The French call a pack of cards "Un Jeu de cartes,"—a game, or play of cards; and the German name, "Ein Spiel Karten" has the same literal meaning as the French.
As the object of this work is not to teach people how to play at cards, those who wish for information, with respect to the different games, are referred to Cotton's 'Complete Gamester,' Seymour, Hoyle, and the Académie des Jeux,—taking with them this piece of advice:
With respect to the manufacture of cards, it would appear to have been a regular business, both in Germany and Italy, about 1420; but, though it has generally been asserted that the earliest cards for common use were engraved on wood, there is yet reason to believe that they were at first executed by means of a stencil; and that the method of engraving the outlines on wood was of subsequent introduction. However this may be, it is certain that the art of wood-engraving was at an early period applied to the manufacture of cards, and that in Germany, in the latter quarter of the fifteenth century, the term Briefdrucker, or Briefmaler,—card-printer, or card-painter—was commonly used to signify a wood-engraver. From the importation of playing cards into England being prohibited by an act of parliament in 1463, as injurious to the interests of native tradesmen and manufacturers, it might be concluded that at that time the manufacture of cards was established in this country. No cards, however, of undoubted English manufacture of so early a date have yet been discovered. In the sixteenth century, there is reason to believe that most of the cards used in England were imported either from France, or the Netherlands. In the reign of Elizabeth the importation of cards was a monopoly; [312] but from the time of her successor James I, it would appear that most of the cards used in this country were of home manufacture. From the reign of Charles II to the present time, cards have, either directly or indirectly, been subject to a duty.
In France, by an ordonnance dated 21st February, 1581, a tax of "un ecu sou" was ordered to be paid upon each bale of cards of two hundred pounds weight intended for exportation; and, by an ordonnance of the 22d May, 1583, a tax of "un sou parisis" was laid upon each pack of cards intended for home use. By an ordonnance of the 14th January, 1605, the exportation of cards was prohibited; but, as a compensation to the manufacturers, the duty on cards for home consumption was reduced. As the collection of the duties was rendered difficult in consequence of the manufacturers residing in so many different places, it was, at the same time, determined that the only places where the manufacture of cards might be carried on, should be Paris, Rouen, Lyons, Toulouse, Troyes, Limoges, and Thiers in Auvergne. Shortly afterwards, the same privilege was accorded to Orleans, Angers, Romans, and Marseilles; and, by way of recompense to other places, it was determined that the tax should be expended in the encouragement of manufactures. Louis XV, having established the Ecole Militaire, in 1751, ordered that the money raised by the tax on cards, should be applied to its support. The company, or guild, of card-makers of Paris was suppressed in 1776, but re-established a few months afterwards. The period of their first establishment appears to be unknown. In their statutes of the year 1594, they call themselves Tarotiers. [313] In Russia, at the present day, the manufacture of cards is a royal monopoly. A few months ago a paragraph appeared in the Literary Gazette, stating that though 14,400 packs were manufactured daily, yet the supply was unequal to the demand, and that a petition had been presented to the emperor praying for a more liberal issue. In Mexico a considerable revenue was derived from a tax on cards; and it would appear to be still productive, notwithstanding the unsettled state of the country, as it is one of those which have been appropriated, ad interim, by the American commander-in-chief.
Most of the cards engraved on copper are merely "cartes de fantaisie," designed rather for the entertainment of the more wealthy classes, than for the ordinary purposes of play. Until a comparatively recent period the coat cards, after having been printed in outline from wood blocks, were coloured by means of stencils; but at present, in this country, the colours are all applied by means of the press. The following account of the manner of making cards at the manufactory of Messrs. De La Rue and Company, of London, is extracted from Bradshaw's Journal, No. 24, 16th April, 1842.
"The first object that engages our attention, is the preparation of the paper intended to be formed into cards. It is found that ordinary paper, when submitted to pressure, acquires a certain degree of polish, but not sufficient for playing-cards of the finest quality. In order therefore that it may admit of the high finish which is afterwards imparted, the paper is prepared by a white enamel colour, consisting of animal size and other compounds. This substance, which renders the paper impermeable to the atmosphere, is laid on by a large brush, and left to dry by exposure to the atmosphere.
"The paper being ready for use, we proceed to explain the printing of the fronts of the cards, which are technically distinguished as pips and têtes.
"To commence with the simpler, the pips (i.e. the hearts, diamonds, spades, and clubs:)—sets of blocks are produced, each containing forty engravings of one card; and as the ordinary method of letterpress printing is employed, forty impressions of one card are obtained at the same moment. As the pips bear but one colour, black or red, they are worked together at the hand-press, or at one of Cowper's steam printing machines.
"For the têtes, however (i.e. the court cards), which, with the outline, contain five colours—dark blue, light blue, black, red, and yellow,—a somewhat different contrivance is employed. The colours are printed separately, and are made to fit into each other with great nicety, in the same manner as in printing silks or paper-hangings. For this purpose a series of blocks are provided, which, if united, would form the figure intended to be produced. By printing successively from these blocks, the different colours fall into their proper places, until the whole process is completed. Great care is of course necessary in causing each coloured impression to fit in its proper place, so that it may neither overlap another, nor leave any part imprinted upon; but as the hand-press is employed, the workman is enabled to keep each colour in register by means of points in the tympan of the press or on the engraving.
"The whole operation of printing at the press being completed, the sheets are next carried to drying-rooms, heated to about 80° Fahrenheit, and are allowed to remain there three or four days, in order to fix the colours.
