Playing Card

Marco Tempest tells the secret story of a deck of cards

http://www.wopc.co.uk/history/

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2008/nov/22/history-of-playing-cards

MEANINGS FOR CARD SUITS (symbols)

READ HERE

https://www.creativebloq.com/animation/evolution-playing-cards-gifs-21619438

Timeline

  • c820AD Cards are invented in China, during the Tang dynasty. The first suits are in fact increasing denominations of currency (coins, strings of coins, myriads of strings, and tens of myriads), which suggests they may have been derived from actual money. Alternative theories say they may have been a paper adaptation of dominoes, or dice.
  • Early 14th century Probable first arrival of cards in Europe, in Italy. They have travelled from China via India and the Middle East, and specifically with the Mamluks of Egypt.
  • 1371 First documentary evidence of cards in Spain; in a Catalan rhyming dictionary, of all places.
  • 1377 First detailed description of playing cards in Europe, by a Swiss monk named John of Rheinfelden.
  • 1380 Suddenly, they’re everywhere – mentions of cards crop up as far afield as Florence, Basle, Regensburg, Brabant, Paris and Barcelona.
  • 1392-93 Charles or Charbot Poupart, the treasurer of the household of Charles VI of France, records payment for the painting of three sets of cards.
  • 1440 Johann Gutenberg invents the movable-type press. Improvements in printing technology mean that cards can now be mass-produced.
  • 1462 Earliest reference to cards in Britain. This and most of the mentions thereafter are bannings, fulminations against the evils of gambling, or notices of arrest for so doing.
  • 1480 The four suits now commonly seen worldwide are first used in France, adapted from the German suits of hearts, bells, leaves, and acorns.
  • Late 1400s The ace, or one, which had always had the lowest value in cards, starts to gain a special significance. Ace becomes high.
  • Early 1500s Card-makers at Rouen hit upon the distinctive card illustrations that we still use today.
  • 1520 First mention of the game of triomphe in Spain. Now obsolete, the game spawned many games such as euchre, whist and bridge.
  • 1674 Publication of Charles Cotton’s Compleat Gamester, one of the first attempts to lay down authoritative rules for many card and dice games.
  • 1685 The first paper money is issued in North America – as IOUs on the backs of used playing cards – by Jacques de Meulles, the French governor of Quebec.
  • 1711 First systematic tax on packs of cards introduced.
  • 1742 Publication of Edmund Hoyle’s Short Treatise on the Game of Whist. The pamphlet goes through several editions and becomes one of the bestselling publications of the 18th century.
  • 1793 Post-revolutionary French authorities ban the depictions of royalty on playing cards. Kings, queens and jacks became liberties, equalities and fraternities. This stands for 12 years until Napoleon comes to power and tells them not to be so silly.
  • 1834 First documented game of poker on a Mississippi river steamer. The game, a refinement of the Persian game “as nas”, takes its name from a similar French game, “poque”.
  • Mid-1800s Card names abbreviated and placed in the corner for the first time. Partly for this reason, the “knave” (whose abbreviation is the same as for “king”) now becomes the “jack”.
  • 1857 First appearance of the joker.
  • 1868 Bezique is introduced to England. The rules, as published, are unclear; panic in the streets.
  • Early 20th century Canasta is invented in South America. It becomes globally popular after WW2.
  • 1909 In a New York club, ET Baker invents gin rummy. It catches on in Hollywood, and subsequently the world, in the 1940s.
  • 1914-18 Pontoon is the game of choice among soldiers in first world war trenches.
  • 1925 Harold Stirling Vanderbilt, on a cruise from San Francisco to Havana, perfects the rules of contract bridge, which becomes the most popular card game in the west.
  • 1935 Card manufacturers attempt to introduce a fifth suit (not black, not red, but green) called the “eagles” in the US and “crowns” in the UK. It is a dismal failure.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2008/nov/22/history-of-playing-cards