being probably of Hindu origin; and on the similarities between certain Indian and European cards and games. But the differences between chess and cards are much more notable than their resemblances.
Modern critics are of opinion that India has imitated the games of Europe, for the peculiarities which link eastern and western card games existed in the latter at least as early as 1488; and Europe had no continuous intercourse with India prior to 1494. Taylor's theory that cards made their way into Europe by means of the Gypsies is dismissed by Dr Willshire with the remark that 'whether the Zingari be of Egyptian or Indian origin, they did not appear in Europe before 1417, when cards had been known for some time.' See, however, the article GYPSIES.
If cards really had an early and separate origin in China, so had gunpowder, printing, and engraving. At all events the latest authorities reject the notion that cards were imported from China into Europe.
Hence it may be safely said that it is very doubtful whether the origin of playing-cards should be looked for in the East. Assuming, as most probable, that cards appeared independently in Europe about 1350, it has to be decided in what part of Europe they were first known. The majority of those who maintain the European origin of cards assign them to Italy. Dr Willshire gives a 'decided inclination' to Italy and to 'Venice, as that particular district which so modified them by changes connected with the emblematic series, and the addition to it of a numeral sequence, as to acquire a right of parentage in respect of modern playing-cards, not readily to be set aside.' A Swiss monk, Johannes, in a MS. dated 1377 now in the British Museum, says the ludus cartarum came to Switzerland that very year. In the registers of the Chambre des Comptes of Charles VI. of France, under February 1392, is the item, 'Donné à Jacquemin Gringonneur peintre pour trois jeux de cartes à or et diverses couleurs, ornés de plusieurs devises, pour porter devers le Seigneur Roi pour son ebatement LVI. sols Parisis.' This date (1392) has never been contested. It will be observed that the payment is made for painting, not for inventing cards; hence it is concluded that cards were already known.
Prior to the invention of playing-cards, there existed a series of emblematic pictures, which it is supposed were used for the purposes of divination and sortilege. And it is conjectured that about the middle of the 14th century some inventive genius added a series of numeral cards to the emblematic ones, and so converted them into implements of play. The designs on these combined packs, or tarots (so called probably because they were tarotée on the back—i.e. marked with plain or dotted lines crossing diagonally), were in the one series emblematic of conditions of life and of human vicissitudes (numbered also with Roman numerals in a margin above the design), and were, in the other series, similar to those now in use. The Venetian pack in the beginning of the 15th century consisted of seventy-eight cards, twenty-two emblematic, and fifty-six numerals, divided into four suits of fourteen cards each—viz. four coat (or court) cards, king, queen, chevalier, and valet, and ten point (or pip) cards numbered from one to ten. The name afutti (atouts, or trumps) was given to the emblematic cards, because they were superior to the others. The game played with these cards was called tarocchi.
Soon after the first quarter of the 15th century cards spread rapidly all over Europe. As cards travelled, the pack underwent a variety of modifications, and the emblematic series gradually dropped out of use, though games with tarot cards are still played in some parts of southern Europe. No Spanish tarots are known to exist. In the first instance, a pack of fifty-two numerals appears to have been used in Spain, the queens being sup- pressed. The French similarly removed a card from each suit, but they retained the queen and abolished the chevalier. The early German numeral cards were the same as the French; but afterwards the queen was displaced, and a superior knave (Obermann) was introduced instead. England appears to have been content to adopt foreign cards as she found them, either Spanish or French, about the middle of the 15th century.
The suits of numeral cards have always been four, but the signs or marks of the suits have differed among various nations. The earliest signs were cups, money, clubs (batons), and swords. These marks are still retained in tarot cards and in Italian and Spanish numerals. The Germans early employed hearts, bells, leaves, and glands (acorns). During the second quarter of the 15th century, the French adopted the signs of spades (pique), hearts, clubs (trèfle), and diamonds.
The origin of the marks of the suits and their meaning has been the subject of much speculation. It is said that they were originally emblematic, cups representing Faith; money, Charity; swords, Justice; and clubs, Fortitude. A good deal of ingenuity has been expended in explaining the meaning of modern signs; but, on the whole, it seems probable they were merely chosen as being well known and easily recognised. The symbol called in England spade, is evidently the German grün (leaf of the wild plum), with the Italian name (spade) of the corresponding suit (swords). Why the French, from whom we received it, called it pique is not known. The English club closely resembles the German acorn (cichel). The French formed it like a trefoil and called it trèfle; when we borrowed it, we gave the suit an Anglicised Italian name, clubs (bastoni). The German heart survives in French and English cards, and requires no explanation. It corresponds to the Italian and Spanish suit of cups. How money (Italian and Spanish) or bells (German) became transmitted into the French carreaux and the English diamonds is not known. The circular symbol has become a square one, possibly from a mere love of change.
