About the Episode
Be it euchre, poker, cribbage, or crazy eights, card games have been a staple pastime for centuries. Join Robin, Nick, and Keely as we learn more about the handheld history of playing cards!
Notes
- The city of Windsor, Ontario was home to a playing card factory for over 70 years. Read more about the factory and its link to Windsor’s history here and here.
- For images and more information on the playing cards of the French Revolution era, click here.
- Check out this 1886 publication on Cavalier Cards released during the English Civil War.
- Want to expand your card game repertoire? Check out Bicycle’s rules on a variety of card games.
Images
Bouchot, Henri. “A Newly-Discovered Pack of Lyonnese Playing-Cards (1470).” The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs 1, 3 (May, 1903): 296-297, 300-303, 305.
Bouchot, Henri. “A Newly-Discovered Pack of Lyonnese Playing-Cards (1470).” The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs 1, 3 (May, 1903): 296-297, 300-303, 305.
British Museum; Museum Number: 1896,0501.498; Description: complete pack of 20 playing-cards: “Das Richterspiel oder Wer ist der Dieb” Hand-coloured etching, Backs plain; School: German; Curator’s comments: Complete pack for playing this game. Each suit consists of deuce, 10, two knaves and king, and the cards are numbered 1-20. Each has a fancy figure or subject, with a miniature playing-card showing its value above. With a sheet of printed instructions in German and French. NOTE: Acquired in 1896 so presumably created during the nineteenth century.
Nine of Beasts of Prey, engraved playing card. Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale (photo: Bibliotheque Nationale) NOTE: The bear at the centre of this card is found in the Giant Bible of Mainz.
Bibliography
Primary Sources
Cotton, Charles. The Compleat Gamester. London: J. Wilford, 1725.
Nouvelles cartes de la Republique française. Plus de rois de dames de valets; le génie, la liberté, l’égalité les remplacent: la loi seule est au dessus d’eux (Paris: U. Jaume et J.D. Dugourc, 1793-1794). Available at http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb40254159r.
Newspapers
“Affairs in Hamilton.” The Globe (1844-1936); Feb 21, 1891, p. 18.
“Bridge-Euchre.” The Globe and Mail (1936-Current); Oct 8, 1942, p.12.
“Caledonian Euchre Party.” The Globe (1844-1936); Feb 11, 1921, p. 8.
“Charge Sunday Gambling to Eleven Card Players.” The Globe and Mail (1936-Current); Oct 17, 1938, p. 7.
“Cornwall Club Raided.” The Globe (1844-1936); Feb 4, 1902, p.12.
“Father on the Farm Euchre.” The Globe and Mail (1936-Current); Jul 12, 1947, p.6.
“Feminine Poker Disturbed Neighbors.” The Globe and Mail (1936-Current); Aug 9, 1946, p.1.
“Gambling Cards Found as Squatters Move In.” The Globe and Mail (1936-Current); Oct 29, 1946, p. 8.
“Gambling in Montreal.” The Globe (1844-1936); Apr 16, 1903, p. 4.
“Hart House Gambling Brings Ban on Cards.” The Globe and Mail (1936-Current); Feb 12, 1947, p. 5.
“Judge Gives Poker Lecture.” The Globe (1844-1936); Feb 25, 1920, p. 7.
“Military Euchre.” The Globe (1844-1936); Mar 11, 1914, p. 5.
“Murder Over a Poker Game.” The Globe (1844-1936); May 10, 1904, p. 7.
“Poker and Faro Playing.” The Globe (1844-1936); Dec 14, 1885, p. 8.
“Poker Club Broken Up.” The Globe (1844-1936); May 10, 1889, p. 2.
“Poker Games Lead to Sensational Suit.” The Globe (1844-1936); Jun 29, 1914, p. 8.
“Progressive Euchre.” The Globe (1844-1936); Apr 17, 1894, p. 4.
“Stopped Gaming.” The Globe (1844-1936); Nov 11, 1899, p. 18.
“To Stop Card Gambling.” The Globe (1844-1936); May 3, 1904, p. 9.
“Veterans Euchre Party.” The Globe (1844-1936); Jan 20, 1923, p. 14.
“Why Not Five-Suit Euchre.” The Globe and Mail (1936-Current); Apr 11, 1938, p. 6.
Secondary Sources
Diman, Robert William. “David Hume on Canadian Paper Money – An Overlooked Contribution.” Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking 37, 4 (2005): 783-787.
Campbell, Colin S and Garry J Smith. “Gambling in Canada – From Vice to Disease to Responsibility: A Negotiated History.” Canadian Bulletin of Medical History 20, 1 (2003): 121-149.
Catherine Perry Hargrave. A History of Playing Cards and a Bibliography of Cards and Gaming. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1930.
Heaton, Herbert. “The Playing Card Currency of French Canada.” The American Economic Review 18, 4 (Dec., 1928): 649-662.
Lehmann-Haupt, Hellmut. Gutenburg and the Master of Playing Cards. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1966.
Parlett, David. “The Playing-Card.” Journal of the International Playing-Card Society 35, 4 (April-June 2007): 255-261.
Smoller, Laura A. “Playing Cards and Popular Culture in Sixteenth-Century Nuremberg.” The Sixteenth Century Journal 17, 2 (Summer, 1986): 183-214.
Tosney, Nicholas. “The Playing Card Trade in Early Modern England.” Historical Research, 84, 226 (November 2011): 637-656.
Tosney, Nicholas. “Legacies of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century gaming in modern attitudes towards gambling.” Community, Work & Family 13, 3 (01 August 2010): 349-364.
van Buren, Anne H. and Sheila Edmunds. “Playing Cards and Manuscripts: Some Widely Disseminated Fifteenth-Century Model Sheets.” College Art Association 56, 1 (Mar., 1974):12-30
Willioamson, G.R. Frontier Gambling: The Games, The Gamblers, & The Great Gambling Halls of the Old West. e-book Architects, 2012.
Credits
Producers: Robin Mullins and Emily Cuggy
Hosts: Robin Mullins, Keely McCavitt, Nick Bridges
Researchers: Nick Bridges, Nick Johnston, and Kirsty Walker
Audio Editing: Emily Cuggy
Image Credit: British Museum; Museum Number: 1896,0501.498; Description: complete pack of 20 playing-cards: “Das Richterspiel oder Wer ist der Dieb” Hand-coloured etching, Backs plain; School: German.