The Card Deck - a look at history

The precise origin of playing cards is lost to history but the earliest bona fide references to playing cards in Europe date from 1377, but, regardless of their long history, it is only in the past few decades that clues about their evolution have begun to be comprehended. Some experts that believe in the Asian origins theory, have stated that a playing card game being named after a person or place, does not necessarily mean that its origins are from there.

It could have been played by "Moors" and brought into Europe that way, but it could just as likely have come into the Middle East from the Far East much before. However some experts place the beginning of playing cards around the 10th century, in China.

The Chinese played using paper dominoes, shuffling and dealing them, in assorted new games, paper was invented in China a thousand years before the Middle East, making it a more likely choice for the origins of playing cards. Even in the present day some of the packs used in China have suits of coins and strings of coins which Mah Jong players know as circles and bamboos (also called sticks).

The pictures on cards have been altered over time to reflect European society with each of the suits representing a different social class of that era. Nobility was represented by swords (spades), the clergy was represented by cups (hearts), tradesmen were represented by coins (diamonds), and peasants were represented by poles (clubs).

Till the invention of a printing press in 1440, card playing was a privilege exclusively of nobility. Artists would be commissioned to produce a deck of lavishly painted cards with imagery to rival Renaissance art of that time. To this day, packs of Italian playing-cards do not have queens - nor do packs in Spain, Germany and Switzerland.

The popularity of card playing increased as Gutenberg’s press (Printing press owned by Johannes Gutenberg, dated back to the14^th century) began making available low-cost decks to the masses.

These days, playing cards are used for various games, gambling, divinations, and a lot more. Historians are looking at the origins of the playing cards as a social commentary throughout history. There are quite a few variations of playing cards around the world that would take them a lifetime to analyze.