6th December: Playing Cards

On this date in 1983, the highest price paid for a deck of cards at auction was $143,352.00, by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The Museum purchased a deck of cards from around 1470-85, believed to be the oldest known complete hand-painted deck. The history and symbolism of playing cards is quite fascinating - so I will use this anniversary to share some of it with you.

1. Playing cards probably originated in China in the twelfth century - at least, this is when the earliest written reference to them appeared. Over the next century they spread through the Middle East into Europe, to Italy and Spain to begin with. The earliest decks had 32 cards, not the 62 we have now. They represented all the combinations of a pair of Dice. They were printed on wood and bone as well as Paper.
2. The suits we are familiar with today evolved from the medieval suits of coins, cups, swords and sticks. In 13th century Germany the suits were Acorns, Leaves, Hearts and Bells. It was in France that the suits first appeared as Hearts, diamonds, spades and clubs. Each suit is said to represent a pillar of the medieval economy - hearts represented the Church, Spades represented the military, Clubs represented agriculture, and Diamonds represented the merchant class. They have also been assigned a season and an element each. Hearts: Water and Spring; Clubs: Fire and summer; Diamonds: Earth and Autumn; and spades: air and Winter.
3. There is a reason why the ace of spades looks different to the other aces, with a more elaborate and larger design. It's because in 17th century France, cards were so popular that the ruling classes worked out a way to get money out of them by putting a tax on the ace of spades. The elaborate design evolved from the stamps used to show that the tax had been paid. The UK caught on to this idea, too, and the tax on the ace of spades was only officially revoked in 1960. Back in the day, forging an ace with a tax paid stamp could result in the death penalty. Where there is a tax, there will be tax evasion, and people would avoid the tax by simply playing without the ace of spades, and this is where the phrase "not playing with a full deck" originated.
4. While cards can have anything at all on the back, more often than not it will be a design in Red or Blue. These designs are unique to the manufacturer, as distinct as a Scottish Tartan.
5. It would be easy to assume, that since the court cards have equivalents in their cousins in the Tarot deck, that the joker is the equivalent of the Fool in Tarot. It's not. The joker is an American invention dating back to the 19th century. There was a popular game back then called euchre, which called for two extra cards, then known as the "bower" cards, or, in Germany, "juker" cards. "Juker", over time, became "Joker".
6. The court cards are all distinctive in their way. Like the suits, the designs for the court cards originated in France and are said to each represent a historical figure. A common misconception is that the Queen of Hearts represents Queen Elizabeth I, but this is not the case as the designs existed before Elizabeth I was even born. The full list of which card represents who is at the bottom of this post. Some titbits about the court cards: all the kings save one have moustaches. The King of Hearts is the only one without. He is also dubbed "the suicide king" because the design for him usually shows him apparently ramming his sword into his head. In the early designs, he was charging into battle, waving his sword above his head, but in time the designs dictated that the crowns should be flush against the border, so the sword ended up behind his head. The King of Diamonds is the only one shown in profile and is the only one not to be clasping his weapon in his hand. His axe rests behind him. Gamblers believe this king is not Julius Caesar but rather Odin, who sacrificed his eye to learn the secrets of the runes, and he doesn't need to hold his axe because it is ready to use at the twitch of a finger. Finally, is the correct term "jack" or "knave"? Knave is an old word, meaning servant, while jack is a word which in the 19th century came to mean a common man. Jack probably became commonly used because of the abbreviations used on the edges of cards. King and Knave both begin with K. Even using "Kn" for knave could result in confusion so J for jack made life easier.
7. There are numerous ways in which a deck of cards can represent the Calendar. There are 52 cards, the number of weeks in a year; four suits and four seasons; and if you add up all the pips (with jacks equalling 11, queens 12 and kings 13 and a joker, 1) they add up to 365, the number of days in a year. For Leap years, add in the second joker. There are 12 court cards, and 12 months in a year, plus 12 signs in both the western and Chinese zodiacs. There are 12 hours in each day and night. The two colours, red and black, or the back and front of the card could represent day and night. There are 13 cards in each suit and 13 months in a lunar year. Finally, if you take a deck of cards, remove the jokers, deal them one by one into two piles, put the second pile on top and repeat, when you've done this 24 times the deck will be in the exact same order as it was when you started - and there are 24 hours in a day.
8. If a deck of cards is shuffled five times using an interlocking shuffle the order will be statistically random. The number of order possibilities for a deck of cards is so huge (8 followed by 67 zeros) that it's likely no two correctly shuffled decks of cards have ever ended up in the same order. Ever.
9. As well as playing games with them, building houses, or towers of cards is a popular pastime. Most people don't get very far, but Bryan Berg managed to build a record breaking tower of cards which was 25 feet, 3.5 inches tall and used 2,400 decks of playing cards.
10. A deck of playing cards is small and compact enough to take anywhere and can be brought out to pass the time wherever you may be - including a prisoner of war camp. The American government took advantage of this in World War II when they collaborated with The United States Playing Card Company (which, incidentally, is still the world's largest playing card producer, selling over 100,000,000 decks annually) to produce special cards for shipping over to the camps. They weren't just to keep American POWs amused while they waited for the end of the war. These cards were designed so that if they got wet, they would peel open to reveal maps of escape routes. There's also a story that the same company produced more special cards during the Vietnam war. These decks contained 52 aces of spades and nothing else. Why? The Vietnamese were superstitious about the ace of spades, believing it signified death. So leaving aces of spades on fallen soldiers and scattered around everywhere was actually a type of psychological warfare intended to scare the crap out of the enemy.

Who the court cards represent

King of Spades – King David (Biblical figure)

King of Hearts – Charles, possibly Charlemagne, or Charles VII,

King of Diamonds – Julius Caesar

King of Clubs – Alexander the Great

Queen of Spades – Pallas (Goddess)

Queen of Hearts – Judith (Biblical figure)

Queen of Diamonds – Rachel (possibly Biblical, or representing Agnès Sorel, the mistress of Charles VII whose pseudonym was Rachel, or it could be a corruption of the Celtic Ragnel, relating to Lancelot.

Queen of Clubs – Argine (possibly an anagram of regina, which is Latin for queen, or perhaps Argea, wife of Polybus and mother of Argus)

Knave (Jack) of Spades – Ogier the Dane/Holger Danske (a knight of Charlemagne)

Knave (Jack) of Hearts – La Hire (comrade-in-arms to Joan of Arc, and member of Charles VII’s court)

Knave (Jack) of Diamonds – Hector (Greek mythology)

Knave (Jack) of Clubs – Judas Maccabeus, or Lancelot

New!

Jack Ward, President of Innovia, owes his life twice over to the enigmatic superhero, dubbed Power Blaster by the press. No-one knows who Power Blaster is or where he comes from - and he wants it to stay that way.

Scientist Desi Troyes has developed a nuclear bomb to counter the ever present threat of an asteroid hitting the planet. When Ward signs the order giving the go ahead for a nuclear test on the remote Bird Island, he has no inkling of Troyes' real agenda, and that he has signed the death warrants of millions of people.

Although the island should have been evacuated, there are people still there: some from the distant continent of Classica; protesters opposed to the bomb test; and Innovians who will not, or cannot, use their communication devices.

Power Blaster knows he must stop the bomb from hitting the island. He also knows it may be the last thing he ever does.

Meanwhile in Innovia, Ward and his staff gather to watch the broadcast of the test. Nobody, not even Troyes himself, has any idea what is about to happen.

Part One of The Raiders Trilogy.

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