those (and their name is legion) who, in
another class of productions, would prefer a
willow-pattern plate, simply because they are
accustomed to it. One of the most pleasing
of all the varieties of coloured backs is that
which consists of a minute interlaced pattern
something like the engine-turned surface of
a watch-case: indeed, many players prefer
these to the more pictorial patterns, as being
less attractive or distractive.

How these backs are printed we shall better
know when we come to speak of the faces of
the court-cards. It may be at once stated
however, that the printing plates are large
enough for forty cards, and that the printing
is done upon the sheets of prepared paper
not upon single cards or even upon cardboard
The faces of the cards constitute a subject
on which whole volumes have been written:
not, of course, in relation to their technical
manufacture, but to the devices represented
on them. How many of such volumes there
may be, we cannot venture to say; but it is
at any rate, true that Mr: Chatto has devoted
more than three hundred octavo pages, and
Mr. Singer nearly four hundred quarto pages
to the history of playing cards. Let us
before watching the card-printers at work,
say a few words concerning the size, the
shape, the number, the pips, and the têtes, of
playing cards; for the strange figures of
fun on our cards cannot be understood without
a little reference to past ages. The pips are,
technically, the common or un-honoured cards;
while têtes are the court-cards or honours.
And we may say, en passant, that Mr. Chatto
calls them coat cards instead of court cards;
a term for which we may presume he has
good reasons.

In respect to the number of cards in each
pack, we should be puzzled in our whist-play
if it were more or less than fifty-two; but it
is quite evident that games have been played
in past ages, which not only permitted but
required a larger number of cards in each
pack. Of three Hindoo packs in the Museum
of the Royal Asiatic Society, one contains
ninety-six cards, and the others a hundred and
twenty cards each. There are packs of cards
still in use in France, called tarots, supposed to
have been derived from the Italians, in which
there are seventy-eight cards to the pack.

Few players would have any conception
of the variations which the " pips " have
undergone. Our hearts, diamonds, clubs, and
spades, have not come down to us without
many masqueradings. The old German cards
used to have Herzen, Grünen, Eicheln, and
Schellen (hearts, leaves, acorns, and bells).
The old Italian cards had coppe, spade,
bastoni, and danari (cups, swords, bâtons or
clubs, and money); and such cards are yet
to be met with. The French names, cœur,
carreau, trèfle, and pique, refer to the same
four suits as those we now use; cœur and
carreau will do very well fur our hearts and
diamonds; pique has rather puzzled the
commentators; but trèfle (trefoil) is certainly a
better name than clubs for the pips so designated.
In the Hindoo pack of ninety-six
cards there are eight suits of twelve cards
each; and the pips of these suits are
represented by a pine-apple, a coloured spot, a
spot differently coloured, a sword, a head, a
parasol, a square, and an oval. In the Hindoo
pack of a hundred and twenty cards there
are ten suits of twelve cards each; and these
rise to the transcendental sublimities of
Hindoo mythology; for the pips symbolise as
many avatars or incarnations of Vishnu, in
the forms of a fish, a tortoise, a boat, a lion,
an axe, a goat, a horse, an umbrella, and two
heads. Where, as in such instances as these,
the suits are more than four in number, some
particular colour as well as device is usually
appropriated to each. Thus in the Hindoo
pack of ninety-six cards, the eight suits have
a ground colour of fawn, black, brown, white,
green, blue, red, and yellow; while the pack
of ten suits has ten different colours. It was
not always that packs of four suits had, as at
present in most European countries, only two
colours for the pips, black and red; and there
are some among us who think that a slight
change might advantageously be made in this
respect. Sir Frankland Lewis has suggested
that near-sighted persons might distinguish
hearts from diamonds or clubs from spades
more readily, if different colours were adopted;
and Messrs. De La Rue, acting upon this
suggestion, have produced cards with red hearts,
black spades, green clubs, and blue diamonds.

The court-cards, or coat-cards, or picture-
cards have had a yet more intricate history
than the pips. It is all very well to have a
King and a Queen; but why a Knave should
gain entrance into such goodly company does
not seem very clear. The old German cards
had neither Queen nor Knave; instead of
these they had an ober and an unter, a
superior officer and a subaltern. Some of
the cards in Southern Europe were similarly
without Queen or Knave. In the early
French cards each King had a special name,
besides that of the suit which belonged to him;
thus, in the pack still existing, the four Kings
are called Charlemagne, Cæsar, Alexander,
uid David; the four Queens are Judith,
Rachel, Argine, and Pallas; while the four
Knaves or Valets are La Hire, Hector,
Lancelot, and Hogier. The French tarots
lave four court personages, King, Queen,
Chevalier, and Valet. In cards, as in chess,
the King is always present; but the Queen
ind the Knave in the one kind of play-
materials, and the Queen, the Bishop, the
Knight, and the Rook in the other, have
undergone many curious changes.

We see, then, that the size, the shape, the
number, the colour, the pips, and the devices
of playing cards, have all undergone many
modifications; and with this knowledge in
hand we will return to the workshop and
watch the labours of the card-printers.