Part 1

Transcriber’s Notes

Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. All other spelling and punctuation remains unchanged.

Italics are represented thus _italic_.

THE

DEVIL’S PICTURE-BOOKS

A History of Playing-Cards

BY

MRS. JOHN KING VAN RENSSELAER AUTHOR OF CROCHET LACE, ETC.

ILLUSTRATED

NEW YORK DODD, MEAD, AND COMPANY PUBLISHERS

_Copyright, 1890_ BY DODD, MEAD, AND COMPANY

_All rights reserved_

University Press JOHN WILSON AND SON, CAMBRIDGE

PREFACE.

The “Devil’s Books” was the name bestowed upon Playing-cards by the Puritans and other pious souls who were probably in hopes that this name would alarm timid persons and so prevent their use. Whether or not his Satanic Majesty originated Playing-cards, we have no means of discovering; but it is more probable that he only inspired their invention, and placed them in the hands of mankind, who have eagerly adopted this simple means of amusing themselves, and have used it according to the good or evil which predominated in their own breasts. Many learned men have written books or treatises on Playing-cards, and I am indebted for a large part of the information contained in this history to “Les Cartes à Jouer,” by M. Paul la Croix; “Facts and Speculations about Playing-cards,” by Mr. Chatto; “The History of Playing-cards,” by the Rev. Edward Taylor; and “The History of Playing-cards,” by Mr. Singer.

These books are now out of print, and somewhat difficult to obtain; and I hope, by bringing into a small compass the principal features set forth in them, I shall be able to place before a number of readers interesting facts that would be otherwise unobtainable.

Hearty thanks are due to the custodians of the National Museum in Washington, who have aided me in every way in their power, and also to the many kind friends who have sought far and wide for unique and uncommon packs of cards, and helped materially by gathering facts relating to them for me.

That many nations have cards peculiar to their own country and almost unknown beyond its boundaries may be a matter of surprise to some; that such ordinary and familiar objects as Playing-cards should have a history, will astonish others. My hope is that the subject will interest my readers as it has done me. Any facts concerning Playing-cards or any communications relating to rare or curious packs will be gladly received by the author, who would like to add to her collection.

M. K. VAN RENSSELAER. NEW YORK, 1890.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

THE TAROTS, OR THE FIRST CARDS 11

CHESS 21

ENGRAVING 33

MATERIALS 41

NAME 49

CLASSIFICATION OF PACKS OF CARDS INTO SUITS 55

CARDS OF DIFFERENT COUNTRIES, VIZ.:—

CHINA 65

EGYPT 69

INDIA 70

CASHMERE 74

PERSIA 77

ITALY 80

GERMANY 83

SPAIN 88

FRANCE 90

ENGLAND 102

AMERICA 112

JAPAN 131

THE KING 139

THE QUEEN 151

THE KNAVE 161

ACES AND OTHER CARDS 171

USE AND ABUSE 179

PIPS, SUITS, AND COLOURS 191

ODDS AND ENDS 201

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

PLATE

PERSIAN 1

TAROT 2

TAROT 3

CHINESE 4

CASHMERE. Cards owned by Lockwood de Forest, Esq. 5, 6

ITALIAN CARDS SHOWING THE SUITS OF SWORDS, MACES, MONEY, AND CUPS. Owned by Mrs. J. K. Van Rensselaer 7

GERMAN CARDS SHOWING THE ACES OF GRÜN, ROTH, SCHELLEN, AND HERZEN. Owned by Mrs. J. K. Van Rensselaer 8

REMAINS OF THE PACK SUPPOSED TO HAVE BEEN USED BY CHARLES VII. OF FRANCE, DATE 1425. In the Cabinet des Estampes, Paris, France 9

ELIZABETH OF YORK 10

CARDS FOUND BY MR. CHATTO IN A BLACK-LETTER VOLUME FORMERLY IN THE CATHEDRAL LIBRARY, AT PETERBOROUGH, ENGLAND. Now in the Print Room of the British Museum 11

FOUND IN AN OLD EDITION OF CLAUDIAN, EARLY ENGLISH 12

CARDS ON WHICH INVITATIONS WERE WRITTEN. Owned by Mrs. Ten Eyck and Miss Crowninshield. Date 1763 13

GEOGRAPHICAL CARDS. Owned by Richard H. Derby, Esq., M.D. Date 1795 14

NORTH 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, 19

NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN GAMBLING-STICKS, ALASKA TRIBE. Painted on Cubes of Wood. National Museum, Washington, D.C., U.S.A. 20

JAPANESE CARDS, EACH ONE REPRESENTING A WEEK IN THE YEAR. Owned by Mrs. J. K. Van Rensselaer 21, 22, 23, 24

THE DEVIL’S PICTURE-BOOKS

“_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 beuks._” BURNS.

