Chart to be played

The charts to play are hard-bound cards (often in Bristol-board) of small size (seldom more than 15 × 7 centimetres) classified in various categories.

Generally, each chart has a face common to the other charts (the back of the chart, called also tarot ) and a particular face which distinguishes it from the others. Many card decks being based on a principle of guessing the unfavourable card deck, the “back” of the charts make it possible to make them indistinguishable to the sight.

The charts to be played can be traditional - pack of 52 cards, play of tarot, etc - or be created specifically for a board game.

CHARACTERISTIC: The clover ace, is often with more ornaments than the other charts. The Jokers are not useful in all the plays.

Traditional charts

They are traditionally organized color and in value.

Signs or colors

See also: Sign (chart to be played), Sign

The various charts are characterized by their value - a (or As ) with ten - or them figure - King , Dame , Valet - and by their sign or color . These “colors”, 4, vary according to the uses, in particular national or regional.

More readable colors

In the competitions of Bridge, the charts were adapted with four distinct colors, although close to the traditional colors. The goal is to facilitate the reading and to prevent that one can confuse the colors between them. These colors are. These four emblems are of warlike origin:
  • It spade is the point of the halberd
  • the heart is the point of the crossbow
  • the square is the spearhead
  • the clover is the guard of the sword

One also finds (for example with the French federation of bridge which makes promotion of it) a solution where the variation of the usual colors is less important (Spade: black, Heart: bright red, Square: orange red, Clover: gray).

In Germany, the Federation of Skat adopted for the tournaments a system where the two drawings (French and German traditional) are reproduced each one on a half of the chart. Recently, a new solution was presented, one finds only the French drawing, but the colors are differently distributed (Clover: black, Spade: green, Heart: bright red, Square: orange).

For other plays, the Poker in particular and gambling, one uses sometimes charts printed with inks of safety (red less sharp). But their use seems currently very marginal.

Figures

The figures represent characters considered as heroic with the Moyen-âge - time to which the charts in Europe were discovered - that is to say, for the French traditional charts:

Origin and evolution

China

As of the 7th century, the Chinese would have used paper charts. But the card decks Chinese oldest which reached us are dated only from the 17th century century. It is thus advisable to be careful on the Chinese origin of the charts.

The Chinese charts correspond to three types of plays: the monetary charts Domino, charts, and charts of failures, which reproduce the parts of the Xiangqi (Chinese failures).

The monetary charts included/understood a variable number of numerical series, and were used by various Chinese plays:

  • Ya-feeds (32 charts), during the Dynastie Song
  • my-diao (40 charts), during the Dynastie Ming

The Middle East

The Mamelouk S knew the charts at the 13th century; the museum Topkapi preserves a splendid card deck Mameluke, enluminé and dating from the 15th century.

Europe

The charts used in Europe would come from the the Middle East; there does not exist any attesting document of a more Eastern origin.

The recent form of the play of Tarot evolved/moved starting from the Tarot of Marseilles: both consist of 56 charts divided into four families (4 Kings, 4 Ladies, 4 Riders, 4 Servants, 4 sequences going from 10 to 1) + 22 assets including 3 ends (or oudlers ): major Mystery of the Tarot. One finds there also the Excuse which just like does not have a number the Mat which is not without pointing out the Joker .

In addition, the four colors present in the Marseilles Tarot were famous in the following way:

These name changes remain coherent with the symbolic system of each color. Indeed, the heart is the receptacle of the emotions and the cut is its symbol; the Sum of money represents the matter in all its splendor, with the square like associated figure.

Does another interpretation claim that the colors account for the four (?) orders of the company: the clergy (Cuts, then Heart), the nobility (Sword, then Spade), the merchants (Sums of money, then Square) and the peasants (Stick, then Clover).

Evolution

In pack of 52 cards, by eliminating the 22 Mysteries Major and the riders, the sets of 48,40,36,32 charts are only subsets.

The traditional hierarchy of the charts is not always respected. Thus, in certain plays like the Belote (and its derivative the Coinche), the Skat and the Jass, the Servant (in German Bube , boy) is the master card with the asset. In France, this returns to a revolutionary symbolic system (the servant stronger than the king).

As of the 19th century, the Grimaud house, installed in Paris, innovates by machining the charts: she then invents the portraits with double head, the miters, to locate the charts without revealing them in entirety, the corners rounded, to prevent that they are not exhausted, and varnished surfaces, which increase the lifespan.

Before 1800, the back of the charts was white. People used them sometimes to transmit messages, but the Americans innovated on this side. At the beginning, they printed publicities to promote all sorts of thing (famous ideas, modes, ideologies, services, landscapes, etc) but, little by little, abstract engravings replaced them. Publicities again tend to appear.

See too

  • Card deck: board games using of the charts to play

Type of charts to be played

Related articles

  • French Museum of the Chart To play

Simple: Playing cards

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