Interest in the origin of the cards themselves and their journey towards Europe is relatively recent. Various sources mention that they were first invented in China during the Xun-Chu dynasty around 800 AD. Others disagree and claim that they originated in India, then travelled to China, and only reached Europe after the fierce Crusades. They were introduced by nomads from the Far East in the 13th and 14th centuries.
One of the card researchers, E. S. Taylor, has his own history and version of the origin of cards. He claims that cards were brought to our continent by nomads with Roma roots. It is believed that the Roma travelled along the already well-trodden paths of Persian traders in the North African region. The Roma, who came from this region in the Middle Ages, spread the cards to southern Europe. Sources say that the Moors brought the cards to Spain and the Saracens to Italy. This version is based on surviving examples of Arabic cards and medieval written sources.
Cards then spread from Spain and Italy to Germany and Switzerland. The composition of the firewood also varied - Chinese ones depicted various symbols, Indian ones with bright colours, French ones were simpler. The 'characters' of the cards also changed - no more queens, no more kings, no more knights. Thus, different images of cards developed in different parts of Europe. The symbols of the families, the colour scheme or even the symbolic meanings and styles differed. In the Early and Middle Middle Ages, it was very important to have high-quality, unique cards, as a handmade deck of cards was a status symbol.
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The emergence of standard cards throughout history
Today we play with French cards, which came into use around the 15th century, and their simple form, symbols and colour minimalism made them very quick and effortless to produce. There were only 12 court cards and the queens had already appeared among them. This is thought to be related to French court etiquette and the gallant attitudes towards women that were inherent in it. The simpler production of the cards, the easier-to-understand symbols and therefore fewer mistakes in the games, and the cheaper production In the 16th century, France became the most important supplier of cards to Europe.
Another interesting fact is that in the mid-18th century, craftsmen in a small French town came up with the idea of drawing cards in mirror image form, so that the cards looked the same when turned over. This innovation sparked a revolution in the card business, which was further accelerated by the invention of a card-making technology by the British card manufacturer T. de la Rue, which allowed cards to be coloured in as many as 4 colours at once.
For all the innovations, the favourable economic conditions of the Enlightenment - English factories in the mid-19th century cards were produced in the hundreds of thousands.
A little later, in addition to the usual playing cards, the production of one-off sets depicting not only aristocrats, but also literary, cultural and political figures and historical figures began. However, these were impractical, except as fashionable souvenirs.
The history of cards in Lithuania
In Lithuania, cards became popular during the Renaissance period - in the 17th century.They came to our country via Poland from Central Europe - Germany and the Czech Republic. At that time, they were a luxury item, so they first spread among the nobility. Not surprisingly, they were still hand-painted at that time and were one-offs. It is believed that the first local producers of cards in the territory of the GDL and the Kingdom of Poland may have emerged around the 15th and 16th centuries, and that it was only from the 17th century onwards that factories began to be set up, where they were produced more quickly and in larger quantities. Historical sources mention that cards were once produced in Vilnius, in a factory founded by Smialovski in 1695, and that at that time they depicted the coats of arms of the GDL and the Kingdom of Poland, scenes from the life of animals, and even mythical heroes from antiquity.
Interestingly, even today it is still possible to see what the cards of that period looked like. The Lithuanian Art Museum has a deck of cards made in Poland at the end of the 19th century, depicting historical figures. The Queen-Duchess Barbora Radvilaitė and Countess Emilija Pliaterytė are the queens of the cards, the king's card depicts Casimir III the Great, the last ruler of the Piast dynasty, and the jack depicts Casimir Pulaski, a famous Polish nobleman. These cards are mirror-imaged and closely resemble modern cards.
Card production
The very first cards were drawn, and stencils were later used to make them faster. This method was not efficient, as only the richest could buy such cards. Cheaper ones were also produced, but they wore out very quickly.
The first professional production methods in the history of cards found in Germany in the 15th century to reproduce the cards xylographys by stamping the images onto painted wood carvings. This technological advance, however slight, helped the cards to spread throughout Europe, as many more could be produced.
In the 16th century, wood carvings were replaced by copper engravings. The woodcut cards were obtained by cutting out the background of the drawing, while the copper cards were obtained by carving the drawing itself. This way, more copies could be printed and the prints were sharper and of better quality.
