It's all in the cards, part2
Daphne Tregear
>Does anyone know how recent is the tradition that the Ace of spades
>always seems to have a much bigger, fancier symbol in the middle than
>the other three?
This is true only for the Anglo-American pack; aces on standard
European cards are generally just the plain, unadorned pip placed in
the middle of the card -- however, there is a tradition of pictorial
aces (views of two landscapes, one at each end) which began in
Belgium.
The Anglo-American pack evolved from the English pack with its `Duty
ace'. Playing-cards were seen by the Crown as a ready source of
revenue, particularly when there were wars to be paid for. So the
makers, and later the purchasers, paid a tax on each pack. Instances
are recorded of taxes being raised in 1588, 1628, during Queen Anne's
reign and from 1711 onwards until the tax was finally abolished in
1960 (since it was more trouble to collect than it was worth). In the
beginning tax stamps were placed on a card in each pack and gradually
this card was invariably the ace of spades. In 1765 a new method was
introduced. The Stamp Office supplied makers with specially printed
aces of spades which also bore the maker's name. The maker was not
allowed to make his own ace of spades -- to forge an ace was a capital
offence, nevertheless there are a few such to be found in private
collections and in museums. On several occasions the Crown raised the
duty on cards (it was originally 3d. in Queen Anne's time [three old
pennies for those of us who can remember buying 24 aniseed balls with
such a magnificent sum...], in 1711 it was 6d., in 1765 no sum was
shown but it was 6d. for the cards and 6d. for the wrapper, in 1776 it
became 1/6 [= one shilling and six pence] and was raised by a further
sixpence in 1789, and again in 1801. The basic design of the ace
didn't change from 1765 to 1828; words to indicate the extra amount of
duty were added to the original design. The original design shows a
spade pip surrounded by a laurel wreath copped by a crown. The words
"honi soit qui mal y pense" were enclosed inside the wreath and a
banner saying "Dieu et mon droit" was draped along the wreath's lower
edge. Here's your first bigger, fancier ace symbol whose design draws
directly from the larger tax stamp stamped on top of aces from 1711.
From 1828 until 1862 Perkins Bacon printed (on behalf of the
Commissioners of Stamps) the aces of spades and card wrappers required
by law. This ace was known as `Old Frizzle' since it looked like
something taken from a banknote. It was very fancy indeed, with loads
more foliage than the first design plus a lion and a unicorn.
In 1862 the duty was reduced to threepence, was indicated on the
wrapper, and makers were freed to design and print their own aces of
spades. English customers being conservative and not liking change,
the tradition of fancy aces of spades continued, this time usually
incorporating the maker's name (which is very helpful to us
collectors).
Good references for English tax stamps are:
- the Sylvia Mann book on Collecting English Playing-Cards, which I
mentioned in a previous post.
- A History of Playing Cards by catherine Perry Hargrave, most
easily found as a Dover reprint with SBN 486-21544-X
- the playing-cards FAQ being assembled by the majordomo list
at cs.man.ac.uk run by myself and others. This has a
large section on taxes used through Europe contributed
by Peter Endebrock. You can pick up a beta copy by
sending the e-mail:
get playing-cards FAQ-complete
to majo...@cs.man.ac.uk.
--
Daf Tregear Department of Computer Science
Systems Manager University of Manchester
E-mail: d...@cs.man.ac.uk Oxford Road
Tel: +44 (0)161 275 6227 Manchester
Fax: +44 (0)161 275 6236 United Kingdom M13 9PL