THE DEVIL’S PICTURE-BOOKS.

THE TAROTS.

A youth of frolic, an old age of cards. HONE: _Every-Day Book_, ii. 98.

The origin of Playing-cards and their inventor is still a subject of speculation, and will probably remain forever undiscovered. Almost every country in Europe has through her scholars laid claim to having been the first to use cards; and many documentary and other proofs have been brought forward to substantiate their assertions, which are based upon ancient laws, common traditions, or contemporary illustrations.

That cards were brought from the East to Europe about the time of the Crusades, and probably by the home-returning warriors, who imported many of the newly acquired customs and habits of the Orient into their own countries, seems to be a well established fact; and it does not contradict the statement made by some writers, who declare that the gypsies—who about that time began to wander over Europe—brought with them and introduced cards, which they used, as they do at the present day, for divining the future. Cards may well have become known by both means, and they spread rapidly over all of what was then considered the only civilized part of the world; and the proofs that have been brought forward show that they were known nearly simultaneously in Italy, Spain, France, Germany, and England, and point to a common origin not to be found in any one of these countries.

The first cards known in Europe, and which were named _Tarots_, _Tarocchi_, etc., seem to differ in almost every respect from those of the fifteenth century, although these probably inspired their invention. The latter resemble much more those of the present day than they do the original Tarots. The first packs consisted of seventy-eight cards,—that is, of four suits of numeral cards; and besides these there were twenty-two emblematical pictured cards, which were called _Atous_, or _Atouts_,—a word which M. Duchesne, a French writer, declares signifies “above all.” This word used in French has the same meaning as our word _Trump_. The marks which distinguish the Tarot suits are usually _Swords_, _Cups_, _Sticks_, and _Money_; and each one consists of fourteen cards, ten of which are “pips” and three or four “coat” cards,—namely, King, Queen, Knight, and Knave. The Queen was not always admitted. These suits seem to be the origin of the modern packs; and the emblems used on them have been adopted in many countries where the _Atout_ part was discarded while the rest of the pack with its original symbols was retained.

Mr. Singer gives a graphic description of these cards and the games to be played with them, and says that “among different nations the suits [as will be hereafter shown] are distinguished by marks peculiar to themselves, while only the general features of the numbered cards headed by figures or court cards have been retained.”

The second division of the Tarot pack, called _Atouts_, are numbered up to twenty-one, each of these having its proper value; and besides all these there is one, not numbered and not belonging to the division of the suit cards, which is called a _Fou_, and in playing the game is designated _Mat_, or _il Matto_. This “Joker,” as we should term it, has no value of its own, but augments that of any of the Atouts to which it may be joined, and is sometimes played instead of a Queen, being then called “her Excuse.”

These Atouts are each represented by a print which is supposed to resemble some character, and the name is generally placed on the card. Among them are an Emperor, a Cupid, a Chariot, a Hermit, a Gallows, Death, The Day of Judgment, a Pope, Fortune, Temperance, Justice, the Moon, the Sun, etc. The order in which they are placed is not 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 from the pool, while ‘La Mort’ (or Death) most appropriately sweeps the board.”

It is said that the distribution of the suit cards has a peculiar signification. Each one is distinguished by an emblem which represents the four classes into which communities were once divided. First comes the Churchman, represented by the Chalice (or Copas); next in rank, the Warrior, whose emblem is the Sword; third, the Merchant, symbolized by a Coin; and fourth, the Workman with his Staff. It will be shown hereafter that almost all writers on the subject allow the possibility of the divisions of the suits being shown in the cards.