"The successful printing of playing-cards greatly depends upon the quality of the inks which are employed. The common printing ink, even after the lapse of years, is liable to slur or smutch. In the manufacture of playing-cards, such inks only must be used as will bear the friction to which the cards are subjected in the process of polishing, as well as in passing between the fingers of the players. The colours employed by the Messrs. De La Rue are prepared from the best French lamp-black, or Chinese vermilion, ground in oil;—this is effected by a machine, consisting of cylinders revolving at regulated speeds, by which any defects from the inattention of the workman, in grinding by hand, are avoided. These colours are now brought to such perfection, that the card itself is not more durable than the impression on its surface.
"The paper intended for the backs, being previously prepared with the colour desired, in the same manner as the fronts, is printed in various devices at the hand-press or steam-machine. The plaid or tartan backs are produced from a block engraved with straight lines, and printed in one colour, which is afterwards crossed with the same or any other colour, by again laying the sheet on the block, so that the first lines cross the second printing at any required angle. A variety of other devices are obtained from appropriate blocks; and some, like the court cards, and by the same process, are printed in a number of colours.
"In printing gold backs, size is substituted for ink; the face of the card is then powdered over with bronze dust, and rubbed over with a soft cotton or woollen dabber, by which the bronze is made to adhere to those parts only which have received the size. The printing of gold backs is usually executed after the card is pasted, but we have described the process here for the sake of convenience.
"As connected with the printing of backs, we may mention that the Messrs. De La Rue have lately taken out a patent for printing from woven wire, from which some highly beautiful patterns are obtained, bearing, of course, a perfect resemblance to the woven fabric. The wire when prepared for printing, is merely fastened at the ends by two pieces of wood, and stretched over a cast-iron block, on which it is fixed by means of screws passing through the wood into the iron. The variety of these patterns is very great; the printing is effected in the ordinary manner.
"Hitherto we have been referring to printed sheets of paper, which are either the size of double or single foolscap; the next object, therefore, is the conversion of these sheets into card-boards of the usual thickness. In France the card generally consists of two sheets of paper; but in England a more substantial article is demanded; it is generally four sheets thick, that is, the foreside and the back, and two inside leaves of an inferior description.
"In order to make a firm and smooth card, it is first necessary to obtain a paste of an equable well-mixed substance. A paste of this quality is produced from flour and water, mixed together, and heated to the boiling point, in a forty-gallon copper, by steam; which is made to pass into the interstices between the copper and an external casing of cast-iron, of the same shape as the boiler. By employing steam, instead of fire, the paste is not liable to burn, or adhere to the sides of the copper, and thus become deteriorated in its colour and quality.
"Previous to the commencement of pasting, it is necessary that the sheets be arranged in the order in which they are to be pasted. This operation is termed mingling. The insides, which are merely two sheets of paper pasted together, are placed between the foresides and backs, so that the paste may take them up without the possibility of error. A heap of paper so pasted will therefore uniformly consist of the foreside and back, between which, the inside, pasted on each side, is placed.
"The paste is laid on by means of a large brush, resembling the head of a hair-broom, with which the workman, by a series of systematic circular movements, distributes a thin coat. And by way of illustration of the long practice and manual dexterity which are necessary for perfection in even the simplest departments of art or labour, it may be worthy of notice that card-pasting is in itself a branch of labour, and that three or four years' practice is necessary to render the operator complete master of his business.
"These newly-pasted cards are then, in quantities of four or five reams at a time, subjected to the gradual but powerful pressure of a hydraulic press of one hundred tons, worked by a steam-engine. By this means the water in the paste exudes, and the air between the leaves is expelled, which would otherwise remain, and give the card a blistered appearance.
"After remaining a short time in the press, they are hung up on lines to dry; and to prevent, as much as possible, their warping while in this limpid state, small pins or wires are passed through the corners, and are then dexterously bent over the lines in the drying-room.
"The card-boards, after thus drying, are subjected to the pressure and friction of a brush-cylinder,—the face of which is covered with short thickset bristles, which not merely polish the surface, but even penetrate into the interstices. At this stage of the manufacture, cards of a superior description are waterproofed on the back with a varnish prepared for the purpose, so that they may not be marked by the fingers in dealing. When so prepared, they will keep perfectly clean, and may even be washed, without injuring the impression or softening the card.
"In continuation of the process of polishing, the card-boards are passed between revolving rollers of moderate warmth, one being of iron, the other of paper cut edge-ways; they are next subjected to two bright iron-faced rollers; and finally, to the number of ten or fifteen at a time, they are interleaved with thin sheets of copper, and effectually milled by being passed about a dozen times between two large and powerful cylinders. After being thus thoroughly polished, for the purpose of being flattened they are subjected to the pressure of a hydrostatic press of eight hundred tons, worked by steam.
"It may appear surprising that so much labour and machinery, and such circuitous means—requiring the operation of four distinct cylindrical machines, as well as a hydraulic press, all worked by steam,—should be required for effecting an object apparently so simple as that of polishing and flattening a card-board. It is, however, found that this end cannot be attained in a more expeditious manner, but that the means adopted must be gradual, though increasingly powerful in their different stages.
"The boards being printed and pasted, polished and flattened, are next cut up into single cards. The apparatus by which this is effected, and by which perfect exactness in the size of the cards is preserved, may be briefly described as a pair of scissors from two to three feet long, one blade of which is permanently fixed on the table. The card-board, being placed upon the bench, is slipped between the blades of the scissors, and pushed up to a screw-gauge adjusted to the requisite width; the moveable blade, by being then closed, cuts the card-board into eight narrow slips, called traverses, each containing five cards. These traverses then undergo a similar operation at a smaller pair of gauge-scissors, where they are cut up into single cards, to the amount of thirty thousand daily.
