HOW DID THE WEIRD DESIGNS OF THE COURT CARDS COME TO BE (WITH THEIR SEMI-CIRCLES AND DIAGONALS)? Are they based on real people? There are lots of myths and they are mostly bollocks. The cards do not represent Caesar or Charlemagne. Or particular kings and queens (they are generic). Nor the seasons. The King of Hearts is not the ‘Suicide King’.
The king may appear to stab himself (he originally held an axe) but it’s a feature of early French decks, a result of design evolution. Jacks evolved from Knights, and the ‘Knave’ (servant) was simply replaced by the ‘Jack’ in English decks.
The suits originally symbolised social classes (nobility, clergy, merchants, peasantry),
but became stylised, simplified – so they could be stencilled which allowed for easy
and wider appeal.
When playing cards arrived in Europe in the late 1300s, they were hand-painted and ruinously expensive; but the printing press changed everything. Rouen in the 15C became an important and influential centre for card-making. Their cards were a cocktail of features from various foreign markets, so whatever significance they had was blurred. Rouen’s cards were exported
to England and became the model for English published packs. When England banned the importing of cards in 1628, English printers used Rouen court cards as their inspiration. The style of the costumes on English playing cards is thus late medieval, a direct descendent of the Rouen models, but tweaked over time; the geometry is now meaningless.
The COURT CARD has become a sort of design classic, as these vintage magazine covers show. Two of which will feature in our forthcoming pack, celebrating ART DECO.
