(1890) The Devil's Book: A History of Playing Cards

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'CORNELL UNIVERSITYLIBRARIES

ITHACA, N. Y. 14853

JOHN M. CLINLIBRARY


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Cornell University LibraryGV1233 .V269Devil's picture-books. A.,history of P'ay

olin3 1924 029 917 576


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Cornell UniversityLibrary

The original of this book is inthe Cornell University Library.

There are no known copyright restrictions inthe United States on the use of the text.

http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029917576


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Plate 1.


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THE

DEVIL'S PICTURE-BOOKS

^ i^ijitot;^ of plaving'atn^

BY

MRS. JOHN KING VAN RENSSELAERAUTHOR OF CROCHET LACE, ETC.

ILLUSTRATED

NEW YORKDODD, MEAD, AND COMPANYPUBLISHERS


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. )

fi\0>oQICopyright, 1890

By DoDD, Mead, and CompanyAll rights reserved

JEntoetsita PressJohn Wilson and Son, Cambridge


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PREFACE.

'I "HE "Devil's Books" was the name bestowedupon Playing-cards by the Puritans and

other pious souls who were probably in hopesthat this name would alarm timid persons andso prevent their use. Whether or not his Sa-tanic Majesty originated Playing-cards, we haveno means of discovering; but it is more probablethat he only inspired their invention, and placedthem in the hands of mankind, who have eagerlyadopted this simple means of amusing themselves,and have used it according to the good or evilwhich predominated in their own breasts. Manylearned men have written books or treatises onPlaying-cards, and I am indebted for a large partof the information contained in this history to" Les Cartes ^ Jouer," by M. Paul la Croix" Facts and Speculations about Playing-cards," byMr. Chatto ; " The History of Playing-cards," bythe Rev. Edward Taylor; and "The History ofPlaying-cards," by Mr. Singer.


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iv Preface.

These books are now out of print, and some-what difficult to obtain ; and I hope, by bringinginto a small compass the principal features setforth in them, I shall be able to place before anumber of readers interesting facts that would beotherwise unobtainable.

Hearty thanks are due to the custodians of theNational Museum in Washington, who have aidedme in every way in their power, and also to themany kind friends who have sought far and widefor unique and uncommon packs of cards, andhelped materially by gathering facts relating tothem for me.

That many nations have cards peculiar to theirown country and almost unknown beyond its boun-daries may be a matter of surprise to some; thatsuch ordinary and familiar objects as Playing-cardsshould have a history, will astonish others. Myhope is that the subject will interest my readersas it has done me. Any facts concerning Playing-cards or any communications relating to rare orcurious packs will be gladly received by the author,who would like to add to her collection.

M. K. VAN RENSSELAER.New York, 1890.


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CONTENTS.PAGE

The Tarots, or the First Cards iiChess 21Engraving 33Materials 41Name 49Classificatton of Packs of Cards into Suits .... 55Cards of Different Countries, viz. :

China 65Egypt 69India , 70Cashmere 74Persia 77Italy 80Germany 83Spain 88France 90England 102America 112Japan 131

The King 139The Queen 151The Knave 161Aces and Other Cards 171Use and Abuse 179Pips, Suits, and Colours 191Odds and Ends 201


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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

PLATEPersian iTarot 2Tarot 3Chinese 4Cashmere. Cards owned by Lockwood de Forest, Esq. 5,6Italian Cards showing the Suits of Swords, Maces,

Money, and Cups. Owned by Mrs. J. K. Van Rensselaer 7German Cards showing the Aces of Grun, Roth, Schel-

len, and Herzen. Owned by Mrs. J. K. Van Rensselaer 8Remains of the Pack supposed to have been used by

Charles VII. of France, date 1425. In the Cabinetdes Estampes, Paris, France 9

Elizabeth of York 10Cards found by Mr. Chatto in a Black-Letter Volume

^ formerly in the Cathedral Library, at Peter-borough, England. Now in the Print Room of theBritish Museum 11

Found in an Old Edition of Claudian, Early English 12Cards on which Invitations were Written. Owned by

Mrs. Ten Eyck and Miss Crowninshield. Date 1763 . . 13


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viii List of Illustrations.Geographical Cards. Owned by Richard H. Derby, Esq.,

M.D. Date 1795 14North American Indian Cards, Apache Tribe. Cut out

of Deerskin and painted by themselves. National Museum,Washington, D. C, U. S. A 15,16,17

North American Indian Gambling-Sticks, Haida Tribe,Queen Charlotte Islands. Carved on Cubes of Wood.National Museum, Washington, D.C., U.S.A. . . . 18,19North American Indian Gambling-Sticks, Alaska Tribe.Painted on Cubes of Wood. National Museum, Washing-ton, D. C, U. S. A 20

Japanese Cards, each one representing a Week in theYear. Owned by Mrs. J. K. Van Rensselaer . . 21, 22, 23, 24


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THE DEVIL'S PICTURE-BOOKS


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"The Ladies arm-in-arm in clusters.As great and gracious a' as sisters

On lee-lang nights, wi' crabbit leuks.Pore owre the devil's pictured beuhs."

Burns.


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THE TAROTS.


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THE DEVIL'S PICTURE-BOOKS.

THE TAROTS.A youth of frolic, an old age of cards.

Hone : Every-Day Book, U. 98.

'I"HE origin of Playing-cards and their inventor

is still a subject of speculation, and will prob-ably remain forever undiscovered. Almost everycountry in Europe has through her scholars laidclaim to having been the first to use cards ; andmany documentary and other proofs have beenbrought forward to substantiate their assertions,which are based upon ancient laws, common tra-ditions, or contemporary illustrations.That cards were brought from the East to Eu-

rope about the time of the Crusades, and prob-ably by the home-returning warriors, who importedmany of the newly acquired customs and habits


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12 The Devil's Picture-Books.of the Orient into their own countries, seems tobe a well established fact ; and it does not contra-dict the statement made by some writers, who de-clare that the gypsies who about that time beganto wander over Europe brought with them andintroduced cards, which they used, as they do atthe present day, for divining the future. Cardsmay well have become known by both means, andthey spread rapidly over all of what was then con-sidered the only civilized part of the world; andthe proofs that have been brought forward showthat they were known nearly simultaneously inItaly, Spain, France, Germany, and England, andpoint to a common origin not to be found in anyone of these countries.The first cards known in Europe, and which

were named Tarots, Tarocchi, etc., seem to differin almost every respect from those of the fifteenthcentury, although these probably inspired their in-vention. The latter resemble much more thoseof the present day than they do the original Ta-rots. The first packs consisted of seventy-eightcards, that is, of four suits of numeral cardsand besides these there were twenty-two emble-matical pictured cards, which were called Aious,


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Plate 9.


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The Tarois. 13or Alouis, a word which M. Duchesne, a Frenchwriter, declares signifies "above all." This wordused in French has the same meaning as our wordTrump. The marks which distinguish the Tarotsuits are usually Swords, Cups, Sticks, and Moneyand each one consists of fourteen cards, ten ofwhich are " pips " and three or four " coat " cards, namely. King, Queen, Knight, and Knave. TheQueen was not always admitted. These suits seemto be the origin of the modern packs ; and theemblems used on them have been adopted in manycountries where the Atout part was discarded whikthe rest of the pack with its original symbols wasretained.

Mr. Singer gives a graphic description of thesecards and the games to be played with them, andsays that "among different nations the suits [aswill be hereafter shown] are distinguished by markspeculiar to themselves, while only the generalfeatures of the numbered cards headed by figuresor court cards have been retained."The second division of the Tarot pack, called

Atouts, are numbered up to twenty-one, each ofthese having its proper value ; and besides all thesethere is one, not numbered and not belonging to


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14 The Devil's Picture-Books.the division of the suit cards, which is called a Fou,and in playing the game is designated Mat, or ilMatto. This " Joker," as we should term it, has novalue of its own, but augments that of any of theAtouts to which it may be joined, and is sometimesplayed instead of a Queen, being then called " herExcuse."

These Atouts are each represented by a printwhich is supposed to resemble some character, andthe name is generally placed on the card. Amongthem are an Emperor, a Cupid, a Chariot, a Her-mit, a Gallows, Death, The Day of Judgment, aPope, Fortune, Temperance, Justice, the Moon, theSun, etc. The order in which they are placed isnot always the same, and is seemingly unimportant.The game may be played by two or four persons." The one who holds the ' Fool ' regains his stake' La Force ' (or Strength) takes twice as much fromthe pool, while ' La Mort ' (or Death) most appro-priately sweeps the board."