"All that now remains is the making-up into packs. After assorting the cards, the workman begins by laying out on a long table a given number (say two hundred) at one time; he then covers these with another suit, and so on consecutively until he has laid out all the cards that constitute a pack; so that by this operation two hundred packs are completed almost simultaneously. The best cards are called Moguls, the others Harrys, and Highlanders,—the inferior cards consist of those which have any imperfection in the impression, or any marks or specks on the surface.
"It may be necessary to remark that the Aces of Spades are printed at the Stamp Office, whether the cards be for exportation or for the home market,—the paper for printing being sent to the Stamp Office by the maker; and an account of the number of aces furnished by the Stamp Office is kept by the authorities. Before cards are delivered by the manufacturer an officer is sent to seal them, and a duty of a shilling per pack is paid monthly for those that are sold for home consumption. But as they are not liable to duty when intended for exportation, the card-maker enters into a bond that they shall be duly shipped, and an officer is sent to see them put into the case, and to seal it up."
[220] He says that the name is pure Egyptian, and that it is composed of the word Tar, signifying road, way; and the word Ro, Ros, Rog, which means royal: thus we have Tarog—Tarocchi—the Royal Road. By such a road as this Mons. Court de Gebelin seems to have arrived at much of his "recondite knowledge of things unknown."—See his Monde Primitif, huitième livraison, Dissertations mêlées: "Du jeu de tarots, où l'on traite de son origine, où l'on explique ses allégories, et où l'on fait voir qu'il est la source de nos cartes modernes à jouer."—Tome i, pp. 365-94. 4to, Paris, 1781.
[221] "Une dernière citation achevra de démontrer que les cartes et les naibi sont bien la même chose; le Traité de Théologie de Saint Antoine, évêque de Florence en 1457, porte: Et idem videtur de chartis vel naibis; et encore dans un autre endroit du même ouvrage: De factoribus et venditoribus alearum et taxillarum et chartarum et naiborum."—Précis Historique et Explicatif sur les Cartes à jouer, prefixed to the specimens of cards published under the title of 'Jeux de Cartes Tarots et de Cartes Numérales, du XIVme au XVIIIme Siècle,' by the Society of Bibliophiles Français. Imperial 4to, Paris, 1844.
[222] The word Tarot has been supposed to be a corruption of Tarocchi. Cards marked on the back with lines crossing lozenge-wise, and with little spots, are called Cartes Tarotées; and in France card-makers appear to have been formerly called Tarcotiers. Menestrier conceives that it was from these "lignes frettées en forme de rezeuil" cards were named Tarcuits, and Cartes Tarautées. He says that Tare,—defaut, déchet, tache,—signifies properly a hole, un trou; and he derives it from the Greek τερειν, to bore. From Tare he also derives Tariff, a ruled book for entering the duties on goods. Mons. Duchesne says that Tarot "vient en effet de l'Italien tarrochio, dont à la vérité nous ignorons encore la signification."
[223] Mons. Duchesne thus accounts for those cards being called Atous: "Ces cartes sont dites a tutti, à tous, c'est-à-dire supérieures à toute autre, et n'appartenant à aucune couleur." In other games at cards, the French Atout has the same meaning as the English Trump.
[224] The Empress is supposed to have been substituted for the Pope, who occurs in the old series of figures assumed by M. Duchesne to have been the original Tarocchi. In a similar manner, L'Amoureux is supposed to have been substituted for Apollo; the Chariot for Mars; the Capuchin or Hermit for Saturn; the Wheel of Fortune for Astrology; and Le Pendu for Prudence.
[225] The figures of two or three of the Atous are sometimes differently represented. In a pack now before me, inscribed "Cartes des Suisses," manufactured at Brussels, in No. 2, instead of Juno, there is a figure inscribed "Le 'Spagnol, Capitano Eracasse;" in No. 5, Bacchus supplies the place of Jupiter; and No. 16, which is inscribed "La Foudre," shows a tree struck by lightning, instead of a tower. In this set, the Fou is numbered 22. Tarots are generally about a fourth longer, and a little wider than English cards, and are usually coarsely coloured.
[226] Memorie spettanti alla storià della Calcografia, dal conte Leopold Cicognara. 8vo, Prata, 1831.—Cited in Duchesne's Précis Historique sur les Cartes à jouer, prefixed to the specimens of playing cards published by the Société des Bibliophiles Français.
[227] This book was written by the notorious Pietro Aretine. A second edition was published in 1589, and a third in 1651. The title of the last is 'Le Carte Parlanti; Dialogo di Partenio Etiro; [the anagram of Pietro Aretine] nel quale si tratta del Giuoco con moralità piacevole.'
[228] Though Mons. Duchesne generally speaks of those cards as if it had been positively ascertained that they were painted by Jacquemin Gringonneur, we yet find the following salvo, in the Précis Historique: "Mais le fait de leur haute destination à l'usage d'un roi, ne repose que sur des conjectures incertaines; espérons qu'un jour quelque antiquaire favorisé par un heureux hasard aura peut-être le bonheur de changer nos doutes en certitude."
[229] The Abbé's notice of those cards is by no means precise; and when he speaks of the four monarchies contending with each other, it is evident that he had either an imperfect recollection of them, or that he supposed some old numeral cards, of four suits, to have belonged to the same series.—"J'ai vu chez M. de Ganières un jeu de cartes (je ne sais s'il étoit complet) telles qu'elles étoient dans leur origine. Il y avoit un pape, des empereurs, les quatre monarchies, qui combattoient les uns contre les autres: ce qui a donné naissance à nos quatre couleurs. Elles étoient longues de 7 à 8 pouces. C'est en Italie que cette belle invention a pris naissance dans le XIVe siècle."—Longueruana, tom, i, page 107.
