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Gilt-Edged Playing Cards

Two packs of gilt-edged playing cards, red-backed and
blue-backed. These cards come in a flip-top, hand-made presentation
box in Oxford Blue with red piping - from David Westnedge.
Change to $  Change to C 
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Pounds (incl. VAT) |
Typical ETA in wkg days |
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Westnedge Gilt-edged playing cards in hand-made box |
£19.91 |
£22.90 |
1 + transit time |
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Printable version of this page
The History of Playing Cards Playing Cards originated in China before 1200AD and the original
Chinese cards appear to have been related to the Chinese paper money of the
time. In fact it seems likely that people created the cards by copying paper
money and then both played with and for these cards! A pack consisted of 30
thin flexible cards - 9 of each suit plus an honour card. Superficially some
pictures of the suits bear a resemblance to the original playing card suits
of Asia and Europe e.g. the strings of coins can look like sticks or batons.
So it has been assumed that these formed the basis for European playing cards
although there is no definite evidence to prove this. Playing Cards were introduced to Europe in the 13th century. The
most likely theory for their origin is that in the late 1300s, the Mamelukes
of Egypt introduced their style of cards to Europe. A pack of Mameluke cards
consisted of four "suits" of 13 cards each, just like modern playing cards.
The suits were: Polo sticks Coins Swords Cups and each had ten numbered cards
and three court cards - King, Vice-King and Second Vice-King. The earliest references
to cards in Europe are mostly in France (the records of King Charles VI show
that he bought 3 sets of playing cards in 1392). These original cards featured
four suits (Cups, Swords, Coins and Batons) of 14 cards each - there was an
additional card in each suit - the "Cavalier" or "Mounted Valet", the lowest
of the four court cards. These suits are still the suit of choice in most Latin
countries such as Spain and Italy, today. Additionally, there were also 22 extra
"high cards" with individualistic designs which may have come from ancient Egyptian
mysticism. Each card was individually painted; often a unique work of art in
its own right, fit only for the very rich. These then were packs of Tarot cards
although they were used for playing games as well as for divining the future.
Playing cards with suits of Spades, Clubs, Diamonds and Hearts
first appeared in France in the late 1400s and the English adopted this regime
from France, the first English reference to cards being from 1462 when they
were banned by parliamentary decree. Later on the colonialism of England and
France resulted in this style of cards arriving all over the world and over
time the English/French style of playing card came to be the de-facto global
playing card standard although lots of regional variants still exist. The Online Guide to Traditional Games has a lot more information
on the history of playing
cards.
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