It is said that the distribution of the suit cards

has a peculiar signification. Each one is distin-guished by an emblem which represents the fourclasses into which communities were once divided.First comes the Churchman, represented by the


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The Tarots. 15Chalice (or Copas) ; next in rank, the Warrior,whose emblem is the Sword ; third, the Merchant,symbolized by a Coin ; and fourth, the Workmanwith his StafE. It will be shown hereafter thatalmost all writers on the subject allow the pos-sibility of the divisions of the suits being shownin the cards.The earliest known specimens of these Tarot

cards are now to be found in the Cabinet desEstampes in Paris, and are supposed to haveformed part of the pack which was painted forKing Charles the Seventh of France in 1393, tocheer and amuse him during an illness whichhad been caused by a coup-de-soleil in 1392, andwhich made him a melancholy but not a dan-gerous lunatic. M. Paul la Croix describes theseTarots as having been most delicately paintedand resembling in treatment the illuminations ofmanuscripts. They are on a golden backgroundon which dots forming an ornamental patternwere impressed. A border of silver surroundedand as it were framed each picture, through whicha dotted line twisted spirally like a ribbon. M.la Croix points out that this dotted line, in hislanguage technically termed a tare (which also


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1 The Devil's Picture-Books. '

means a " fault " or " defect "), was a sort of flutingproduced by small holes pricked into the sub-stance of which the cards were made, and fanciesthat to these Tares the Tarots owe their name.Other writers, however, dispute this derivation ofthe word, and discover new ones for themselveswhich are generally quite as fanciful and far-fetched.

These well preserved Tarots are eighteen centi-metres by nine,, and are painted in water colourson a thin card. The composition of the figuresis ingenious and artistic. The drawing is correctand full of character, and the colours are stillbrilliant. A narrow border of black and whitechecks surrounds each one. This border is apiece of checkered paper pasted on the back ofthe card and neatly folded over its edge as if toprotect it, showing on the face of the card andforming a frame for the pictures. This fashion ofhaving a checkered or diapered back was closelyfollowed in many of the countries where cardshave been used; and" these backs are still seen,although this old pattern (which, as will hereafterbe seen, had probably a very interesting origin)has been generally discarded, and each card-maker


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Plate 3.


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The Tarots. 17adopts a different device with which to decoratethe backs of his cards according to his own fancy.In France the backs are generally plain, and col-oured red, pink, or blue. In Spain the pattern isdotted on the surface in lines and circles, whilein other countries interlaced and meaningless de-signs are employed.

Packs of cards closely resembling the originalTarots are still to be found in some parts ofSwitzerland, Germany, and Alsace, where they areused by the peasantry in the districts which arenot much frequented by travellers ; but they areunknown to the rest of the world except as curi-osities. They are, however, the sole representativesof the cards which the Crusaders or the gypsiesbrought into Europe, and which the latter usewhenever possible to divine the future or recallthe past. Some writers point to the easternorigin of these Tarots, because in them " Deathis numbered thirteen, and the idea of fatality orbad luck attached to that number is essentiallyOriental ; and they declare that the fact that the em-blematical Atouts are numbered from low to high,just as certain Asiatic alphabets are written fromleft to right, may cover a similar interpretation.


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CHESS.


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CHESS.A LMOST all writers on Cards have admitted

the strong resemblance they bear to Chessand M. Paul la Croix declares that in compara-tively modern times the game of chess and gamesof cards showed strikingly similar features, whichdemonstrated their common origin, the art ofpainting being resorted to to depict the one, andthat of sculpture to represent the other.A pretty history of the origin of Chess hasbeen related. It states that the game was in-vented for the amusement of an Oriental poten-tate, and was played with living figures, who wererequired to move at the word of command fromone square to another of a huge tiled court-yardwhich was surrounded by the balconies of thepalace and its harem, from which all the move-ments of the pieces on the pavement below couldbe watched by the sovereign and his court.Living games of Chess have been played for


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22 The Devil's Picture-Books.amusement or " sweet charity's sake " even inmodern times ; but such cumbersome pieces musthave been difficult to manage, and it was onlynatural that the ingenious mind which contrivedliving chessmen should soon have supersededthem with figures carved in a convenient materialsuch as wood or ivory, and then placed themimic armies on a miniature battle-field whichcould be easily commanded by two or moreplayers.The Eastern origin of Chess is undisputed, but

when and by whom it was introduced into Eu-rope is unknown. According to Herodius, theLydians suffered from a long and severe faminein the reign of Atys, and in order to forget theirmisery, invented many games, particularly dice.Previous writers attribute the invention of gamesof chance to the Greeks during the siege ofTroy, and Cicero mentions games in the campbut it does not follow that these games wereeither chess, cards, or dice. They may have beenknuckle-bones or jack-stones, as that game wasknown in very early days, and pictures represent-ing persons playing with them have been foundamong Egyptian antiquities.


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Chess. 23It has been asserted positively by the oldest

traditions that the cards of Indian origin areonly chessmen transferred to paper on which theprincipal pieces of the game are reproduced, thegame being improved by admitting more thantwo players.

In the game of Chess there are generally onlytwo armies of pawns, each one being commandedby a King, a Vizir (which in the lapse of yearshas become a Queen), a Knight, an Elephant(which became a fool and after that a Bishop),and a Dromedary (afterward a Castle); and thegame shows a striking similarity to the Indiangames of cards, which have eight companies dis-tinguished by their colours and emblems, and ofwhich each one has their King, their Vizir, andtheir Elephant. 'The two games differ, of coursebut sufficient resemblances between them remainto show their common origin, which recalls theterrible game of war, in which each adversarymust assault, manoeuvre, make combinations, andexert eternal vigilance.We learn from a most reliable source (Abel deRemusat, Journal asiatique, September, 1822) thatplaying-cards came to Europe from India and


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24 The DevWs Picture-Books.China, and that, like the game of Chess, they wereknown to the Arabians and the Saracens fromthe beginning of the twelfth century. At firstthese games found little popular favour, mostprobably because they were introduced at a periodwhen civil and ecclesiastical authorities most posi-tively forbade all games of chance.From India Chess spread gradually to othercountries. The Persians seem to have known itabout the middle of the sixth century ; and Singer,in his " History of Playing-cards," states that itreached China at nearly the same period, and inthe reign of the Emperor Wa-si.

There are such striking resemblances betweenthe figures used in Chess and those on cards asto leave very little doubt where the inspirationfor the latter originated.

Beautiful circular cards made of ivory havebeen found, on which the figures are painted asif the artist were unable to carve the forms thathe desired to represent, and therefore was obligedto paint them on a flat surface. These cardsare small disks, which might easily be placed onthe squares of a board and moved from one tothe other like chessmen. The advantage of com-


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Chess. 2 5manding a concealed army instead of one spreadout on an open field probably soon became ap-parent, and the result was that some slight changesin the shape of the pictured figure and the ma-terial used were soon made, which with variousmodifications have come down to us as the mod-ern playing-card.

If a study is made of some of the differentpacks of Chinese cards, it will be seen that horses,deer, and other animals are represented on them,together with symbols which seem to mark thesuits. In other packs, instead of the figure ofthe animal, Chinese characters are placed abovethe symbol marking the suit, which charactersseem to have been put there instead of the pic-ture, and which it is affirmed state, " This is thehorse," or " This one is the deer," as the case maybe, as if on one of our court cards the legend" This is the Queen " should be written on itsface, instead of placing there the quaintly garbedfemale form which usually represents that augustperson.We find the principal figures from the chess-board reproduced in the Tarots, and also in someof the Spanish and German packs. There is the


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26 The Devil's Picture-Books.King, the Knight, or mounted horseman, and theKnave. The pawns or common soldiers are rep-resented by numbers ; but there is this differencebetween Cards and the game of Chess as it is gen-erally played, in the former there are four armies,or as we should call them "suits," and each oneis headed by the King instead of the two sidesgenerally seen in Chess. Now, Mr. Chatto re-marks that there is an Indian game of Chesswhich is called Chaturanga, or " The Four Kings,"in which two allied armies play against the sameopponents. He also gives a few rules for thisgame. " Having marked eight squares on allsides," says the Sage, " place the red army to theeast, the green to the south, the yellow to thewest, and the black to the north." It is worthyof notice that these colours form the ground offour of the suits of one of the divisions of aneight-suit pack of Hindostanee cards; and thissupports the theory that the painted ivory disksmight have originally been used on the chess-board and then held in the hand. This strangeIndian game of Chess would also point to thefirst division of the mimic warriors into fourarmies, each one distinguished by its uniform of


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Chess. 27different colours, which when placed in the cardsbecame known as " suits." This word was probablyderived from the French en suite, which signifies"to follow."