[230] Materiali per servire alla storià dell' origine e de' progressi dell' incisione in rame e in legno, col. da Pietro Zani. 8vo, Parma, 1802. The author's observations relating to cards are to be found at pp. 78-84, and pp. 149-93.
[231] There was also a series of the same subjects engraved in the sixteenth century.
[232] Bartsch, Peintre-Graveur, 8vo, Vienna, 1812.—His notices of old cards are to be found in vol. x, pp. 70-120; and vol. xiii, pp. 120-38.
[233] "Singer fait remarquer, avec raison, qu'on n'a pas d'exemple de cartes à jouer d'aussi grandes dimensions, qu'il n'y a ici des figures sans pièces numérales, et que, d'ailleurs, les sujets ne sont pas ceux des tarots ordinaires. Il aurait pu ajouter que des gravures exécutées avec tant de soins, que les chefs-d'œuvre d'un art nouveau dont le premier mérite s'appréciait par la beauté de l'empreinte, n'ont pu être destinés à recevoir l'enluminure qui entre essentiellement dans la confection du jeu de cartes."—Etudes Historiques sur les Cartes à jouer, p. 18.
[234] Observations sur les Cartes à jouer.
[235] This subject is erroneously numbered, both in the Roman characters and in the cyphers, as has been previously observed.
[236] These cards were exhibited to the Antiquarian Society by Dr. Stukeley, in 1763. They were purchased in 1776, by Mr. Tutet, and on his decease, they were bought by Mr. Gough. In 1816 they were in the possession of Mr. Triphook, the bookseller.
[237] Mons. Duchesne expresses himself on this subject, as follows: "Les enseignes employées pour les couleurs out éprouvé beaucoup de variations: cœur, carreau, trèfle et pique sont les plus répandues; mais, en Italie et en Espagne, elles sont encore désignées par coupes, deniers, bâtons, épées. En Allemagne on dit rouge, grelots, glands et cert.[**"cert"?] Quelquefois, en conservant les cœurs, les deniers ont été remplacés par des grelots; puis des glands tiennent lieu des trèfles, et des feuilles de lierre remplacent les piques, dont elles ont la forme."—Observations sur les Cartes à jouer.
[238] Mons. Duchesne says that the mark which the French call Pique was called Capprel in Italy, from its resemblance to the fruit of the Caper.—Précis Historique, prefixed to Jeux de Cartes Tarots et Numérales, p. 11.
[239] Carte Parlanti, p. 57, edit. 1651.
[240] The name of Lancelot did not really appear on the Valet of Trèfle, in the time of Père Daniel; but from a passage in Daneau's 'Liber de Alea, ou Breve remontrance sur les jeux de Cartes et de Dez,' printed in 1579, he concluded,—and, in this instance, correctly,—that Lancelot was the old name. By a royal ordinance of 1619, the card-makers of France were required to put their names and devices upon the Valet of Trèfle; and, from this circumstance, he considers that the name of Lancelot was omitted.
[241] 'The Perpetual Almanac, or a Gentleman Soldier's Prayer-book, shewing how one Richard Middleton was taken before the Mayor of the city he was in for using cards in church, during Divine Service.'
[242] Daniel, 'Mémoire sur l'Origine du jeu de Piquet, trouvé dans l'histoire de France, sous le règne de Charles VII,' printed in the Journal de Trévoux, for May, 1720. A summary of this memoir is given by Peignot, who questions the correctness of Daniel's explanations, but yet does not venture to say what they really are—mere gratuitous conceits. It would seem that the French consider the invention of Piquet as a point of national honour, and that the native author who should call it in question, would render himself liable to a "suspicion of incivism."
[243] "Ces cartes rarissimes faisaient partie d'un jeu de cartes numérales gravées sur bois sous notre roi Charles VII, vers 1425."
[244] Duchesne, 'Observations sur les Cartes à jouer,' in the Annuaire Historique, pp. 204-7, 1837; and Leber, 'Etudes Historiques sur les Cartes à jouer,' pp. 6-8, and p. 72, 1842.
Mons. Leber insists that these names confirm the testimony of Covelluzzo—previously quoted at page 23—that the game of cards was brought into Viterbo, in 1379, and that it came from the country of the Saracens. Mons. Leber even calls the figures "Gallo-Sarrazines," evidently wishing it to be supposed that they had been copied from a Saracen or Arabic type.—The following is a summary of his notions of the changes made in the characters, when cards were first introduced amongst Christian nations: "Le roi de Carreau de notre jeu de Charles VII porte le nom de Coursube, prétendu héros sarrazin dont parlent les vieux romanciers; et le nom d'Apollin, inscrit à côté du roi de Pique, est celui d'une idole imaginaire également attribuée aux Sarrazins.
"... On a dû d'abord, à quelques exceptions près, remplacer les idoles par des figures compatibles avec les dogmes et la morale du christianisme. Le pape, chef de l'Eglise chrétienne, a pu être substitué à Vichnou; l'ermite à un dervis; la maison Dieu à une pagode; et, quant aux symboles généraux, tels que le soleil, la mort, le jugement, auxquels sont associés le bâteleur et le bouffon ou fou, il a suffi d'y attacher un nouveau sens mystique sans rien changer aux images. Les mêmes substitutions s'opèrent dans les portraits des princes et des héros, figures d'un autre ordre qui sont passées exclusivement, avec leur suite, dans l'économie du jeu Français."—Etudes Historiques sur les Cartes à jouer, p. 72.—Mons. Leber appears here to narrate a dream which he had after rocking himself asleep on his Arabian hobby-horse.
[246] This book was sold, together with others from the Cathedral Library of Peterborough, by Mr. Hodgson, 192 Fleet street, Dec. 13-18, 1841. In his catalogue, No. 1492, it is thus described: "Sermones M. Vincentii (wants end)."
