Playing card deck made by Block Printing.
Playing card deck
English
Tudor Playing Cards A&S
Fair A.S. 50 (2016)
Marilyn
Holt Mwynwen
Ysginidd called Strawberry
History
Playing cards’ existence can be
tracked more by the laws around and shipping manifests of them than surviving
cards. There are laws banning them within other temperance laws, as well as the
taxing on imported and exported cards. Ship manifests are a way we can see the
common use and trading of playing cards. From the late 1200’s on, we start to
see playing laws popping up on the books in many countries. It is believed that
playing cards originated around 1000 A.D. in China. They were narrow slips of
paper, essentially dominoes with dots in their 36 combinations possible with
the throw of two dice. Paper was the original material for dominoes; wood and
ivory came later. Dominoes cards are still known, as is another Chinese type,
money cards, called that because of the suit signs are coin variations. Each region of Europe had their own style
deck and they varied in the number of cards because of this.
Artisans and book makers would have
been the people making playing cards. Artisans that did make playing cards
didn’t get a lot of respect for most of the periods. However, eventually two
became well known enough and respected enough to be invited to join the
Painters Guild. Book makers with printing presses would make a profit from this
disposable commodity, and they could produce sheets of them quickly. As stated before, cards were printed or stenciled on bleached and browned paper
pasteboard and painted with distemper in colors. A few decks were all hand
done, often for gifts to, and from, Royalty.
There are few surviving cards
today. In fact, there is only one known complete deck of period playing cards.
That is the Flemish Hunting deck, aka Hofjager Hunting Pack, or the Cloisters
Pack, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Cloisters Location, dated from 1475 to
1480, from the Netherlands. These were made of pressed layered paper and
decorated with stenciled and hand drawn designs and overlaid with gold and
silver. A recent discovery of Spanish suited cards has been uncovered in a book
published in 1519. The uncut sheets showing 15 cards showing clothing styles
from the 1460’s, so they may have sat a long time between being put aside and
turned into board for the book. They are related in design to the Oberdeutscher
Strecher, engraved in the 1490’s, and the uncut sheet by master of the
Banderoles, engraved in the third quarter of the 15th century. These cards are
possibly typical of early Spanish suited cards, imitating the French makers and
made by German engravers who wished to export wares back to Spain. (Book cover
of a Catalan manuscript volume of 1519 at “Museu Nacional d’Art de
Catalunya”)
The suits are different in various
regions. French and English use hearts, diamonds, clubs and spades. Spanish and
Italian suites were Baton (club, wand stave or stick), Sword, Chalets (cups)
and Coins. Swiss-German suits were Shields, Roses, Acorns and Bells. German
suits were Hearts, Bells, Acorns, and Leaves.
These suits also have other
significance. Hearts and cups are the clergy. Coins and diamonds are the
Burghers. Wands, staves, and clubs are the Peasants. Swords, spades, leaves,
and shields are the Nobility. There is an extra face card in some decks; this
being the Knight. Swiss-German decks didn’t have a Queen and instead had the
Ober in her place.
Methods, Materials &
Consideration
I have created a deck of playing
cards by block printing. I carved linoleum with a scalpel to create the blocks.
The cards created are inspired by the French suited deck, Pierre Marechal,
Rouen, 1567. The French deck is the same deck that is used in America today. It
has 52 cards and depending on the time period and the location it can have an
extra card like the joker often called a Philosopher. The suits are hearts,
spades, clubs, and diamonds and there are three face cards: the King, Queen,
and Knave (jack). There is no number written on the cards, just the appropriate
numbers of pips made in the shape of the suit. The backs of playing cards were
mostly blank because printing and art were not so exact that any art would have
made the cards easy to mark. In period,
cards were printed or stenciled on bleached and browned paper
pasteboard and painted with distemper in colors. Printing ink was oil
based, and as such, I used Speedball’s oil-based block printing ink and oil
paint thinner to get an ink that was smooth, with good coverage of the print
block, but laid flat on the card. I used artist card Bristol precut
paper so they would be perfectly uniformed so no one can accuse me of cheating
while playing cards. Historically, they used to be cut by hands after printing.
They had solid single blocks that had all of the cards on the one block either
by suit or the whole deck. They were printed in black ink. Any color was added
by hand. I used the red Speedball’s oil-based
block printing ink and oil paint thinner to do the Hearts and Diamonds. I
carved 3 royal cards, with no suits, and the four suit symbols. I mounted the
linoleum on wood boards with glue, putting bricks on them to press them as they
dried. I used all my studies,
experience, and knowledge from prior research back when I played with rubber
stamping and block printing to make this project.
This deck of cards was created to
fit into a middle class Tudor gaming set to play such games as Noddy, and Premo.
I enjoy teaching games and playing passes the time. This deck is a part of my
50th year project of making my gear more period-correct for my persona. I liked
the idea that I could make more to replace any when they get damaged, and so
having the ability to print them one or two at a time was important to me. I
also wanted to be able to give them as gifts and have them for use on the
archery range and throwing range for use as targets for card games with
weapons.
Sourses/ Bibliography
1. Pierre Marechal, Rouen, 1567, cards http://www.wopc.co.uk/
1463 PARLIAMENT ROLLS In the third year of Edward IV, (March 4, 1463 to
March 3, 1464) a statute was issued prohibiting, as from the following
Michaelmas day (Sept, 29, 1464) the importation into England and Wales of
various "chaffares, wares, ou choses desoubs escriptes." The
"chaffares, wares, or things written below" were numerous and
miscellaneous, including fire-tongs, dripping pans, dice, tennis balls, pins, pattins,
pack-needles, painted wares, daggers, woodknives, bodkins, tailor's shears,
razors and "Cardes a jouer." http://www.wopc.co.uk/
2. Metropolitan Museum of art- 52-card deck of South Netherlandish playing cards. Oldest
known full deck of playing cards in the world, 15th Century.
3. Uncut German playing cards
used for bookbinding reinforcement, c 1580-dxpo-playingcards.com
4. The Book of Games:
Strategy, Tactics & History Hardcover – (2008) Botermans, Jack
5. Where Queen Elizabeth Slept
& What the Butler Saw: historical terms from the sixteenth century to
the present (1996 )(page 236)
6. "Tudor
Entertainment & Pastimes", Hanson, Marilee.
<a href="http://englishhistory.net/tudor/entertainment-pastimes/">http://englishhistory.net/tudor/entertainment-pastimes/</a>,
(February 10, 2015)
7. “Oxford Dictionary of Card Games“,
Parlett, David. p.173, (1992) ISBN 0-19-869173-4
9. Heather Hall. http://ladyheatherhall.com/
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