There is another game known in which twochess-boards are joined. " It is played by two per-sons on each side, each of whom is concerned todefend his own game at the same time that heco-operates with his ally to distress by every meansin his power the two armies opposed to them."" Four-handed Chess " is described in Hoyle's Bookof Games, which illustrates a board with one hun-dred and sixty squares. The game is playedwith four sets of chessmen, coloured, respectively,white, black, red, and green, like those of theIndian game.The Queen, both in Chess and Cards, has aEuropean if not an entirely French origin. She

takes the place of the Eastern Vizir, or Generaland it may be particularly remarked that in thegame of Chess she is more of an Amazon orJoan of Arc than the consort of a reigningmonarch. Her height also is excessive for a wo-man, in proportion to the other pieces, and heractive duties of harassing the enemy and protect-


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28 The Devil's Picture-Books.ing her slow-moving husband while leading hisarmy to battle show that although she is calleda Queen she is usurping the position of a general,who could more appropriately fill this important,active, and warlike place than she can.

In the Card Kingdom the Queen is a muchmore lifelike and womanly person, as in it sheaids and abets her sovereign lord and master, andis generally meekly subordinate to him.While drawing attention to the resemblances

between the games of Chess and of Cards, wemust not forget to notice a slight but perhapsimportant fact; and that is that all the ancientpacks had checkered backs, as if the little armywere loath to leave the old battle-field, but trans-ferred it to their backs, and exposed that to thegaze of the opponent instead of standing in bat-tle-array upon it. The oldest existing packs orTarots retain these checkered backs ; and someauthors have decided that Tarot means "check-ered," and that the name is derived from thiscircumstance.The author of " Playing and Other Cards in the

British Museum," Mr. W. H. Wiltshire, deridesthe idea that cards derive their origin from the


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Chess. 2 9chessmen, and points out the fact that "in allsuch games there are certain approximations, al-though hardly enough to establish an identity oforigin. Chess," he says, "is a game of calcula-tion and combinations; cards are purely chance."This seems hardly a fair objection, as there aremany games of cards that call for calculationsand combinations, some of them requiring muchthought and study, although on the other handthere are many that may be played mechanicallyand without bestowing much thought upon them.Mr. Wiltshire also declares "that in Chess thepieces are exposed and the positions equalized,while the cards are hidden, and the cleverestperson may be beaten by a novice without hav-ing made one trick." Some particular game ofcards may have been in the author's mind whenhe made this statement; but there are a greatmany card games about which it would not betrue.


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ENGRAVING.


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ENGRAVING.'T^HE order obtained in 1441 by the master

card-makers of Venice from their Senatewhich prohibited the introduction into that cityof " large quantities of cards printed and paintedoutside of Venice," should be particularly noticed,as printed cards are especially mentioned as wellas painted ones; and this points to the fact thatthere was in use some process besides the origi-nal one of painting or stencilling when the cardsof that period were being manufactured.The fragments of the French packs which show

by many marks but particularly by their costumesthat they were executed about the time of Charlesthe Seventh, were possibly some of the first effortsof the wood-engraver. They were probably pro-duced between the years 1420 and 1440, that is,before the greater part of the xylographies nowknown.The first pictures produced by printing with

blocks of wood were probably used as playing-3


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34 The DeviVs Picture-Books.cards; and this is an invention which is verymuch older than that of printing with movabletypes.By the middle of the fifteenth century cards

had spread all over Europe, and necessity calledfor an economical process by which they mightbe rapidly as well as cheaply produced.

In 1392 three packs of Tarots were painted forthe King of France by Jacquemin Gringonneur,for which he received fifty-six sols parisis, thatis to say, about one hundred and seventy francs,or thirty-four dollars.A single pack of Tarots, which were charmingly

painted about 141 5 by Marziano, Secretary tothe Due de Milan, cost fifteen thousand ecus d'or(about five hundred dollars); and in 1454 a packof cards intended for a dauphin of France costonly fourteen or fifteen francs, or three dollars.In the thirty years which had elapsed it is evi-dent that a cheap process of manufacturing cardshad been discovered.

Cards had also become merchandise, and weresold at the same time as counters, or epingles ; andfrom the latter is derived the French expression"tirer son ^pingle de jeu."


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Engraving. 35It has generally been conceded that the Chinese

understood the art of wood-engraving long beforeit was practised in Europe. Marco Polo, whovisited China about the middle of the thirteenthcentur}', describes, in his interesting book of travels,a mode of printing or stamping with coloured inkand it is probable that printing from a block wasalso known to the Chinese at that time.

Authorities do not agree about which are the firstspecimens of wood-engraving, but it is more thanprobable that a rude picture of Saint Christophercarrying the infant Jesus, which is dated 1425, isone of the earliest specimens of the art. Thiscurious and interesting print was discoveredpasted in the cover of a manuscript in the libraryof the Chartreuse at Buxheim in Suabia. Mr.Singer gives a description of the infancy of thexylographic art, and says that the demand for play-ing-cards increased so rapidly after their introduc-tion into the European countries that it becameimperative to manufacture them at a moderateprice; and thus wood-engraving became of conse-quence, and its productions soon became a mostimportant article of commerce.

It is probable that at first the wood-engravers


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36 The DeviVs Picture-Books.produced only small pictures of saints, influencedno doubt by their priestly surroundings, as nearlyall of the early wood-cuts which have been foundare of pious subjects ; and they were probably exe-cuted by the inhabitants of the religious houses,who were at the time the educated men of the day.These early engravings are printed on paper of theshape, size, and style of the earliest known playing-cards. The saints' pictures always bore a smallstreamer or ribbon, on which the name of the holyperson represented was written. On the earlyspecimens of playing-cards names are alwaysplaced beside the heads of the court cards ; andthis may have been necessary in order to distin-guish the saint from the king, as it is possible thatthe engraver may have used the same figures torepresent not only the holy personages, but alsothe members of the royal card family, and theycould be distinguished only by the names writtenbeside them.An old chronicler of the city of Ulm, of about

the year 1397, states that playing-cards have beensent in bundles to Italy, Sicily, and other southerncountries in exchange for groceries and other mer-chandise; and it may have been this exportation


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Engraving. 37of cards from Germany, which probably increasedmost rapidly, that called for the edict forbiddingthe importation of cards into Venice in 1441.It also points to their having been manufacturedin quantities even before 1423, the date of theearliest known wood-cut.

Cards were not only produced by hand-paint-ing, stencilling, or wood-engraving, but reallyartistic and beautifully executed cards were en-graved on copper, in 1466, by an artist known asLe Maitre (the Master), but by no other name.Only a few specimens of these unique cards

are now to be found in some museums, and theseries is not complete. According to calculation,they should consist of seventy cards, containingfive suits instead of four, with fourteen cards ineach suit and four figures or court cards to eachone. The face cards are the King, Queen, Knight,and Knave; and the marks show a bizarre collec-tion of savages, wild beasts, birds of prey, andflowers. They are grouped and numbered andarranged in such a way as to be easily distin-guished and sorted into the correct suits.

In 1463 the card-makers of England endeavouredto protect themselves from the foreign importation


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38 The DevWs Picture-Books.of cards, and they must have been a somewhatinfluential guild even at that early date to requireand receive this protection from the Government;but no cards have been discovered that were un-doubtedly of English manufacture of that period.


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MATERIALS.


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MATERIALS.'

I ^HE process of manufacturing Playing-cardsnow deserves attention. It seems that thefirst packs of Tarots which have been preservedwere made of two pieces of card-board, and wereafterward pasted together. The backs had acheckered pattern designed on them, and wereplaced so as to overlap the face; and the diaperededge was carefully pasted down and formed a pro-tection and a frame to the pictured side.