[247] "L'image du valet de pique porte avec elle une preuve de la nationalité ardennoise; Ogier, comme tous les descendants de Saint Hubert d'Ardennes, avait le privilège de guérir l'hydrophobie et d'en préserver.... L'action est réciproque: le chien ne suit pas, il s'élance pour implorer protection et assistance, et le neveu de Saint Hubert accorde son intervention.... Il est à remarquer que le corps du chien est en partie caché par l'escarpement du terrain, caractéristique du pays des Ardennes."—Eléméns Carlovingiens linguistiques et littéraires (par J. Barrois), p. 265, 4to, Paris, 1846.
[248] "Le P. Daniel pose en fait que 'le nom du quatrième valet (le valet de trèfle) est inconnu, parce qu'il n'y a pas longtemps que les faiseurs de jeux de cartes l'ont aboli, en mettant leur nom à la place de celui de ce valet.' Il croit pourtant l'avoir trouvé dans le traité de Daneau, d'où il résultérait, selon lui, que c'était Lancelot. Si Daniel avait pu consulter les pièces du XVIe siècle, il n'aurait pas hasardé ce jugement conjectural; il aurait craint que sa conjecture ne fût pas exacte, parce que les noms des cartes ayant beaucoup varié, Lancelot pouvait n'être point celui du valet de trèfle du temps de l'auteur dont il s'appuie. Il n'aurait pas dit que les faiseurs de cartes ont aboli ce valet pour mettre leur nom à la place du sien, parce qu'il aurait appris que cette substitution de nom leur fût imposée par une ordonnance de Louis XIII, à laquelle ils ont dû se soumettre."—Etudes Historiques sur les Cartes à jouer, p. 32.
[249] Charles of Anjou, brother of St. Louis, received the investiture of the kingdom of Naples and Sicily, in 1265.
[250] "Le nom du valet de cœur me paroit extrèmement curieux; car il doit nécessairement rappeler le nom d'Erart de Valeri, le fameux compagnon de Charles d'Anjou, roi de Sicile, celui auquel les contemporains attribuoient en grande partie le gain de la bataille de Tagliacozza, dans laquelle périt Manfred. Nous pouvons donc croire que le jeu aura été fait en Sicile ou en Italie; car les quatre noms Lancelot, Roland, Ogier, et Valeri étoient également familiers aux souvenirs des Siciliens du XIVe siècle. J'ai dit un mot de cet Erard de Valery à l'article de Charles d'Anjou, dans mon Romancero François."
[251] Henry VII ascended the throne in 1485.—Mons. Duchesne observes that, of all the old cards preserved in the Bibliothèque du Roi, only one displays a rose,—namely, a king. There is an old coat card, engraved on copper, in the print-room of the British Museum, which, like that alluded to by Mons. Duchesne, has a rose as the mark of the suit.
[252] See the prohibition against the importation of playing cards, in 1463; enacted by Parliament, in consequence of the complaints of the manufacturers and tradesmen of London and other parts of England, against the importation of foreign manufactured wares, which greatly obstructed their own employment, previously referred to at page 96.
[253] Mons. Leber, after having noticed Singer's objection to the so-called Tarocchi cards, from their size and want of numeral cards, thus proceeds: "Il aurait pu ajouter que des gravures exécutées avec tant de soins, que les chefs-d'œuvre d'un art nouveau, dont le premier mérite s'appréciait par la beauté de l'empreinte, n'ont pu être destinés à recevoir l'enluminure qui entre essentiellement dans la confection du jeu de cartes; et cette observation s'applique à plusieurs suites d'estampes du même genre et du même siècle, dont quelques-unes sont conservées au cabinet royal. Là, comme dans les collections de Londres et d'Allemagne, elles sont toutes en feuilles et en noir. Non-seulement l'étrangeté des signes distinctifs des couleurs, mais la forme même de ces gravures, repousserait l'idée d'une destination semblable à celle du jeu de cartes européen. Les unes arrondies en médaillons, rappellent le champ circulaire des cartes indiennes: d'autres couvrent un carré d'in-4o; les plus communes sont des carrés longs; mais au lieu des couleurs propres aux cartes à jouer, on n'y voit que des images d'oiseaux, de quadrupèdes, de fleurs, de fruits; ce sont des perroquets et des paons, des lièvres et des ours, des singes et des lions, des grenades, des roses, et tous autres objets dont le choix devait être purement arbitraire, quand il n'était pas l'expression d'un jeu nouveau."—Etudes Historiques sur les Cartes à jouer, p. 18.
[254] Those cards formerly belonged to a Mons. Volpato, and were purchased of him, for the Bibliothèque du Roi, in 1833. He received in exchange some cards of the same pack; and the set, completed with fac-simile drawings of such as were wanting, were recently in the possession of Messrs. Smith, of Lisle-street, Leicester-square, to whom they were sent by Mons. Volpato for sale.
[255] The third character in those coat cards cannot properly be called a Cavalier, and has indeed very little pretensions to the designation of Squire. The Knaves are evidently common foot-soldiers, such as were known in Italy by the name of Fanti.
[256] From the difficulty of giving in a wood-engraving those small letters with sufficient clearness, they are omitted in the annexed specimens. The numerals are also omitted, except in the Two of Pinks.
[257] Bartsch, Peintre-graveur, tom. x, pp. 70-6.—Singer, Researches into the History of Playing Cards, p. 45-6, also pp. 205-8.
[258] In the 'Catalogue Raisonné of the select Collection of Engravings of an Amateur' [Mr. Wilson] a full description is given of those cards, pp. 87-91. 4to, 1828.