At the beginning of the 19th century, cards began to be printed lithographs technique - using limestone plates (lithographic stone) for the glue. Later, colour lithography (each colour of the drawing was printed on a different glue) and other printing methods became common. This made it possible to produce coloured cards and made them available to everyone.
Today's cards are usually made of several layers of paper. This type of paper is obtained by gluing individual sheets of paper together and is therefore much more durable. To make the decks durable and not wear out so quickly, they are covered with a thin transparent film - laminated. In addition to paper cards, there are also plastic cards, which are highly resistant to damage and moisture and are therefore of higher quality. You may not have noticed that often the surface of the cards is not perfectly smooth, but almost imperceptibly rough to prevent them slipping out of your hands.
The variety of cards is staggering: they come in all sizes, shapes, styles and themes, but so far the most common choice has been the classic card wood.
Cards as a tool of war?
The cards were not only used for games or divination, but also as weapons in the field of war. During the Second World War, Bicycle, one of the largest card manufacturers of the time, produced special cards in the USA, in secret collaboration with the US government, which were sent as gifts to American soldiers imprisoned in German military camps. No one had any idea that they were the means of committing yet another crime: the exact plans for escaping from a particular camp were hidden between the special sheets of paper that made up the cards, and the layers of the cards were easily peeled off by simply wetting them.
During the Vietnam War (1964-1973), the company received another request from the US army to produce firewood made entirely of ace of spades. The soldiers used them in psychological warfare. It turns out that French fortune-telling was widespread in Vietnam (Vietnam had long been a French colony) - the Ace of Spades meant death and suffering. The Vietnamese were extremely superstitious, and seeing the Ace of Spades made them feel uncomfortable and fearful. Even more interestingly, Bicycle printed this card with an elaborate design: The Statue of Liberty in the middle of the spades symbol. The superstitious Vietnamese believed it was the goddess of death. Thousands of these decks were sent to Vietnam for US troops. Soldiers threw Aces of Spades everywhere to psychologically influence the enemy... Even today, card manufacturers profit from Ace of Spades by printing advertising, your company name or other symbols representing your company on it.
Interesting facts
There have been repeated attempts to ban cards in Europe. The Church tried to convince the faithful that it was the devil's fiction, as some people were getting rich from playing for money, while others were losing all their wealth.
US Playing Card Company, abbreviated as USPCbased in Cincinnati, Ohio, is the world's largest card company. It was founded in 1867. It currently produces over 100 million decks of cards every year! They produce Aristocrat, Aviator, "Hoyle","Bicycle and many other popular patterns.
The 52-card deck can be used to make as many as 2,598,960 different 5-card combinations. And did you know that a deck of cards can contain more combinations than there are stars in the Birdwalk? There are about 400 billion stars in the Milky Way.
Another interesting fact about card games. In China, the number "4" is considered unlucky, which is why some of the most luxurious casinos in Las Vegas do not have a fourth floor in their hotels, and the third floor is immediately followed by the fifth.
And once upon a time, you could use cards to pay for services! In 1865, a Canadian governor used a deck of cards as currency to pay his taxes. This was the first use of paper currency in Canada.
It is no news that Queen Marie Antoinette of France was an avid gambler and had a very strong addiction. Her husband, Louis XVI - the Sun King - had even ordered his wife to stay away from the gambling table. Legend has it that she begged him to let her play one last time. The King relented, and Marie Antoinette made sure that the gambling lasted 3 days.
In 1937, an attempt was made to introduce a fifth type of card into the regular deck of cards, but it quickly failed because there were too many people unhappy about having to buy new cards.
Card World Records
As well as playing strategy games, cards can be used for more exciting activities such as building card houses. The current Guinness World Record is held by S. Saba of Italy, who built a house with 15 cards in just 6.8 seconds. How long would it take you?
In 2010, B. Berg, an American, built a house of cards made of 219,000 cards in the Chinese city of Macau, considered the Las Vegas of China. It was 11 metres long, 3 metres high and weighed 272 kg. It took him 44 days to build this house.
The cards have also attracted the attention of collectors. The Dutch-born American J. K. van Renseler, a Dutch-American, has one of the largest collections in the world. Her card collection consists of as many as 900 card woods - of different origins, types and periods. And Italian collector T. De Santiso has as many as 8520 different jokers. The collection is special because there is no one joker, but rather a collection of jokers from all over the world, of different ages and shapes - square, round, fish, star, even bone-shaped, or just a few millimetres across.
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