It may be as well to quote here the graphicaccount given by Mr. Chatto in his " Facts andSpeculations on Playing-cards." He says :

" The following account of the manner of mak-ing cards at the manufactory of Messrs. de la Rue& Co. -of London is extracted from Bradshaw'sJournal, April i6, 1842:'"The first object that engages our attention isthe preparation of the paper intended to be formedinto cards. It is found that ordinary paper when


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42 The Devil's Picture-Books.submitted to pressure acquires a certain degree ofpolish, but not sufficient for playing-cards of thefinest quality. In order, therefore, that it mayadmit of the high finish which is afterwards im-parted, the paper is prepared by a white enamelcolour consisting of animal size and other com-pounds. This substance, which renders the paperimpermeable to the atmosphere, is laid on with alarge brush and left to dry.

"' The paper being ready for use, we proceed

to explain the printing of the fronts of the cards,which are technically distinguished as pips andtetes.

"' To commence with the simpler, the pip (that

is, the Hearts, Diamonds, Spades, and Clubs), setsof blocks are produced, each containing forty en-gravings of one card ; and as the ordinary methodof letterpress printing is employed, forty impres-sions of one card are obtained at the same moment.As the pips bear but one colour, black or red, theyare worked together at the hand-press or steam-printing machine.

" ' For the tetes, however (or court cards), whichwith the outline contain five colours, dark blue,light blue, black, red, and yellow, a somewhat


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Materials. 43different contrivance is employed. The colours areprinted separately, and are made to fit into eachother with great nicety, in the same manner as inprinting silks or paper-hangings. For this pur-pose a series of blocks are provided which if unitedwould form the figure intended to be produced.By printing successively fi-om these blocks, thedifferent colours fall into their proper places untilthe whole process is completed. After the printingis done the sheets are carried into a drying-roomheated to 80 Fahrenheit, and are allowed to re-main there three or four days, in order to fix thecolours.'

In France the card generally consists of twopieces of paper, but in England a more substantialarticle is required. It is generally four sheetsthick, that is, the foreside and the back, andtwo inside layers of an inferior description. Thepasting of these sheets together requires care andclever manipulation. After the sheets are pastedtogether, they are thoroughly dried, enamelled,and then cut into cards which are sorted by beinglaid out on a table about two hundred at a time,until all the cards that constitute a pack are spreadout; so that by this operation two hundred packs


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44 The Devil's Picture-Books.are completed almost simultaneously. The bestcards are called Moguls; the others, Harrys andHighlanders.

Paper was almost a necessity in card-makingand England could not have provided it whencards were first made there, as the art of paper-making was unknown before the reign of Henrythe Seventh, who lived from 1485 to 1509. Evenas late as the days of Queen Anne, paper wasimported from Germany for the purpose.Many other materials have been used in manu-

facturing cards besides paper. As has been men-tioned, beautiful packs have been painted on ivoryor mother of pearl. Parchment and leather havebeen often used; thin tablets of wood and largeleaves have been pressed into service, as well asstout paper which was neither card nor pasteboard.The Chinese and Hindoos sometimes used acotton paper so stout and smooth as to make itmost suitable for the purpose ; and the curiouswooden sticks carved with distinguishing figuresused by the Haida Indians show perhaps themost peculiar materials used in the manufactureof games.

Mr. Chatto mentions a pack of Hindostanee


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Materials. 45cards in the Museum of the Royal Asiatic Societywhich are made of canvas, and are said to be athousand years old. He says : " On first handlingthem they seem to be made of thin veneers ofwood. These cards are circular; and the figuresor marks appear to be executed by hand, notprinted nor stencilled."The Malays use cards made of cocoanut or palm-

tree leaves, which are first well dried, and thesymbols or distinctive characters are then tracedon the leaf with an iron style.A story in the " History of the Conquest ofFlorida," by Garcilasso de la Vega, relates that" the soldiers who were engaged in that expedition,having burnt all their cards after the battle ofManoila (about 1542), made themselves new onesof parchment, which they painted admirably as ifthey had followed the business all their lives; butas they either could not or would not make somany as were wanted, players had the cards inturn for a limited time."Such fragile and thin materials have sometimes

been used in the production of cards that deal-ing was difficult and shuffling impossible. Onevery beautiful pack has been produced, and is pre-


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46 The Devil's Picture-Books.served in the South Kensington Museum inLondon, which was embroidered on silk.Such materials as gold, silver, and tortoise-shell,

and even small tiles have been used in the manu-facture of cards ; but when made from these ma-terials they have been difficult to handle, and havebeen regarded only as curiosities; and at the pres-ent day thick pasteboard, either highly enamelledor quite without glaze of any kind, is in generaluse all over the world.


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NAME.


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NAME.'T^HE first positive mention of Playing-cards is

in a manuscript by Nicholas de Covellezzo,which is preserved among the Archives of Viterbo." In 1379," says the Chronicler, "playing-cards wereintroduced in Viterbo. These came from thecountry of the Saracens, and were called Ndib"The Italians have for centuries called their cardsNaibi, and in Spain they are still named Naypes.M. la Croix remarks that in Arabic the word

Ndib signifies "captain," and declares that thisname proves the military origin of Cards, andpoints to their connection with Chess.

Mr. Taylor, in his work on Playing-cards,quotes from the above-mentioned manuscript byNicholas de Covellezzo, which records the intro-duction of cards into Italy, and says : " The useof the term Ndib in Italy for cards is one of thestrongest proofs of their introduction into Europeby the gypsies. To this day they are called in


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50 The Devil's Picture-Books.Spain Naypes, which is clearly a corruption ofthe Arabic Nabi, ' a prophet ; ' and we have there-fore the significant fact that cards have been andare still called in Spain by a title which fortune-tellers (gypsies, in fact) might easily be supposedto claim."

Mr. Singer quotes from various authorities toshow the derivation of the word Naipes, and saysthat "it may mean 'flat' or 'even,'" which woulddescribe a card ; and also that the Hebrew wordNaibes denotes "sorcery, fortune-telling, predic-tion," etc.

Mr. Chatto derives the same word from onefound in Hindostanee, Na-eeb or Naib, which sig-nifies a viceroy, lieutenant, or deputy, and says:"As the game of Chess was known in Hindo-stan by the name of ' The Four Kings,' if cardswere suggested by Chess and invented in thesame country, the supposition that they mighthave been called Chatier-Nawaub, ' The FourViceroys,' as the cognate game of Chess was called' The Four Kings,' and that this name subsequentlybecamie changed into Chariati-Naib, is at leastas probable as the derivation of Naipes fromN. P., the initials of Nicolas Pepin, their supposed


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Name. 5inventor;" which derivation is gravely given byanother author.

It is only in Italy that the old name of Naipesor Naibi is retained. In Portugal the word hasbecome corrupted into Naipe; in Spain, Naypesor Naipes. In France cards are called Cartes ajouer; and a pack is named a yeu. In Germanythey are termed Briefe and Karten and Spielkarten.In Holland the name is Kaarten or Speelkaartenin Denmark, Kort or Spelkort; and in Russia,Kartu. The term Aha, which was frequentlyemployed in ancient ordinances and laws, seemsto cover all games of chance, and is not usedto signify playing-cards alone. The derivation ofthe English word card from the French carte istoo plain to require further comment.


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THE CLASSIFICATION OF PACKS OFCARDS INTO SUITS.


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THE CLASSIFICATION OF PACKS OFCARDS INTO SUITS.

"PVER since the fifteenth century evidencesof the existence and popularity of cards

have been found in Italy, Spain, Germany, andFrance.The names, colours, emblems, number, and form

change with the countries or caprices of the card-makers; but what are termed Cartes Tarots orCartes Frangaises are always the original cardswhich came from the East, and which are in agreater or less degree faithful imitations of thestill more ancient game of Chess.

It is related that on the 5th of March, 1423,Saint Bernardin, of Sienna, addressed a crowdwhich had assembled before a church in thatplace, and inveighed with such energy and elo-quence against all games of chance that his hear-ers rushed to search for their dice, their chess,and their cards, and lighting a large bonfire, im-molated them on the spot.


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56 The Devil's Picture-Books.One man stood by who watched mournfully

the movements of the frantic crowd, and thenbursting into tears cried out to the preacher:" Father," quoth he, " I make cards. I have noother work by which I can make a Hvelihood ; bystopping my profession, you condemn me tostarve."

" If painting is the only thing you can do fora living," replied the preacher, "take this picture[showing him the sacred monogram surroundedby brilliant rays] and copy it."The workman followed this advice, and became

wealthy by reproducing it.This tale shows how well established the use of

cards was in the fifteenth century; and specimensof the cards of that period are still in existence,and at once strike the observing student withthe fact that the four great divisions or suitsexist (although with different symbols) in almostall the known packs.

