PLAYING CARD

one of a set of cards that are numbered or illustrated (or both) and are used for playing games, for education, for divination, and for conjuring. Modern cards are divided into four suitsspades, hearts, diamonds, and clubs, symbolized respectively as follows: There are 13 cards in each of the four suits. The set of 52 cards together is known variously as the pack or the deck. Two jokers, bearing the image of a medieval court jester, are usually included with the standard 52-card deck, although they are not always used in play. Though where and when cards originated is uncertain, China seems the most likely place, and the 7th to the 10th century the earliest probable time. An Indian origin has been suggested by the resemblance of symbols on some early European decks to the ring, sword, cup, and baton classically depicted in the four hands of Hindu statues. Yet another theory is that both cards and chess are derived from ancient divinatory procedures used by primitive peoples. Nor is it known how cards were introduced to Europe. Some early decks had symbols resembling the Chinese markings and may have been taken back by a Venetian, possibly Niccol Polo or his more famous son, Marco, during travels to and from China in the latter half of the 13th century. Another speculation is that cards may have been brought from Arabia by the Gypsies, but the Gypsies did not reach western Europe in appreciable numbers until after cards had become firmly established. If an Arab origin is to be sought, the Saracen invasion of Sicily or the Moorish conquest of Spain could provide a link. The Spanish word for cards, which is naipes, and an earlier Italian word, which is naibi, are probably of Arab origin. There are references to cards in Italy from 1299; in Spain, from as early as 1371; in the Low Countries, from 1379; and in Germany, from 1380. A French manuscript of the early 14th century contains a reference to cards, and in 1392 the registers of the Chambre des Comptes of Charles VI recorded the purchase of three games of cards in gold and diverse colours. In England by 1465 the use of cards was well enough established for manufacturers to petition for protection against imports. Cards may have first reached the Americas with Columbus, and they became firmly established there with the arrival of the English, French, and Dutch colonists. Cards are now played throughout the world. The 52-card French deck, now standard throughout the world, evolved from the numbered cards of the Tarot (q.v.) deck. The deck, in usual descending order of rank, consists of an ace, king, queen, jack (formerly knave), and nine numerals (10 to 2) in each of four suits. A German deck of 32 cards and a Spanish deck of 40 also evolved, but modern games requiring a short deck are usually played by removing cards from a standard deck. The suits had different names and often different symbols in the various countries. The English adopted the French symbols: the French pique (pike) looked like a spade to the English; the carreau (square) became the English diamond, the trfle (trefoil) became the English club, and the coeur (heart) remained heart. The spread of games such as Whist and Piquet, and later Contract Bridge, made the 52-card deck current among card players throughout the world. The making of cards has been closely linked with the development of printing. The earliest cards were hand-painted, but it would appear that German production in the 15th century almost certainly was so large as to mean that wood-block printing must have been employed. German cardmakers may, in fact, have been the first wood-block engravers in Europe. The great diversity of early decks gradually lessened, influenced by 15th-century French exporters, whose simple designs became widely popular. Modern variations of those designs may be found primarily in the design of the court cards (kings, queens, and jacks); those in English decks, for instance, show figures dressed in the style of Henry VII. The traditional superstition of gamblers and the more modern tendency to preserve fragments of the past have tended to prevent change, including official attempts in some countries to provide proletarian substitutes for the court cards. The standard modern card measures about 2 1/2 3 1/2 inches (6 9 cm) and is doubleheaded to aid recognition, with indices at two opposite corners. The backs are printed with identical designs, patterns, or pictures. A full deck, including two jokers, is printed on pasteboard consisting of two sheets gummed together with black paste to ensure opaqueness. The spades and clubs normally are printed in black, the hearts and diamonds in red. Each card is stamped out with a die and simultaneously given a knife edge; sometimes the edges are lacquered. Almost invariably the manufacturer's seal is affixed to the wrapped deck. Governments have often found cards to be a useful source of revenue. In 1615 James I of England granted letters patent for a duty on imports, and in 1628 Charles I taxed manufacturers at a rate gradually increased to the considerable sum of half-a-crown per pack. After 1765 the tax paid was shown in the design of the ace of spades, printed officially by the commissioner of stamps. The heavy impost caused a boom in second-hand sales and a traffic in forged aces of spades, but since 1862 the tax has been moderate. In some countries, however, manufacture is a state monopoly. The high taxes imposed in Austria led to the printing of oversized cards, which were trimmed and cleaned when their edges became soiled. High taxes also encouraged the invention in the 1930s of playing cards printed on plastic, which far outlasted those printed on pasteboard.