OCR Text |
Show MAKING OF PLAYING CARDS Supposed to Have Been Invented for. Amusement of Deranged King of France, The Invention of playing cards has been variot ly attributed to the Chi-nose, Chi-nose, Hindoos, Arabians and Romans, . but cards as now used were Invented by Jacques Grlrgonneur, a painter, in Paris, In tho fourteenth century. Thejr were supposed to have been first made for tho amusement of Charles l. ot France, who waa deranged. Jno French had particular names forthe 12 court carda. The four kings wre David, Alexander, Caesar and Charlei: tho four queens, Argino, Esther, Ju- . dlth and Pallas; the four knaves or J knights, Ogier the Dane, Lancelot, La Hire and Hector de Garland. Cards Bee j originally to have been brought to England from Spain, probably prob-ably having been Introduced Into that . country by tho Moors. Tho clubs, In Spanish, were not trefoils, as with us, but cudgels, I. e.,' "bastos," uid the spades or swordB, "espadas." Cards nt first were stamped from wood blocks In outllno and filled In by hand, but after tho invention of engraving tho best artists engraved them on copper and struck them off al once. "Columbines" "Colum-bines" were spades, "rabbits," clubs; "pinks," diamonds, and "roses," hearts. Human figures, opposed to thoso of flowers and animals, wore the ancestors of court cards. |