[259] One of these cards, a Queen, is evidently copied from the Queen of Deer, but having a kind of flower as the mark of the suit, instead of a Deer. Those two Queens, so precisely the same in form, attitude, and costume, most certainly did not belong to the same pack.
[260] 'Deutsche Piquet-Karten aus den XV Iahrhunderte mit Trappola Blattern.' The use of the word Trappola by writers on the history of playing cards, without clearly explaining the sense in which they employ it, leads to much confusion. It properly signifies a game; which may be played with any kind of numeral cards consisting of four suits, whatever the marks may be. Breitkopf seems here to apply the term "Trappola Blattern" to cards which have Swords, Batons, Cups, and Money as the marks of the suits; in the same manner as the cards now in common use in this country are called by writers on the subject, French Piquet cards. It is never, however, supposed that the game depends in the least on the marks of the suits.
[261] From the time of the marriage of Joanna's sister, Catherine of Arragon, with Arthur, Prince of Wales, till about the time of her separation from his brother, Henry VIII, the pomegranate was frequently introduced as an ornament in the royal decorations and furniture of the English court.
[262] Those cards were purchased of Messrs. Smith, of Lisle street, who also supplied the Museum with the two sets of old Italian engravings, usually called Tarocchi cards.
[263] "Die Karte ist nach Wälscher Art in Spade, Coppe, Danari, (die aber hier als Granatäpfel vorgestellt sind,) und Bastoni getheilet."—Von Murr, Journal zur Kunstgeschicht, iier. Theil, s. 200.
[264] Breitkopf improperly calls those cards "Trappolier-Karte,"—Trappola cards. Aretine, in his 'Carte Parlanti,' makes a distinction between the game of Trappola, and that played with Tarocchi cards.
[265] "Il y a dans chaque couleur un roi, un officier supérieur ou capitaine nommé Ober, et un bas-officier, appelé Unter. On appelle encore de nos jours dans l'empire, où les mots français ne sont pas si en vogue, les officiers supérieurs oberleute, et les bas-officiers unterleute. Les Français ont substitué à la place de l'officier une dame, et à la place des bas-officiers des valets, ou des braves, comme Bullet les nomme. Le bas-officier des glands est nommé en Allemagne, der grosze mentzel, et celui de vert, der kleine mentzel; enfin, l'as porte le nom de daus."—Heineken, Idée générale d'une Collection complète d'Estampes, p. 239.
[266] "Sota. La tercera figura, que tiènen los naipes, la qual representa el infante, ò soldado. Dixose de la voz Italiana soto, que vale debaxo, porque vá despues de las figuras de Rey, y Caballo, que le son superiores."—In a superficial paper on old playing-cards, by the baron de Reiffenberg, printed in the 'Bulletins de l'Académie Royale des Sciences, des Lettres, et des Beaux-Arts de Belgique,' No. 10, 1847, the Sota is transformed into a female: "Dans les jeux de cartes espagnols, la dame et le valet étaient remplacés par le cavallo et la sota, le cavalier et la fille."
[267] Mons. Duchesne, is of opinion that the Marquis Girolamo's cards belonged to the same pack or set as the so-called Gringonneur cards preserved in the Bibliothèque du Roi. If Millin's description, however, be correct, Mons. Duchesne is unquestionably wrong.
[268] Millin, Dictionnaire des Beaux Arts, tom. i, p. 201. Paris, 1806. Quoted by Peignot.—Jacobello del Fiore flourished about 1420.—A set of cards, "containing figures of the gods, with their emblematic animals, and figures of birds also," were painted for Philip Visconti, Duke of Milan, who died in 1447. Decembrio, in his life of this prince, in the 20th volume of the 'Rerum Italicarum Scriptores,' says that they cost fifteen hundred pieces of gold, and were chiefly executed by the prince's secretary, Martianus Terdonensis. From the context, it appears that they were not mere pictures, but were intended for some kind of game.—Aretine, in his 'Carte Parlanti,' speaks with admiration of a pack of cards painted by Jacopo del Giallo, a Florentine artist who flourished about 1540.
[269] It is but fair to observe here that the Dutch name for the suit which we call Spades, is Scop, a Shovel, or Spade; and that as this name has been evidently given to the suit from the mark bearing some resemblance to a spade, the same suit might have been called Spades by the English for the same reason. This objection, however, does not affect the conjecture with respect to Clubs. In the Nugæ Venales, printed in Holland, 1648, we meet with the following: "Query. Why are the Four Kings of cards, Diamonds, Trefoil, Hearts, and Spades—Rhombuli, Trifolii, Cordis, et Ligonis—always poor?—Answer. Because they are always at play; and play, according to the proverb, is man's perdition. Their state is also in other respects most miserable; for when through them much money is lost, they are condemned to the flames, and burnt like wizards." The modern Dutch names for the suits of French cards are Hart,—Heart; Ruyt, a lozenge-shaped figure, a diamond-shaped pane of glass,—Diamonds; Klaver, Clover, Trefoil,—Clubs; Scop, a Spade, Shovel, or Scoop,—Spades.
[270] Sharon Turner's History of England, vol. iii, p. 80.
[271] "Here begynneth a traetys callyde the Lordis flayle handlyde by the Bushoppes powre theresshere Thomas Solme."—Without date. At the end: "Prynted at Basyl by me Theophyll Emlos, undere the sygne of Sente Peters Kay."—16mo. In one passage Henry VIII is appealed to as then living.
[272] To the barn or grange of monasteries a chapel was frequently attached, which used to be attended on holidays by country people who lived at a distance from the parish church.