It is probable that in France the Tarots wereused for many years exactly as they were whenfirst introduced into that country, until the re-arrangement of the pack by the French courtiersfor the convenience of their demented sovereign.


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Classification of Cards into Suits. 57When this ingenious condensation of the original-pack took place, the symbols of the Orient werediscarded, and the adapter chose two colours torepresent the different suits, and placed les Cceurs(Hearts), les Carreaux (Diamonds), les Piques(Spades), les Trifles (Clubs), as the symbols thatmarked them instead of those on the Tarots, whichwere Denari (Money), Spade (Swords), Coppe(Cups), and Bastoni (Maces). These devices werenot distinguished by particular colours; and it isonly when the French cards have been copiedand adapted that we find the distinctive coloursred and black marking the divisions of the suits.

Playing-cards without doubt reached Germanythrough Italy, but during their journey towardthe north they lost their Eastern character andtheir Saracenic name almost at once. They neverseem to have been called Ndib, or by any nameresembling that word. The first mention of cardsin Germany calls \k\Q.TCi Briefe ; that is to sz.-^, letters.The first card-makers were named Brief-maler.The Germans composed symbols to mark the

suits for themselves, and rejected the Eastern ones,and were probably unconscious that such devicesas Hearts, Diamonds, etc., existed on the cards of


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58 The DeviVs Picture-Books.the neighbouring country ; for intercourse in thosedays was not rapid, and each kingdom was as in-dependent of its fellow as if oceans divided them.M. la Croix says that the Germans "with theirlove of symbolism discovered a vegetable as wellas a military signification in the original game ofcards." While making important changes, theyretained a little of their warlike character in theirsymbols and figures, and placed among them somedesigns inspired by the vegetable world. The de-vices with them signified the triumphs and thehonours of war, and they discarded the weapons ofthe East, the Swords and the Staves, and disdainedthe sordid money and the priestly chalice, andadopted sprays of oak and of ivy as if intended forvictors' wreaths, and chose tiny bells, or grelots, asdistinctive marks, as these were among the mostimportant signs of German nobility, and borne bythem among the other heraldic marks, and consid-ered most honourable emblems. These symbolsgave a more peaceful aspect to the ancient warlikegame.The names of the German suits are Schelkn

(Bells), Hertzen (Hearts), Griln (Green), and Eicheln(Acorns), It is not now known at what period


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Classification of Cards into Suits. 59these symbols which have become a distinguishingcharacter of the German cards were adopted, butduring part of the fifteenth century other objectswere also represented on their cards ; and the dif-ferent marks quarrelled with the others and stroveto be generally adopted, but without success, asthose named above have been the only ones in usefor many generations, although they are now beinggradually superseded by the French designs, whichamong English-speaking nations are known asHearts, Diamonds, Clubs, and Spades.Some ancient German packs which have been

preserved are not only very remarkable for thebeautiful workmanship lavished on their produc-tion and as handsome specimens of the engraver'sart, but are also curious because they contain fivesuits instead of the ordinary four. These were di-vided into Hares, Parrots, Pinks, Roses, and Colum-bines, with the usual King, Queen, Knight, andKnave in each suit. These cards were executedin the fifteenth century in the city of Cologne.Other packs of engraved cards made about thelatter end of the fifteenth century in Germany hadtheir suits marked by animals, flowers, and birds,and were not coloured, the symbols marking the


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6o The Devil's Picture-Books.suits without other aid. The mark of the Griin,or Leaf, in the German card resembles in shape theHearts and Spades of the French. The shape ofall these pips is closely analogous ; and the Heartprovided with a short handle and called a Spadeor given a long stem and named a Leaf must origi-nally have had a common origin, all knowledge ofwhich is lost in the mists of the Middle Ages.The Pique may have received its name of Spade

in its English home, not, as some authors fancy,because the word was a corruption of the SpanishEspadas, but because it resembled in shape thespade or shovel which was in use in England whencards first made their appearance there. M. laCroix fancies the shape of the Heart resembles ashield, and points to this as supporting his claimthat the designs on the cards had a military origin.Among the miners in some parts of EnglandDiamonds are frequently called Picks, owing to theirresemblance to the head of that tool. M. la Croixalso declares that les Cosurs were the symbols placedon the cards by the French adapter, in order to dohonour to his friend Jacques Cceur, a merchant ofthe day whose trade with the East might havebeen the means of introducing the cards into


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Classification of Cards into Suits. 6iFrance, and fancies that les Trifles denoted " theheraldic plant of Agnes Sorel," the King's mis-tress, who had adopted the humble clover-leaf asher badge as a sort of pun upon her own namethe French word sorel signifying the plant theleaves of which bear some resemblance to the Trifleon the cards.The Grelots on the German cards may have

been copied from the " Hawk-bell," a favouritemark of nobility, and one which it was consideredan honour to be able to display among the symbolson the coat of arms. Bells were also an insignia ofrank in India; and some writers have pointedout that the Germans might have copied the de-vices on their cards from Hindoo packs, as well asfrom the better known Tarots or Saracen cards.Bells have always been favourite decorations ; andtheir use dates back to the hangings of the Temple,where the fringes which adorned the curtains andthe garments of the high-prieSt were ornamentedwith bells.

In a beautiful pack of Hindoo cards mentionedby Mr. Singer seven suits were found, consisting ofSuns represented by golden disks, Moons or silvercircles, Crowns, Cushions, Harps, Letters, and


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62 The Devil's Picture-Books.Swords. These cards closely resemble the Tarots,and may have originated in a common source. Insome of the Hindoo packs the suits are distin-guished by a colour as well as by the form of thesymbol.

Although parts of packs which from the devicesthey bear may have been imported from Germanyor Spain, and which seem to have been well used,are preserved in the British Museum, having beenfound in England, only cards of French origin havebeen universally used there, and they have heldundisputed sway from the middle of the fifteenthcentury, when the distinctive colours of red andblack, and the emblems of Hearts, Diamonds,Spades, and Clubs were generally adopted, andhave remained nearly unchanged from that timeto the present. There was no attempt to shade thepips or the figures and faces of the court cards atany time in England, and the outlines were simplycoloured and laid on in solid blocks. The Frenchhave changed their figures, and shaded their faces,and made their pips slightly more symmetrical inshape ; but they are very nearly the same as whenoriginally designed by the clever-fingered Frenchcourtier.


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CARDS OF DIFFERENT COUNTRIES.


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Platp 4.


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CARDS OF DIFFERENT COUNTRIES.CHINA.

A S has been already mentioned, the inventionof Playing-cards has been claimed at many

places; each writer setting forth the pretensions ofhis own country to this honour to the best ofhis ability, and each one with seemingly good au-thority for his statements.

It is certain that the Chinese point in triumphto the longest pedigree for their game, and theyquote extensively from their own authors as proofof this fact ; and until some European well versedin their language can dispute this claim, it may beas well to allow it.

Mr. Chatto says that cards appear to have beenknown from an early period in China. There is aChinese dictionary, entitled " Ching-tsze-tung," com-piled by Eul-Kowng, and first published a. d. 1678;which says that the cards now known in China asTeen-tsze-pae, or " dotted cards," were invented, in

S


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66 The Devil's Picture-Books.the reign of Leun-ho, 1120, and that they beganto be common in the reign of Kaow-tsung, whoascended the throne in 1131. According to tra-dition, they were devised for the amusement ofLeun-ho's wives.The general name for cards in China is Cke-pae,

or "paper-tickets." At first they were called Va-pae, or " bone-tickets," from the material of whichthey were made. Several varieties of cards seemto be in use in China. One pack that is describedby Mr. Chatto is said to be composed of thirty-twocards covered with small circular dots of red andblack, with court cards of one man and one woman.The cards most commonly used are called Tseen-wan-che-pae (a thousand times ten thousand cards).There are thirty in a pack, divided into three suitsof nine cards each, and three single cards, whichare superior to all others. The name of one ofthe suits is Kew-ko-wan ; that is, " The nine tenthousands " (or " myriads of Kwan," which arestrings of beads, shells, or money). The name ofthe other suit is Kew-ko-ping (nine units of cakes)and that of the third, Kew-ko-so (nine units ofchains). The names of the three single cardsare Tseen-wan (a thousand times ten thousand).