Beyond occasional alterations in the devices on the cards, the fifty-two card pack has remained much the same as it now is ever since the middle of the 15th century. But numerous improvements have taken place in the manufacture of cards, which comprises many interesting processes. Of these a brief notice is appended.
The cardboard employed is generally formed of several sheets of paper pasted together. Usually the sheet which is to form the front surface is first printed with the court cards and pips; in former days stencil-plates were used for printing the fronts. The printed sheets are then interleaved with plain ones, and the requisite number are joined together with strong paste, to form boards. The boards are then subjected to high pressure in a hydraulic press, and are afterwards dried, flattened, and rolled, preparatory to receiving a coat of colour on the back. The colour is usually formed of tinted enamel. After enamelling, the boards are once more rolled under high pressure to prepare them for the printing on the back.
The ornamentation of the backs of playing-cards requires great skill, especially in the case of the more elaborate designs, which take seven, eight, or even more printings, each of which has to be accurately registered. Numerous designs by the late Owen Jones have thus been reproduced on the backs of cards by Messrs De La Rue & Co., the well-known London manufacturers. Generally, however, the cards used in clubs have their backs plain white or red. After printing, the boards must be once more pressed and polished. They are then cut up into separate cards. Each card is then subjected to a very careful examination, all defective or marked cards being rejected. Those which pass the ordeal are formed into packs, and the packs have finally to be made ready for sale, and sealed with a stamped wrapper. The packs are variously named, according to their degree of excellence; the best are called Moguls; the second quality, Harrys; the inferior ones, Highlanders, Andrews, and Harlequins. Recently very elaborate machinery has been introduced for rounding off the corners.
It has also become the fashion to place small index pips at the corners of the cards, to indicate their value without feathering them out to any great extent. The indicator system was invented by the late Dr Normandy, and was first brought out in 1860. Another improvement was that of double-headed court cards, which enables players to read the kings, queens, and knaves, whichever way they may happen to be held up. Though a great number of the technical terms used by the workpeople engaged in the manufacture of cards are of French origin, it is not in evidence that the home manufacture can be traced back to the French.
In Russia the manufacture of playing-cards is a government monopoly, and is carried on at the imperial factory in St Petersburg, where an enormous number of packs are produced. In England the manufacture has attained considerable magnitude, and the consumption is on the increase. In 1861, the last year of the shilling duty, 290,660 packs were sealed. In 1862, mostly at a shilling, but a small part at threepence, about 160,000 more packs were sealed. In 1863, the duty being threepence, 732,960 packs were sealed. After 1867 the number rose to 737,120, then to 813,920; and in 1873 it exceeded a million. In 1878 duty was paid on 1,115,200 packs of home manufacture, to which must be added large numbers exported which pay no duty; in 1887, on 1,254,000. In the United States the manufacture has attained enormous proportions; the average number made annually is calculated at from 14,000,000 to 15,000,000 packs.
A duty was first imposed on playing-cards in England in 1615. The amount was five shillings per gross of packs. In the reign of Charles I. this duty was complained of by the Commons as being arbitrary and illegal, and levied without the consent of parliament. In the reign of Queen Anne (1710) an act was passed to obtain a fund 'for carrying on the war and other her Majesty's occasions,' in which it was enacted that cards should pay a duty of sixpence a pack for a term of thirty-two years. Frauds having been discovered, it was made felony, punishable with death, in a subsequent amended act, to counterfeit or forge the seals, stamps, or marks which denoted the payment of the duties. In 1719 (George I.) further provisions for preventing fraud were passed, and the term of thirty-two years was extended indefinitely. In 1756 (George II.) an additional tax of sixpence a pack was imposed, and further measures were framed to prevent fraudulent evasions. Eleven years later the duty was raised to one and sixpence a pack. In 1789, and again in 1801, the duty was further increased, by sixpenny steps, to half a crown a pack. In 1828 the half-crown duty was reduced to a shilling. In 1862 the duty was reduced to threepence in hopes of suppressing the enormous evasion of the duty which notoriously prevailed (Report of Commissioners of Inland Revenue, 1863), and for other reasons. The duty was also levied on the seal or wrapper, instead of on the ace of spades, and second-hand cards could no longer be sold free of duty, but had to be enclosed in a fresh wrapper and to pay a second duty. It is believed that now there is no evasion; and the amount realised under the threepenny tax greatly exceeds that which was formerly collected under the shilling tax.
See W. A. Chatto, Facts and Speculations on the Origin and History of Playing-Cards (1848); E. S. Taylor, History of Playing-Cards (1865); W. H. Willshire, Descriptive Catalogues of Cards in the British Museum (1877); and Playing-Cards of Various Ages and Countries, from Lady Charlotte Schreiber's Collection (3 vols. 1892-95); besides separate articles on WHIST, BEZIQUE, CRIBBAGE, ECARTÉ, EUCHE, LOO, PIQUET, POKER, &c.