CHKSS AND PLAYING-CARDS. 937 



Tlie kings bear the names of OiPsnr, Charles, David, and Alexander; 

 the (jueens, Rachel, Judith, Pallas, and Argine ; and the knaves, Lahire, 

 Hector, Hogier, and Lancelot. 



The earliest French cards known are said to be those in the CarpeU' 

 tier collection. These cards are fourteen in number, painted by hand 

 about the commencement of the fifteenth century. They bear the same 

 suit marks as the French cards of the ])resent day. These marks were 

 so persistently maintained and introduced on cards exported to all 

 countries that a regular type or class of cards became known as French 

 cards, as opposed to Italian cards on the one hand and to German cards 

 on tlie other. 



At first the figure-cards or honors were without names on them, but 

 about the last quarter of the sixteenth century names were attached. 

 French playing-cards having on them the suit-marks, Cceurs, Carrcanx, 

 Trefles, and Piq}ie.s, are often termed Plqitet packs. The game of Piquet 

 is one in which, up to the beginning of the eighteenth century, the pack 

 consisted of thirty-six cards, the two, three, four, and five of each suit 

 being supi)ressed, as in Trappola and the Taroccltino of Bologna. From 

 the date mentioned the six of each suit has been omitted, so the Piquet 

 pack has now but thirty-two cards. 



102. Spiel- Karten. Playing-Cards.^ Frankfort-on-the-Main,^ Ger- 



many. Nineteenth century. 



Pack of thirty- six cards of four suits : Herzen, Lauhy Uicheln, and kSehel- 

 leyi, or "Hearts," "Leaves," "Acorns," and "Bells." The numerals are 

 ace, six, seven, eight, nine, and ten, the suppression of the two, three, 

 four, and five being a peculiarity of the true German pack. The court- 

 cards are the Kimig, "King," and the Ohermann and Untermann, supe- 

 rior and inferior valets. 



Willshire states that, according to trustworthy authorities, allusion 

 is made to playing-cards in the PJJiehth'uchcr of Niirnberg for 1384, and 

 there is extant an ordinance of the town council of Chn for the year 

 1397 prohibiting their employment. "It is probable," he says, "that 

 the Germans very soon altered for themselves the Italian marks of the 

 suits, making use of figures of animals for differentiating the latter." 

 The earliest German cards known have dogs, falcons, stags, and ducks 

 for suit-marks. These "animated" cards were, however, soon followed 

 by a series having the more national signs of Roth or JTerzen, Lauh or 

 Griin, UicheJn, and Schcllen, or Hearts, Leaves, Acorns, and Bells. 



103. Spiel-Karten. Playing-Cards.^ Leipsic, Germany. "La Belle 



Alliance." 

 Pack of thirty-six cards with German suit-marks, like the preceding. 

 Numerals bear colored pictures of the battle of Leipsic, 1813 ; the Kings, 

 portraits of the allied sovereigns, and the other court cards, generals. 



'Cat. No. 15712, Mus. Arch., Univ. Penn. 



2B. Dondorf. 



^Cat. No. 17826, Mus. Arch., Univ. Penn. Collected by Col. .Joseph G. Rosengarten. 