[273] 'The Poems of William Dunbar, now first collected, with notes and a memoir of his life, by David Laing,' vol. ii, p. 67, 1834.—In the notes to this edition, there are several references to the card-playing of James IV of Scotland. His majesty, it would seem, was accustomed to play with the "French Leich," John Damian, whom he afterwards promoted to the abbacy of Tungland. Damian, who broke his thigh in an attempt to fly from the top of Stirling castle, is the person ridiculed by Dunbar as the "Fenyet Friar of Tungland."
[274] A few single cards, apparently belonging to this pack, preserved in the British Museum, are ascribed to Hans Sebald Behaim.
[275] Those cards are the rarest of all Jost Amman's numerous works. The first title of the volume is "Jodoci Ammanni, civis Noribergensis Charta Lusoria, Tetrastichis illustrata per Janum Heinrichum Scroterum de Gustrou." Then follows a long explanatory title in German, and the imprint, "Gedruct zu Nüurnberg, durch Leonhardt Heussler, Anno, 1588." There is a copy of the work in the British Museum.
[276] Breitkopf, Ursprung der Spielkarten, s. 33.
[277] "Voy. les Voyages de Samuel Purchas; ceux de Thomas Herbert en Perse et dans plusieurs parties de l'Orient; le Suppl. t. ii, des Cérémonies relig., avec les figures de B. Picart, et la Pl. de la fête de Huly, t. i, 2e part. des mêmes Cérémonies, p. 138."
[278] "Notamment Exode, c. xxxix, v. 25."
[279] "Voy. D. Calmet, Dictionn. de la Bible, au mot Clochette."
[280] "Lalla Rookh, an oriental romance, by T. Moore."
[281] "Voy. Breitkopf, Ursprung der Spielkarten, p. 33, et la Pl. de Henri VI et de Wulphilde (d'après l'Archéologie, sauf erreur). Les mêmes figures, copiées par Jansen, se retrouvent t. i, de son Essai sur l'Origine de la Gravure en Bois et en Taille-douce. Paris, 1808, 2 vol. in-8. Le costume en a été évidemment rajeuni, mais il est hors de toute vraisemblance qu'on y ait supposé une parure de grelots étrangère au monument original."—Mons. Leber, in citing Breitkopf, spells his name with uniform inaccuracy.
[282] "Gough, d'après Stukeley, Archæologia, t. viii, p. 152; et Singer, p. 73."
[283] "La Fauconnerie de Guillaume Tardif, ch. x, p. 61; et les Oiseaux de Proie, par G. B., p. 122 du recueil de J. du Fouilloux, édit. de Paris, 1614, in-4, fig."
[284] "Quoiqu'on ait souvent traduit les mots crotalum et crusma,—κροταλον, κρωσμα,—par grelot, et réciproquement, on croit que les instruments ainsi nommés par les Grecs et les Romains n'étaient pas ce que nous appelons des grelots; et, en effet, la figure du grelot ne se retrouve dans aucun monument d'une antiquité bien établie. Voy. F. A. Lampe, De Cymbalis veterum, lib. i, cap. 4, 7, 8, et fig., pp. 26 et 44, Holl., pet. in-12."
[285] "Voy. les comp. 2 et 8 de la pl. 56 des Monuments de la Monarchie française, par Montfaucon."
[286] "Ibid. pl. 55, d'après une miniature d'un manusc. angl. du Xe siècle."
[287] "Hist. de la Maison de Montmorency.—Le Grand, Vie privée des Franç. tom. ii."
[288] "Sidonius Apollinaris, Epist. 9, p. 245 de l'édit. in-4 de Savaron. Ce commentateur allègue un passage de Prosper, lib. iii, cap. 17, de Vita contemplativa, où il est aussi question d'oiseaux et de chiens de chasse: 'Utuntur accipitribus ac saginatis canibus ad venatum.'"
[289] "Suivant l'opinion la plus généralement adoptée, et que partagèrent Velser, Duchesne, Fauchet, Du Tillet, Blondel, les frères de Sainte-Marthe, Spelman, le P. Menestrier et autres. Voy. le Traité de l'Origine des Armoiries, de ce dernier. Paris, 1679, in-12, pp. 53 et suiv."
[290] "Sentiment adopté par le président Hénault: 'Mathilde ... broda en laine un monument qu'on voit dans l'église de Bayeux, de l'expédition de son mari en Angleterre; la mort ne lui permit pas de l'achever.' (Hist. de Fr. sous les ann. 1067-74.)"
[291] "Voy. Fauconnerie de G. Tardif."
[292] Leber, Etudes Historiques sur les Cartes à jouer, pp. 80-4.
[293] There is every reason to believe that the suit of cards which we call Diamonds was not so named in consequence of the mark being mistaken for the symbol of a precious stone, but merely on account of its form. The Dutch call the same suit Ruyt, in consequence of its form being like a lozenge-shaped pane of glass. The Diamonds on cards are, in Northumberland, more especially amongst the colliers, frequently termed Picks, in consequence of the acute angular points being something like the Picks used in hewing coals. The Spanish name Oros appears to have been originally applied to the suit called by the Italians Denari or Danari, without the least reference to the French Carreaux.—The mistakes on this subject appear to be exclusively Mons. Leber's own.
[294] The probability is on the other side, namely, that the German Grün, or Leaf, was the original of the French Pique. No French cards hitherto discovered are of so early a date as those which have Bells, Hearts, Leaves, and Acorns as the marks of the suits.
[295] The Crequier is a kind of wild plum-tree, and its leaves are borne as the family arms of the house of Crequi. Armorial bearings of this kind are called "armoiries parlantes" by French heralds.
[296] Mons. Leber should have said "Sept de Grün;" but then this would have destroyed the anomaly which he was desirous of illustrating; for there is nothing anomalous in the Leaves on German cards having a resemblance to the leaves of a particular tree.
[297] See the passage at length, p. 135.