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Cards of Different Countries. 67Heenghwa (the red flower), and Pi-hwa (the whiteflower). One of their games of cards bears thesame name as the Chinese game of Chess, Kew-ma-paon; and it contains pictures of chariots, horses,and guns.The Chinese name for a card considered singly

or as one of the parts of a pack is Shen., or " Fan," a most evident reference to the manner of hold-ing cards spread open like a fan, which is commonto all nations.The shape and size of the Chinese card are

peculiar. They are printed in black on a thincardboard. The backs are sometimes bright crim-son and sometimes black or yellow, and they arethe shape and size of a finger. Some of them arelittle more than half an inch broad by three incheslong, and others are an inch wide by three and ahalf long. The pips and court cards are alwaysprinted in black on a white background, and onthe face of some of them are stamped Chinesecharacters printed in red. In some packs the cardshave animals, such as horses and deer, representedupon them; while in others characters which maymean the names only of the animals are writtenabove the pips. The cards are rounded at the top


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68 The Devil's Piciure-Books.and bottom, and at the upper end a small portionis left blank, as if to hold them conveniently and al-low of their being spread or " fanned " out, showingthe whole of the pictured surface, the blank spacebeing held under the thumb and fingers. Strangelyenough, this blank space being at the top insteadof at the bottom of the card, it would seem thatthey should be held by the top and spread out inexactly the reverse way customary among Euro-peans. The tiny cards are so narrow and so smallthat they might well be held concealed by the palmof the hand, which could effectually cover themand prevent the shape of the pips being seenthrough the thin cardboard or the number of thecards being counted by the opponent.The Chinese have another name for their cards,

and this is Wat-pi ; but it seems to be the namegiven to different games, as they also call queer-looking tablets on which round dots are placed inregular order and which resemble our dominos, bythe same name.

Mr. Singer gives an account of some Chinesecards an inch and a half long and a little morethan two inches broad. Each suit consists ofnine cards with black backs. They are printed


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Cards of Different Countries. 69with Chinese characters, and not with emblems Hkethose in other packs.Some authors state that cards are played by the

lower orders only, and that people of distinctionplay at Chess; and that among the Chinese it isconsidered undignified to play cards, and many ofthem pretend they have no idea of their use or themeaning or value of the characters on them.

It is also asserted that a game analogous to theold one of Tarots has been found in China, whichcontains seventy-seven tablets.

There is a tradition that a Venetian carried cardsfrom China to his native city, which was the firstplace in Europe where they were known. Thistraveller was probably Niccolo Polo, who with hisbrother Matteo returned from China about 1269;or it may have been the celebrated Marco Polo,son of the above Niccolo, who accompanied hisfather and uncle on their second voyage to thatgreat empire.

EGYPT.An attempt has been made to prove that a kind

of card was in use among the Egyptians in theseventh century before our present era; but this


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70 The Devil's Picture-Books.has been hotly disputed if not disproved. Thatthere were games which were known to the earlyEgyptians has been shown by the inscriptions ontheir monuments, and the representations of fig-ures playing jack-stones or knuckle-bones and dice.Some kind of game resembling Chess may alsohave been played, but upon this subject authori-ties do not agree.

INDIA.

If India was not the birthplace of Cards, as itprobably was of Chess, it is certain that they wereknown in that country at a very early date ; andbeautiful specimens of ancient as well as modernpacks are prized in many European collections.A pack of Hindoo cards is fully described

in Mr, Singer's book, and many of them arehandsomely reproduced. They are painted onivory, the backs are gilded, and they number thesame as the Tarot cards. This pack containsseven suits, which are Suns, Moons, Crowns,Cushions, Harps, Letters, and Swords. Of eachof these suits there are ten numeral and twocourt cards, which appear to represent a Sovereign


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Cards of Different Countries. 71and a General. Besides these there are twelvecards apparently of no suit, on which are groupsof figures, some male and some female.

Mr. Chatto describes several packs of Hindos-tanee cards, among others some owned by theRoyal Asiatic Society and preserved in theirMuseum. One of these packs consists of ten andothers of eight suits. " In each suit, when com-plete, the number of cards is twelve ; that is, twocoat cards, or honours, and ten others whose nu-merical value is expressed by the number of marksupon them. The cards of all the packs are cir-cular ; the diameter of the largest is two and threequarter inches, and of the smallest about two andan eighth inches." The material of which they areformed is supposed to be canvas, and indeed itis expressly stated in a memorandum that accom-panies them that such is the case, but they appearto be made of thin veneers of wood. One ofthese packs formerly belonged to Capt. D. Crom-line Smith, to whom they were presented about18 1 5 by a high-caste Brahmin, who consideredthem a great curiosity, and supposed that theywere a thousand years old. These cards resemblea pack now owned by Mr. de Forest that he


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72 The Devil's Picture-Books.bought in Cashmere within a few years, and thathave been reproduced for this work. The Brahmin'spack, says Mr. Chatto, " consists of eight suits, eachsuit containing two honours and ten common cards, in all ninety-six cards. In all the suits the Kingis mounted on an elephant, and in six the Vizir,or second honour, is on horseback ; but in the bluesuit, the emblem or mark of which is a red spotwith a yellow centre, he rides a tiger ; and inthe white suit, the mark of which appears like agrotesque or fiendish head, he is mounted on abull. The backs of all the cards are green. Thefollowing are the colours of the ground on whichthe figures are painted in the several suits, togetherwith the different marks by which the suits and therespective value of the common cards were alsodistinguished : COLOURS. MARKS.

1. Fawn. Something like a pineapple in a shallow cup.2. Black. A red spot with a white centre.3. Brown. A " tulwar," or sword.4. White. A grotesque kind of head.5. Green. Something like a parasol without a handle, and

with two broken ribs sticking through the top.6. Blue. A red spot with a yellow centre.7. Red. a parallelogram with dots on it as if to represent

writing.8. Yellow. An oval."


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riale 5,


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Cards of Different Countries. 73Mr. Chatto mentions other packs with red backs,

one of them containing ten suits, and all seeminglydistinguished more by the coloured backgroundthan the emblem of the suit, which is sometimesentirely omitted, particularly in the court cards.The games to be played are complicated and diffi-cult to understand, although one of them is saidto resemble I'Ombre, the favourite game in Spain.The tradition regarding the origin of Hindostaneecards, as given by Mr. Chatto, is " that they wereinvented by a favourite Sultana or Queen to weanher husband from a bad habit he had acquired ofpulling or eradicating his beard." The game ofcards is not mentioned in the Arabian Nights, re-marks Mr. Chatto, " and from this silence it maybe concluded that at the time when those tales werecompiled card-playing was not a popular pastimein Arabia. The compilation of these tales, it isbelieved, is not earlier than about the end of thefifteenth century, although some of them are of amuch higher antiquity."


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74 The Devil's Picture-Books.

CASHMERE.The cards from Cashmere, which belong to Mr.

de Forest and are reproduced for this work, differbut sHghtly from those described by Mr. Chatto.The Cashmere cards are circular in shape, as wellas the Hindostanee, and are of about the same size,being two inches in diameter. The emblems onthe Cashmere cards differ considerably from thosedescribed by Mr. Chatto, and only the court orfigure cards bear a general resemblance to thosethat formerly belonged to Capt. D. Cromline Smith.The Cashmere cards seem to be made of thin

slices of wood, overlaid with a composition of somesort, and so thickly covered with paint and var-nish that the original material is entirely concealed.This pack contains thirty-six cards of three suitsnamely, ten pip and two court cards in each suit. Alarge purple flower on a red ground, placed withincircles of yellow, ornaments the backs, which areprobably intended to be precisely the same ; butto an experienced gamester there would be nodifficulty in distinguishing one card from another,


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Cards of Different Countries. 75even with the face of it concealed, as the design,though uniform, differs slightly on each card.The three suits are not only marked by the em-blems of pips, but, like the Hindostanee cards,the backgrounds are vividly painted in some uni-form colour upon which the design is displayed,and this colour marks the suits distinctly evenwhen the emblem is omitted, which in some casesis done either by design or accident. The whitesuit is headed by a King mounted on an elephant,and a Vizir on a bull. There are no emblems onthese two cards by which to distinguish the suit.The ten pip cards show tiny figures of men clothedin loosely fitting red garments and wearing red tur-bans on their heads. These figures are representedkneeling, with their hands clasped in the attitudeof prayer. They are dotted over the surface of thecards and grouped as the corresponding pips are inthe other suits, and generally face each other, ex-cept in number eight, in which all the figures lookthe same way and to the left side. Another suitis distinguished by a dark-blue ground, on whichsmall yellow disks, surrounded by circles of red,are painted. This suit may correspond with a" moon " suit mentioned by Mr. Chatto among the


