When last you played poker, the chances are you didn’t pay much attention to the artwork on the playing card’s faces. Unless it happened to be a particularly artistic deck of cards, of course. But regardless, it turns out that there is far more to the designs of playing cards than many assume.
Not only have playing cards changed dramatically throughout history, but it turns out that the kings represent real historical figures. The queens were also named, lest we forget, but in their case it isn’t clear which historical figure they represented.
A Brief History
It is still debated as to where exactly playing cards originated. The history is extremely confused, with roots pointing at China, Persia, and India. What is known, though, is that a standardised deck did not come along for some time.
Early Italian playing cards, before being mass produced, consisted of 56 cards, and included kings, queens, knights and knaves as the royals. The suits were also different, including batons, coins, swords and cups. But as the demand surged, playing cards eventually transitioned into being mass produced, with stencils being utilised, as opposed to the earlier hand painted process.
Production Shapes Standard
There was, of course, not much in the way of home entertainment back then, with the average person not able to sit down at their PC, and engage in apostas esportivas no Brasil halfway across the world. So when playing cards caught on, they caught on big, and virtually every household suddenly wanted their own deck. So demand was not just high, it was overwhelming.
That’s when an interesting turn occurred, early in the rise of mass production. French manufacturers realised that it was not necessary to separately stencil each of the royals, which was a time consuming and costly process. They decided to simply use the same stencil for each of the royals, and add the suit in later. Thus, it was the French design that became standard, since their production process was drastically faster than German competitors.
It was also the French that decided to name each of the royals.
The Royals Find Personalities
Each card master in France began to name the royals, and print the names on the cards themselves. But although card decks had become standardised, the names had not. So different decks from different card manufacturers tended to have radically different names, many without any reason behind the choice at all. Early names for the kings included Constantine, Clovis, Solomon and Augustus.
Eventually, between 1553 and 1610, the kings found standardised names. The king of hearts was Charlemagne, spades was David, diamonds was Caesar, and clubs was Alexander.
But lest we forget, the queens were also named, with clubs being Argine, diamonds being Rachel, spades being Pallas, and hearts being Judith.
However, although it is more or less clear which historical figures the kings were named after, the queens are largely a mystery. Historians have pointed to Joan of Arc and the Greek goddess of war as candidates, along with many more potentials. But it is, and likely will remain, a mystery as to where the queens got their names.