CARDS, pieces of cardboard, oblong in shape, bearing certain figures and spots; spe cifically, playing-cards used in various games of chance and skill. Playing-cards are prob ably an invention of the East, and some assert that the Arabs or Saracens learned the use of cards from the gypsies and spread them in Europe. The Chinese dictionary (1678) states that they were invented for the amusement of Seun-ho's concubines in the year 1120 A.D. The course that
ing took in its diffusion through Europe shows that it must have come from the East, for it was found in the eastern and southern countries before it was in the western. The historical traces of the use of cards are found earliest in Italy, then in Germany, France and Spain. The first cards were painted, and the Italian cards of 1299 are found to have been so. The art of printing cards was discovered by the Germans between 1350 and 1360. The Germans have, moreover, made many changes in cards, both in the figures and the names. The Lanzknechtsspiel, which is regarded as the first German game with cards, is a German invention. Of this game we find an imitation in France, in 1392, under the name of lans quenet, which continued to be played there till the time of Moliere and Regnard, and per haps still longer. The first certain trace of card-playing in France occurs in the year 1361, and Charles VI is said to have amused him self with it during his sickness at the end of the 14th century. The modern figures are said to have been invented in France between 1430 and 1461. It has been said that cards were known in Spain as early as 1332; but what is certain is that card-playing must have become prevalent in the course of the century, seeing it was prohibited by the King of Castile, John I, in 1387. Mr. De la Rue, the most extensive manufacturer of cards in England, obtained in 1832 a patent for various improvements in man ufacture. The figures on cards had been gen erally produced by the outlines first being printed from copper plates, and the colors then filled by stencilling. Mr. De la Rue's process was to print them from colored types or blocks exactly in the same way as calico-printing, but all the colors being in oil.
As early as the 15th century an active trade in cards sprung up in Germany, and was chiefly carried on at Nuremberg, Augsburg and Ulm, the demand from France, England, Italy, Spain and other countries producing great prosperity among the manufacturers. In England the manufacture of cards flourished especially under Elizabeth. But no sooner had cards come to be generally used in Europe, than they were prohibited by several governments, partly from moral considerations, the first games being games of chance; partly from considerations of political economy, as in England, where the im portation of foreign cards was considered in jurious to the prosperity of home manufactur ers. The prohibition, however, only tended to increase the taste for cards. In England, under Richard III and Henry VII, card-playing grew in favor. The latter monarch was very fond of the game, and his daughter Margaret was found playing cards by James IV of Scotland, when he came to woo her. The popularity which cards gradually obtained in England may be inferred from the fact that political pam phlets under the name of "Bloody Games of Cards,* and kindred titles, appeared at the com mencement of the civil war against Charles I.
One of the most striking publications of this kind was one in 1660 on the royal game of ombre. Pepys, in his
Consult Singer, 'Researches into the History of Playing Cards' (London 1816) ,• Chatto, Origin and History of Playing Cards' (Lon don 1848) ; Willshire,