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76 The Devil's Picture-Books.Hindostanee cards, and it is also noticeable as itclosely resembles the " money " used as an emblemon Italian and Spanish cards. The court cards ofthis suit show a man mounted on a tiger and bear-ing the distinctive emblem uplifted in his righthand. The position of this man is closely copiedon the Spanish cards, although in them he is rep-resented on horseback. The second honour showstwo tigers seated on a cross-legged bench gazingover their shoulders at two attendants, who wavewhat appear to be staves or fans. Between thesetigers is a large " moon-face," which seems to markthe suit. If this be the case, it would point to theorigin of the money emblem. The pips on the restof the suit are carelessly executed circles, and thefeatures, which would show it to be intended forthe moon, are omitted. The outline of this markmay have been followed on the cards that werefirst introduced into Europe, and may readilyhave become changed during the lapse of years.The " moon " mark on the Hindostanee cards hasgradually extended both East and West, one thatclosely resembles it being found on the Chinesecards, and partly followed on the wooden cubesof the Alaska Indians.


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Plate 6.


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Cards of Different Countries. 77The green suit bears emblems which recall the

carreaux of the French cards, and are even morelike one of the marks used by the Apache tribeof North American Indians by which to distin-guish one of their suits. The diamond-shaped pipon the Cashmere cards is painted red and orna-mented with stripes and dots of pink. The courtcards show a Vizir on a white horse, bearingthe pip in his right hand, and a Sultan at-tended by two slaves, who also carries the emblemof the suit.

These cards show little marks of use, and theirsurface is slightly sticky, so that they could notbe conveniently either shuffled or dealt. It isprobable that the pack is not complete, and thatthere should be more than the three suits thatnow compose it.

PERSIA.

Six tablets brought from Persia by a recenttraveller form an interesting addition to the cardsused by different nations. These tiny cards ap-pear to be the three honours of two differentpacks. They are made of layers of pasteboard,


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78 The Devil's Piclure-Books.some of them as thick as two ordinary playing-cards. The others are nearly double that thick-ness ; and although they are all of the same size(namely, an inch and an eighth wide by twoinches long), there are many marks on them toshow that they never all belonged to the samepack. Although made of pasteboard, they are 'covered so thickly with paint and varnish thatthey might easily be supposed to have been cutout of wood. The backs of these cards are allalike, and are painted black. They are remark-able for the female figure that they bear as acourt card, as in this respect they are not only un-like all other Eastern cards, but in it differ fromtliose of every Western nation, with the exceptionof the French and those other countries wherethe French cards have been adopted. This fe-male figure is by some called a Courtesan, but itcould as well be named a Queen. She is seatedon a chair of state, that is ornamented with adesign which closely resembles one of the em-blems used on a Hindostanee pack of cards, andwhich is called a crown by Mr. Chatto. Thismay, however, be a purely accidental resemblance.A young child is placed in the lap of this Queen,


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Cards of Different Countries. 79but she bears no particularly distinctive emblemseither on her dress or on any part of the cardwhich might serve to mark the suit. The back-ground of one of these Queens is yellow, andthat of the other one is red, and there are twoQueens in this pack of six cards. There are twocards which appear to belong to the " YellowQueen." One of them shows a Hunter on agolden background drawing his knife acrossthe throat of some animal ; and the other cardbears a Cavalier mounted on a white horse, onthe back of which is perched a tiger. Thiscard has a black background. A sun placed atthe top may be intended for the distinguishingemblem. These three cards undoubtedly belongto the same pack, and are considerably thickerthan the others, which are much more highly or-namented and better finished than those alreadydescribed. The Queen is handsomely dressed

;

her hair is covered, and she wears large ear-rings,from which depend a necklace. The child isdressed in a loosely fitting garment, and its headis covered with a jewelled cap. The backgroundof this card is a beautiful red, and the cornersare ornamented with fine arabesques of flowers


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8o The Devil's Picture-Books.and fruit. The King which belongs to this setis accompanied by a female figure, and they areplaced on a yellow background, but they bear noemblem by which they might be distinguished.The third card has a very richly ornamentedgolden backgro'und, and shows two figures, one ofthem carrying what appears to be a drum. Allthese cards have beautifully ornamented corners,and are painted like a miniature.

ITALY.The first European document known that men-

tions cards is the manuscript already referred to,written by Nicolas de Covellezzo, about the endof the thirteenth century, is preserved amongthe archives of Viterbo, and contains the earliestwritten account yet discovered of cards, not onlyamong the Italians but also in Europe, if we ex-cept the much disputed passage in the WardrobeRolls of Edward the First, King of England, whichwill hereafter be mentioned. This document re-fers to cards by the name of Carte, as well as bythat of Ndibi.

Mr. Singer says that " the first game played in


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rialo 7.


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Cards of Different Countries. 8Italy was without question Trappola. This hadbeen introduced from Arabia, and is mentionedby many early Italian authors, one of whom writ-ing in 1393 calls cards Ndibi, and speaks con-temptuously of them as a childish game. Anotherwriter, Tenanza, declares that in 1441 the VenetianMaitre-cartiers, who formed a large guild, remon-strated with the Senate of that city on the injurydone to their trade by the importation of largequantities of playing-cards with printed as well aspainted figures within their gates, which had beenmanufactured elsewhere ; and this remonstranceshows that the card-makers of the day were al-ready numerous, and seems to point to the factthat the use of cards was well established, andthat considerable numbers were called for andmanufactured."

Lorenzo de' Medici mentions the games of LaBassetta and II Frusso in some of his " Canzoni,"printed before 1492 ; and there are Italian writerswho point to him as the inventor of some gamesof cards.

In Italy the suits were called Copfie (Cups), Spadi(Swords), Denari (Money), Bastoni (Maces). Thesecontinued to be the commonly used marks on the

6


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Cards of Different Countries. 83emblems into one, or whether he invented a newgame to be played with the already well knownTarocchino cards.

Notice should be taken of the fact that printedas well as painted cards are mentioned in the peti-tion of the card-makers of Venice, as it was fromthis date that each village in Italy manufacturedits own cards. After the invention of wood-en-graving, Germany and Holland exported cards inlarge quantities, and this may have called for theprotective decree. There was also a difference,which was mentioned in the documents of theperiod, between the primitive Ndibi and cardsproper. As these documents do not define thedifference between the packs, we can form no ideaof what it was.

GERMANY.In a German book printed at Augsburg in

1472, called " Gulden Spiel," or " The GoldenGame," written by a Doniinican friar of the nameof Ingold, it is stated that cards had been knownin Germany since 1300. As this is by no meanscontemporaneous testimony, it is probable that


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84 The Devil's Picture-Books.the German vanity which claims the honor, ofinventing the art of printing wishes, with -nomore reason on its side, to appropriate to itselfthe invention of playing-cards, which in plainwords is laying claim to the invention of wood-engraving, as many of the early German packsare engraved and not stencilled or painted. Thisrather suspicious assertion may therefore well beignored, and we may only credit the one made bythe Italian author of Viterbo, which is apparentlymore authentic. Unfortunately, the latter givesno details about the kind of cards which he men-tions. He only states that cards made their ap-pearance in 1379 in Europe, and came from Arabiaunder their original name.

In the " Livre d'Or " of Ulm, which is a manu-script preserved in that city, there is an ordinance,dated 1397, forbidding all card-playing.

These are the only authentic witnesses that canbe brought forward by which the approximate timeof the introduction of playing-cards into Europemay be fixed.A German author by the name of Henikenclaims for his country the birthplace of cards, andbrings forward many ingenious but hardly satisfac-


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Cards of Different Countries. 85tory deductions in support of his pretensions. Hesays that Brie/e, which is the name that cards bearin his country, means " letters," and that the com-mon people do not say, " Give me a pack ofcards," but " Give me a Spiel-briefe " (a pack ofletters), and they do not say, " I want a card" but" I want a Brief (letter), " We should at leasthave preserved the name carte" he says, " if theyhad come to us from France ; for the commonpeople always preserve the names of all gamesthat come to them from other countries."

