Playing card
[17][18] Playing cards were probably invented during the Tang dynasty around the 9th century, as a result of the usage of woodblock printing technology.
[19][20][21][22][23] The reference to a leaf game in a 9th-century text known as the Collection of Miscellanea at Duyang (Chinese: 杜阳杂编; pinyin: Dùyáng zábiān), written by Tang dynasty writer Su E, is often cited in connection to the existence of playing cards.
[31] Other games revolving around alcoholic drinking involved using playing cards of a sort from the Tang dynasty onward.
[37] A near complete pack of Mamluk playing cards dating to the 15th century, and of similar appearance to the fragments above, was discovered by Leo Aryeh Mayer in the Topkapı Palace, Istanbul, in 1939.
[39] The Topkapı pack originally contained 52 cards comprising four suits: polo-sticks, coins, swords, and cups.
In fact, the word "Kanjifah" appears in Arabic on the king of swords and is still used in parts of the Middle East to describe modern playing cards.
[41] A fragment of two uncut sheets of Moorish-styled cards of a similar was found in Spain and dated to the early 15th century.
[45] This suggests that cards may have been "reasonably well known" in Catalonia (now part of Spain) at that time, perhaps introduced as a result of maritime trade with the Mamluk rulers of Egypt.
[55] Among the early patterns of playing card were those derived from the Mamluk suits of cups, coins, swords, and polo sticks, which are still used in traditional Latin decks.
[57] In addition to Catalonia in 1371, the presence of playing cards is attested in 1377 in Switzerland, and 1380 in many locations including Florence and Paris.
The Flemish Hunting Deck, held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, is the oldest complete set of ordinary playing cards made in Europe from the 15th century.
The Italians and Iberians replaced the Ober/Unter system with the "Knight" and "Fante" or "Sota" before 1390, perhaps to make the cards more visually distinguishable.
In England, the lowest court card was called the "knave" which originally meant male child (compare German Knabe), so in this context the character could represent the "prince", son to the king and queen; the meaning servant developed later.
[76][77] Not being registered card-makers, they worked with printer Thomas Wheeler to produce a French-suited pack using this patent, which was first sold in 1801.
The need to hide wear and tear and to discourage writing on the back led cards to have designs, pictures, photos, or advertising on the reverse.
[79] The Japanese video game company Nintendo was founded in 1889 to produce and distribute karuta (かるた, from Portuguese carta, 'card'), most notably hanafuda (花札, 'flower cards').
Other card manufacturers had opted to leave the market not wanting to be associated with criminal ties, but Nintendo founder Fusajiro Yamauchi continued, becoming the largest producer of hanafuda within a few years.
In addition, local merchants were interested in the prospect of a continuous renewal of decks, thus avoiding the suspicions that reusing cards would generate.
[86] Columbia University's Rare Book and Manuscript Library holds the Albert Field Collection of Playing Cards, an archive of over 6,000 individual decks from over 50 countries and dating back to the 1550s.
Jokers are not part of any pattern as they are a relatively recent invention and lack any standardized appearance so each publisher usually puts its own trademarked illustration into their decks.
It is popular in France, the Low Countries, Central Europe and is used to play piquet, belote, bezique and skat.
These coatings can be water- or solvent-based, and different textures and visual effects can be achieved by adding certain dyes or foils, or using multiple varnish processes.
[100] Delta Air Lines has created several series of decks, with several featuring art by Daniel C. Sweeney, John Hardy, and Jack Laycox.
Casinos may also sell decks separately as a souvenir item — one notable example is Jerry's Nugget playing cards, released in 1970.
[114][97] In 1911, the New York Times described May King Van Rensselaer's playing card collection of over 900 decks as the largest in the world.
[115] According to Guinness World Records, the largest playing card collection comprises 11,087 decks and is owned by Liu Fuchang of China.
[119][124][125][126] Custom deck production is commonly funded on platforms such as Kickstarter,[127][128][129] with companies offering card printing services to the public.
[130] Forty years later in 2016, the British Council commissioned a similar deck called "Taash ke Patte" featuring Indian artists such as Bhuri Bai, Shilpa Gupta, Krishen Khanna, Ram Rahman, Gulam Mohammed Sheikh, Arpita Singh, and Thukral & Tagra.
[136] During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the US military produced Most-wanted Iraqi playing cards to help soldiers identify enemy leaders.
The Unicode names for each group of four glyphs are 'black' and 'white' but might have been more accurately described as 'solid' and 'outline' since the colour actually used at display or printing time is an application choice.