The earliest known specimens of these Tarot cards are now to be found in the Cabinet des Estampes in Paris, and are supposed to have formed part of the pack which was painted for King Charles the Seventh of France in 1393, to cheer and amuse him during an illness which had been caused by a _coup-de-soleil_ in 1392, and which made him a melancholy but not a dangerous lunatic. M. Paul la Croix describes these Tarots as having been most delicately painted and resembling in treatment the illuminations of manuscripts. They are on a golden background on which dots forming an ornamental pattern were impressed. A border of silver surrounded and as it were framed each picture, through which a dotted line twisted spirally like a ribbon. M. la Croix points out that this dotted line, in his language technically termed a _tare_ (which also means a “fault” or “defect”), was a sort of fluting produced by small holes pricked into the substance of which the cards were made, and fancies that to these Tares the Tarots owe their name. Other writers, however, dispute this derivation of the word, and discover new ones for themselves which are generally quite as fanciful and far-fetched.

These well preserved Tarots are eighteen centimetres by nine, and are painted in water colours on a thin card. The composition of the figures is ingenious and artistic. The drawing is correct and full of character, and the colours are still brilliant. A narrow border of black and white checks surrounds each one. This border is a piece of checkered paper pasted on the back of the card and neatly folded over its edge as if to protect it, showing on the face of the card and forming a frame for the pictures. This fashion of having a checkered or diapered back was closely followed in many of the countries where cards have been used; and these backs are still seen, although this old pattern (which, as will hereafter be seen, had probably a very interesting origin) has been generally discarded, and each card-maker adopts a different device with which to decorate the backs of his cards according to his own fancy. In France the backs are generally plain, and coloured red, pink, or blue. In Spain the pattern is dotted on the surface in lines and circles, while in other countries interlaced and meaningless designs are employed.

Packs of cards closely resembling the original Tarots are still to be found in some parts of Switzerland, Germany, and Alsace, where they are used by the peasantry in the districts which are not much frequented by travellers; but they are unknown to the rest of the world except as curiosities. They are, however, the sole representatives of the cards which the Crusaders or the gypsies brought into Europe, and which the latter use whenever possible to divine the future or recall the past. Some writers point to the eastern origin of these Tarots, because in them “Death” is numbered thirteen, and the idea of fatality or bad luck attached to that number is essentially Oriental; and they declare that the fact that the emblematical Atouts are numbered from low to high, just as certain Asiatic alphabets are written from left to right, may cover a similar interpretation.

CHESS.

Almost all writers on Cards have admitted the strong resemblance they bear to Chess; and M. Paul la Croix declares that in comparatively modern times the game of chess and games of cards showed strikingly similar features, which demonstrated their common origin,—the art of painting being resorted to to depict the one, and that of sculpture to represent the other.

A pretty history of the origin of Chess has been related. It states that the game was invented for the amusement of an Oriental potentate, and was played with living figures, who were required to move at the word of command from one square to another of a huge tiled court-yard which was surrounded by the balconies of the palace and its harem, from which all the movements of the pieces on the pavement below could be watched by the sovereign and his court. Living games of Chess have been played for amusement or “sweet charity’s sake” even in modern times; but such cumbersome pieces must have been difficult to manage, and it was only natural that the ingenious mind which contrived living chessmen should soon have superseded them with figures carved in a convenient material such as wood or ivory, and then placed the mimic armies on a miniature battle-field which could be easily commanded by two or more players.

The Eastern origin of Chess is undisputed, but when and by whom it was introduced into Europe is unknown. According to Herodius, the Lydians suffered from a long and severe famine in the reign of Atys, and in order to forget their misery, invented many games, particularly dice. Previous writers attribute the invention of games of chance to the Greeks during the siege of Troy, and Cicero mentions _games_ in the camp; but it does not follow that these games were either chess, cards, or dice. They may have been knuckle-bones or jack-stones, as that game was known in very early days, and pictures representing persons playing with them have been found among Egyptian antiquities.

It has been asserted positively by the oldest traditions that the cards of Indian origin are only chessmen transferred to paper on which the principal pieces of the game are reproduced, the game being improved by admitting more than two players.

In the game of Chess there are generally only two armies of pawns, each one being commanded by a King, a Vizir (which in the lapse of years has become a Queen), a Knight, an Elephant (which became a fool and after that a Bishop), and a Dromedary (afterward a Castle); and the game shows a striking similarity to the Indian games of cards, which have eight companies distinguished by their colours and emblems, and of which each one has their King, their Vizir, and their Elephant. The two games differ, of course; but sufficient resemblances between them remain to show their common origin, which recalls the terrible game of war, in which each adversary must assault, manœuvre, make combinations, and exert eternal vigilance.