Unfortunately for this argument, it has beendiscovered that cards were called Karten in Ger-many before they were called Briefe. It may beclaimed that cards were carried into Germany bythe Crusaders, who had learned their use duringthe wars with the Saracens. They might alsohave made an ingenious use of the cards duringtheir long absences in the East, and divertedthem from their original purposes, writing lettersto mothers, wives, or sweethearts on them, orchosen them to send to the young folk at hometo serve for their amusement, as the pictures ofthe Kings, Knights, etc., rude though they prob-ably were, would have undoubtedly proved both


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86 The Devil's Picture-Books.novel and entertaining; and from this fact thename of Briefe may have been given to the Ndibiof the Orient. The Eastern origin of the cardsis plainly pointed to, as there are no Queens inancient packs of German cards.

In many parts of Germany the court and pipcards which are usually used resemble most closelythose which are represented in the packs of theearly part of the fifteenth century. The cardswhich are at the present time (1890) manufacturedat Frankfort in Germany are copies of the Frenchpacks of the fifteenth century, with the modifica-tions which have crept in during the lapse of overthree hundred years ; and they display the modernHearts, Diamonds, Clubs, and Spades, and thesecards are generally used in the German Empire.But the same factory turns out cards which aresuited to the more conservative portions of thecountry, where the ancient Schellen (Bells), Hert-zen (Hearts), Griin (Green), and Eicheln (Acorns)are still preferred.

In the modern German cards each Ace bearsthe attributes of the wine-cellar or the biergarten.In the ancient cards the Ace was always drapedwith a flag. The modern Hearts are surrounded


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Cards of Different Countries. 87with champagne bottles. Acorns carry a loving-cup ; Bells, a steaming punch-bowl ; and Leaves,beer-glasses and goblets. There are no Queens inthis pack, their place being taken by Knights onhorseback dressed in beautiful uniforms ; and be-side their heads is the word Ober, signifying theposition they hold over the Knaves, which arerepresented as working-men. There are only fivepip cards in this pack, numbered from five to tenand the emblems are arranged in a symmetricaland fanciful way, quite unlike the cards whichwere adapted by the French from the originalTarots and adopted by all English-speaking nations.The backs of these cards bear a plaid or check-ered pattern, recalling to mind those of the originalTarots.To a German is due the adaptation of cards to

the instruction of children ; and this idea, which waspromulgated soon after the first introduction ofthese packs into Germany, has been developedsteadily through successive years, until now it ispossible to study history, geography, and other sci-ences by these means, and babies still in the nur-sery learn to spell and to read after a fashion byplaying the various games which are strewn before


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88 The Devil's Picture-Books.their unappreciative eyes. The name of this in-genious inventor was Thomas Murer, a Francis-can friar, who in 1507 arranged a game in whichvarious branches of education were taught. Eachcard was covered with so many symbols that M.la Croix declares that "their description alone re-sembles the most gloomy rebus; " but the Germanuniversities, undaunted by difficulties, enjoyed thestudy of logic and other sciences under the guiseof amusement, and Murer's game was imitated andcontinues to be so to the present time.

SPAIN.

The Spaniards base their claim of having beenthe first to use, if they were not the inventors of,playing-cards to the fact that Ndibi, the nameby which cards were known among the Italiansabout the year 1393, is very nearly similar to thename by which they are known in Spain to-day.As it was about that time that Italy was invaded bythe Spaniards, they declare that they, as the con-querors, imposed cards upon that country andtaught their use, under the name they bore intheir own homes.


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Cards of Different Countries. 89The Spanish word Ndipes, as we have already-

mentioned, seems to be derived from one whichmeans " flat " or " even ; " but an ancient Spanishdictionary states that it comes from the initial let-ters of the name of the Spanish inventor of cards,N. P., Nicolas Pepin. This etymology seems fan-ciful and as unsatisfactory as the claim to the in-vention of the cards ; but the Spaniards can pointto a statute made by John the First, King ofCastile, in 1387, which prohibits "games of dice,of Naypes, and of Chess;" and this proves beyonddispute that at that date they were at least wellknown in that place.A Flemish traveller named Eckeloo, who lived

about 1540, describes the Spaniards of his time as" most passionately fond of gambling," and saysthat he " travelled many leagues in Spain withoutbeing able to procure the necessaries of life, noteven bread or wine, but that in every miserablevillage cards were to be bought." Travellers ofthe present day describe the tradespeople, fisher-men, and beggars of every wretched town playingeven at the street-corners, and using blocks of stoneor the steps of the churches on which to throwtheir cards.


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90 The DeviVs Picture-Books.It was the Spaniards without doubt who carried

cards into Mexico, when they conquered that coun-try in 1 5 19; and history mentions that Montezumatook great pleasure in watching the Spanish sol-diers at their games.

Mr. Singer says that the Spanish pack consists,like the German, of only forty-eight cards, as theycontain no tens. Their four suits are namedEspadas (Spades), Copas (Cups), Oros (Money),and Basics (Maces). Oros means literally " goldenmoney;" and this suit is also called Dineros, thatis, " money in general." Like the Italian and Ger-man packs, they have no Queen, her place beingtaken by the usual Knight, or Mounted horseman.The court cards are called II Rey (King), Caballo(Knight), and Sola (Knave). There are somepacks in which a Queen is permitted, the suitsthen having four court cards instead of three.

FRANCE.

Among the archives preserved in the Chambredes Comptes in Paris there was at one time anaccount, dated 1392, which said, " Paid to Jacque-min Gringonneur, Painter, for three packs of cards


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ri.ile 9.


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Cards of Different Countries. 91of gold and different colours, ornamented with dif-ferent devices for the King [Charles the Sixth],for his amusement, 50 sols parisis,"The game, which was invented merely as an

amusement for the deranged King, spread withsuch rapidity among the people that the Prevotde Paris, in an ordinance dated Jan. 22, 1397,was obliged to " forbid working people from play-ing tennis, ball, cards, or ninepins, excepting onlyon holidays." Especial notice should be taken ofthe fact that in a celebrated and oft-quoted ordi-nance made only twenty-eight years previously byCharles the Fifth, in which all games of hazardwere enumerated, no allusion whatever was madeto cards, while in the fifteenth century they arealways carefully mentioned when games of chanceare enumerated. By this we can place approxi-mately the date of their invention or introductioninto France.Although packs of Tarots have survived since

the fifteenth century, and one in particular will bedescribed, there are no existing specimens of theoriginal Tarots (Tarocchi, Tarocchini); but there isa pack which was engraved by a burin (or graving-tool), that probably was executed about the year


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92 The Devil's Picture-Books.1460, which is known to be an exact copy of thefirst Tarots.

Rafael Mafifie, who lived at the end of the fif-teenth century, left in his " Commentaries " a descrip-tion of Tarots, which were then, said he, "a newinvention ; " but he probably was speaking rela-tively of the origin of cards. From his descrip-tion and the documents of others it is clear thatthe pack of Tarots was composed of four or fivesuits, each one of the ten cards being numberedin sequence, and displaying as their symbols theDenari, the Bastoni, the Coppe, and the Spadeand these suits were headed by the court cardsof King, Knight, and Knave, to which was some-times added a Queen. Besides these cards, whichwere en suite, there were others which bore fancifulfigures, and which were named Atouts. TheTarots have been so fully described in anotherplace that it is not necessary to repeat the de-scription here.A very slight knowledge of the history of play-

ing-cards reveals the fact that Tarots were knownin France long before the invention of the gameof Piquet, which is undoubtedly of French originand besides this, the cards which are said to have


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94 The Devil's Picture-Books.The Queen of his suit is dressed in skins like herconsort, and in one hand she carries a torch. Itwould seem natural that the Knave of Heartsshould be dressed to correspond with the royalpersonages belonging to his suit ; but instead itis the Knave of Clubs who is represented ascovered with hair or dressed in skins, and hecarries a knotty stick over one shoulder. Apart of another card has been found among thosethat the book-binder's knife has separated fromthe proper body (for these cards, like so many oftheir kind, once formed part of the binding ofa book) ; and this one shows the legs only of afourth hairy person. The upper part has unfortu-nately never been found.With the exception of these savages, all the

other figures of the pack are dressed after thefashion of the court of Charles the Seventh ofFrance. The costume of the Queen of Diamondsresembles that of Marie d'Anjou, his consort. Thefigures of the Kings, with the exception of thehairy one, are dressed precisely like th

Documents

(1890) The Devil's Book: A History of Playing Cards