[298] On this card the name of the manufacturer appears—P. De Lestre—together with his mark.
[299] In a pack of modern Portuguese cards now before me there is no Queen; and the suits are Hearts, Bells, Leaves, and Acorns. The figures of the coat cards are half-lengths and double—"de duas Cabeças;" so that a head is always uppermost whichever way the card may be held. In a pack of modern Spanish cards,—"Naypes Refinos"—also without a Queen, the figures are also double; but the suits are Copas, Oros, Spadas, and Bastos,—Cups, Money, Swords, and Clubs proper.—On modern German cards the figures are frequently represented double in the same manner.
[300] Peignot, Analyse de Recherches sur les Cartes à jouer, pp. 288-90. Paris, 1826. The following passage relative to the change of manners which succeeded the Revolution is quoted by Mons. Peignot from a periodical entitled 'Le Corsaire:'—"Les cartes en vogue jusqu'à la révolution furent totalement abandonnées pendant les terribles années de notre bouleversement politique. Le boston, le grave wisth, le sémillant reversis, n'étoient plus conservés que chez quelques bons bourgeois, dont ils n'avoient jamais sans doute enflammé les passions, ou dans quelques vieilles maisons du Marais et du faubourg Saint-Germain. La bouillotte n'étoit guère connue que de quelques marchands; et même l'opinion publique flétrissait ceux dont une ignoble avidité compromettoit la fortune. La mode avoit mis en faveur la conversation, les soirées musicales, les soirées dansantes. L'écarté a paru, et ce jeu niais et insipide a fait revivre parmi nous toutes les fureurs du gothique lansquenet. Plus de conversation, plus de danses; la sonate ou la romance du jour sont interrompues par le cri des joueurs; le bal est désert, ou n'est plus peuplé que de vieux amateurs; tandis que la jeunesse s'empresse autour des tables d'écarté."
[301] A description of the same cards by Mons. Amanton, member of the Academy of Dijon, is given in Peignot's Analyse, p. 291: "Dans ce jeu," says Mons. Amanton, "les portraits des rois sont très ressemblans, les costumes du temps bien observés; et même les noms des personnages sont écrits en caractères de l'écriture en usage dans le siècle où ils ont vécu. Malgré la perfection du travail, ces jolis dessins n'ont pu l'emporter sur les anciennes images informes, qui rappellent l'enfance de l'art; tant la force de l'habitude est tyrannique."
[302] Mons. Peignot, in his 'Analyse de Recherches sur les Cartes à Jouer,' 1826, after noticing Cotta's cards, thus speaks of the satirical cards above described: "C'est sans doute ce recueil qui a donné lieu à un jeu de cartes très-malin, publié à Paris il y a sept à huit ans, sous le titre de Cartes à rire; ce doit être, autant que je puis me le rappeler, sous le ministère de M.D.C.... On attribue ce jeu à M.A. ... C.A.D.C.D.D.O. Toutes les cartes, soit à personnages, soit numériques, présentent des dessins charmans, des figures ingénieusement groupées, des attitudes très-plaisantes. Mais l'esprit satyrique y est poussé à l'excès; et ce n'est point avec de pareilles caricatures qu'on parviendra à rétablir l'union parmi les Français." p.297.
[303] According to Père Daniel, the Ace or As is the Latin As,—a piece of money, coin, riches; while Bullet derives it from the Celtic, and says that it means origin, source, beginning, the first. A French writer of the sixteenth century, supposed to be Charles Stephens, in a work entitled 'Paradoxes,' printed at Paris in 1553, says that the Ace, or "Az ought to be called Nars, a word which, in German, signifies a fool." The German word which he alludes to is Narr, which is just as likely to have been the origin of Deuce as of Ace. It has also been supposed that the term Ace has been derived from the Greek word ὁνος, which, according to Julius Pollux, signified One in the Ionic dialect; but as the word ὁνος also signified an Ass, it has been conjectured that the Ace of cards and dice was so called, not as a designation of unity, but as signifying an Ass or a Fool. Those who entertained the latter opinion are said by Hyde to be Asses themselves: "Qui unitatem asinum dicunt errant, et ipsi sunt asini." (De Ludis Orient. lib. ii.)—Leber, Etudes Historiques, pp. 39, 86.
[304] Brockett's Glossary of North Country Words.
[305] Singer's Researches, p. 271.
[306] Dr. Houstoun's Memoirs of his own Lifetime, p. 92. Edit. 1747.
[307] A writer of the age of Queen Elizabeth would appear to have foreseen the great "Card Controversy," which within the last 150 years has occupied so many "learned pens:" "It shall be lawful for coney-catchers to fall together by the ears, about the four Knaves of Cards, which of them may claim superiority; and whether false dice or true be of the most antiquity."—The Pennyless Parliament of Thread-bare Poets.
[308] The French also call the Trump Atou,—"Coupez: Cœur est Atou." Cut: Hearts are Trumps.
[309] "Triomphe: the card-game called Ruff, or Trump; also, the Ruff, or Trump at it."—Cotgrave's French and English Dictionary.
[310] In 'The Toast,' a satirical poem written about 1730, by Dr. William King, Principal of St. Mary's Hall, Oxford, Dr. Hort, Archbishop of Tuam, is called Lord Pam. He is also called Pam by Swift.
[312] Pascasius Justus mentions in his Alca, first published in 1560, that a certain merchant, having obtained from Charles V a monopoly for ten years of the sale of cards in Spain, became extremely rich in consequence of the great demand for them.
[313] Encyclopédie Méthodique, mot, Cartier. An account of the subsequent legislation in France, with respect to cards, is to be found in the 'Manuel du Cartonnier, et du Fabricant de Cartonnages,' pp. 224-37. Paris, 1830.