We learn from a most reliable source (Abel de Rémusat, Journal asiatique, September, 1822) that playing-cards came to Europe from India and China, and that, like the game of Chess, they were known to the Arabians and the Saracens from the beginning of the twelfth century. At first these games found little popular favour, most probably because they were introduced at a period when civil and ecclesiastical authorities most positively forbade all games of chance.

From India Chess spread gradually to other countries. The Persians seem to have known it about the middle of the sixth century; and Singer, in his “History of Playing-cards,” states that it reached China at nearly the same period, and in the reign of the Emperor Wa-si.

There are such striking resemblances between the figures used in Chess and those on cards as to leave very little doubt where the inspiration for the latter originated.

Beautiful circular cards made of ivory have been found, on which the figures are painted as if the artist were unable to carve the forms that he desired to represent, and therefore was obliged to paint them on a flat surface. These cards are small disks, which might easily be placed on the squares of a board and moved from one to the other like chessmen. The advantage of commanding a concealed army instead of one spread out on an open field probably soon became apparent, and the result was that some slight changes in the shape of the pictured figure and the material used were soon made, which with various modifications have come down to us as the modern playing-card.

If a study is made of some of the different packs of Chinese cards, it will be seen that horses, deer, and other animals are represented on them, together with symbols which seem to mark the suits. In other packs, instead of the figure of the animal, Chinese characters are placed above the symbol marking the suit, which characters seem to have been put there instead of the picture, and which it is affirmed state, “This is the horse,” or “This one is the deer,” as the case may be,—as if on one of our court cards the legend “This is the Queen” should be written on its face, instead of placing there the quaintly garbed female form which usually represents that august person.

We find the principal figures from the chess-board reproduced in the Tarots, and also in some of the Spanish and German packs. There is the King, the Knight, or mounted horseman, and the Knave. The pawns or common soldiers are represented by numbers; but there is this difference between Cards and the game of Chess as it is generally played,—in the former there are four armies, or as we should call them “suits,” and each one is headed by the King instead of the two sides generally seen in Chess. Now, Mr. Chatto remarks that there is an Indian game of Chess which is called _Chaturanga_, or “The Four Kings,” in which two allied armies play against the same opponents. He also gives a few rules for this game. “Having marked eight squares on all sides,” says the Sage, “place the _red_ army to the east, the _green_ to the south, the _yellow_ to the west, and the _black_ to the north.” It is worthy of notice that these colours form the ground of four of the suits of one of the divisions of an eight-suit pack of Hindostanee cards; and this supports the theory that the painted ivory disks might have originally been used on the chess-board and then held in the hand. This strange Indian game of Chess would also point to the first division of the mimic warriors into four armies, each one distinguished by its uniform of different colours, which when placed in the cards became known as “suits.” This word was probably derived from the French _en suite_, which signifies “to follow.”

There is another game known in which two chess-boards are joined. “It is played by two persons on each side, each of whom is concerned to defend his own game at the same time that he co-operates with his ally to distress by every means in his power the two armies opposed to them.” “Four-handed Chess” is described in Hoyle’s Book of Games, which illustrates a board with one hundred and sixty squares. The game is played with four sets of chessmen, coloured, respectively, white, black, red, and green, like those of the Indian game.

The Queen, both in Chess and Cards, has a European if not an entirely French origin. She takes the place of the Eastern Vizir, or General; and it may be particularly remarked that in the game of Chess she is more of an Amazon or Joan of Arc than the consort of a reigning monarch. Her height also is excessive for a woman, in proportion to the other pieces, and her active duties of harassing the enemy and protecting her slow-moving husband while leading his army to battle show that although she is called a 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 much more lifelike and womanly person, as in it she aids and abets her sovereign lord and master, and is generally meekly subordinate to him.

While drawing attention to the resemblances between the games of Chess and of Cards, we must not forget to notice a slight but perhaps important fact; and that is that all the ancient packs had _checkered_ backs, as if the little army were loath to leave the old battle-field, but transferred it to their backs, and exposed that to the gaze of the opponent instead of standing in battle-array upon it. The oldest existing packs or Tarots retain these checkered backs; and some authors have decided that _Tarot_ means “checkered,” and that the name is derived from this circumstance.