Editor | Elettra Deganello |
---|---|
Former editors | Peter Endebrock |
Frequency | Quarterly |
Publisher | International Playing-Card Society |
First issue | 1972 |
Language | English |
ISSN | 0305-2133 |
OCLC | 63765414 |
The Playing-Card is a quarterly publication, publishing scholarly articles covering all aspects of playing cards and of the games played with them, produced by the International Playing-Card Society (IPCS). The Playing-Card's articles are mostly in English, but also in French, German, Italian, and Spanish.
The journal was founded in 1972, as The Journal of the Playing-Card Society (until 1980). Since then it has produced an annual volume of four (formerly six) issues. It has an index of its articles for the years 1972–1997, [1] and contents listings for issues from 1980 to the present.</ref> [2]
According to card game historian David Parlett, card game research has become "a particular pursuit" of the IPCS and many of its field researchers publish their findings in The Playing-Card. This has contributed to "a growing awareness that a society's indoor games are as distinctive of its culture as its arts, cuisine, or social customs, and are worth recording for the light they throw on that community's personality." [3]
Notable contributors to the journal have included:
The editors of The Playing-Card and its predecessor have been: [7]
A playing card is a piece of specially prepared card stock, heavy paper, thin cardboard, plastic-coated paper, cotton-paper blend, or thin plastic that is marked with distinguishing motifs. Often the front (face) and back of each card has a finish to make handling easier. They are most commonly used for playing card games, and are also used in magic tricks, cardistry, card throwing, and card houses; cards may also be collected. Playing cards are typically palm-sized for convenient handling, and usually are sold together in a set as a deck of cards or pack of cards.
Klondike is a card game for one player and the best known and most popular version of the patience or solitaire family, as well as one of the most challenging in widespread play. It has spawned numerous variants including Batsford, Easthaven, King Albert, Thumb and Pouch, Somerset or Usk and Whitehead, as well as the American variants of the games, Agnes and Westcliff. The distinguishing feature of all variants is a triangular layout of the tableau, building in ascending sequence and packing in descending order.
Clubs is one of the four playing card suits in the standard French-suited playing cards. The symbol was derived from that of the suit of Acorns in a German deck when French suits were invented in around 1480.
Yukon is a type of patience or solitaire card game using a single deck of playing cards like Klondike, but there is no deck or stock, and manipulation of the tableau works differently.
Ombre or l'Hombre is a fast-moving seventeenth-century trick-taking card game for three players and "the most successful card game ever invented."
Gargantua is a patience or solitaire card game that is a version of Klondike using two decks. It is also known as Double Klondike.
Canfield (US) or Demon (UK) is a patience or solitaire card game with a very low probability of winning. It is an English game first called Demon Patience and described as "the best game for one pack that has yet been invented". It was popularised in the United States in the early 20th century as a result of a story that casino owner Richard A. Canfield had turned it into a gambling game, although it may actually have been Klondike and not Demon that was played at his casino. As a result, it became known as Canfield in the United States, while continuing to be called Demon Patience in the United Kingdom and elsewhere. It is closely related to Klondike, and is one of the most popular games of its type.
Agnes is a patience or solitaire card game that emerged in England about the same time as Klondike appeared in the US. The classic version has the unusual feature of packing in colour, a feature it shares with Whitehead. By contrast, the later American variant appears to have been influenced by Klondike with packing is in alternate colours. The classic game has been described as the best single-pack patience yet invented.
Beleaguered Castle is a patience or solitaire card game played with a deck of 52 playing cards. It is sometimes described as "Freecell without cells" because its game play is somewhat akin to the popular solitaire computer game of that name but without extra empty spaces to maneuver. Beleaguered Castle is also called Laying Siege and Sham Battle.
Spades is one of the four playing card suits in the standard French-suited playing cards. It has the same shape as the leaf symbol in German-suited playing cards but its appearance is more akin to that of an upside down black heart with a stalk at its base. It symbolises the pike or halberd, two medieval weapons, but is actually an adaptation of the German suit symbol of Leaves created when French suits were invented around 1480.
Brelan is a famous French vying game with rapidly escalating bets from the seventeenth to nineteenth century, and hence also a name for a card player, gambler or the name of the place where the game was played. The game is quite similar to the game of Bouillotte, but it is not played anymore.
Trappola is an early 16th-century Venetian trick-taking card game which spread to most parts of Central Europe and survived, in various forms and under various names like Trapulka, Bulka and Hundertspiel until perhaps the middle of the 20th century. It was played with a special pack of Italian-suited cards and last reported to have been manufactured in Prague in 1944. Piatnik has reprinted their old Trappola deck for collectors.
The International Playing-Card Society (IPCS) is a non-profit organisation for those interested in playing cards, their design, and their history. While many of its members are collectors of playing cards, they also include historians of playing cards and their uses, particularly card games and their history.
The International Board Game Studies Association (IBGSA) is an academic professional association "devoted to the history and development of board games throughout the world". The IBGSA sponsors an annual scholarly conference, the BGSA Colloquium, as well as an academic peer-reviewed journal, Board Game Studies. The IBGSA's membership includes academics, museum curators, game designers, archivists, and collectors.
Poch, Pochen or Pochspiel is a very old card game that is considered one of the forerunners of poker, a game that developed in America in the 19th century. An etymological relationship between the game names is also assumed. Games related to Poch are the French Glic and Nain Jaune and the English Pope Joan. Other forerunners of poker and possible relatives of the game are the English game, Brag, from the 16th century and the French Brelan and Belle, Flux et Trente-et-Un. Poch is recorded as early as 1441 in Strasbourg. In north Germany it was called by the Low German name of Puchen or Puchspill, and the board was a Puchbrett.
Twenty-one, formerly known as vingt-un in Britain, France and America, is the name given to a family of popular card games of the gambling family, the progenitor of which is recorded in Spain in the early 17th century. The family includes the casino games of blackjack and pontoon as well as their domestic equivalents. Twenty-one rose to prominence in France in the 18th century and spread from there to Germany and Britain from whence it crossed to America. Known initially as vingt-un in all those countries, it developed into pontoon in Britain after the First World War and blackjack in Canada and the United States in the late 19th century, where the legalisation of gambling increased its popularity.
Mouche, also known as Lanterlu, is an old, French, trick-taking card game for two to six players which has elements, such as bluffing, reminiscent of the much later game of poker. It is a member of the Rams family of games and, although it is a gambling game, often played for small stakes, it is also suitable as a party game or as a family game with children from the age of 12 upwards. It is named after the mouche, a term that variously refers to its winning hand, the basic stake and the penalty for failing to take any tricks. Although also called Bête, it should not be confused with the older game of that name from which it came and which, in turn, was a derivative of Triomphe.
The Tarot de Besançon, also called the Besançon Tarot, describes an historical type of Tarot pack used for playing card games that was made in south Germany, France and Switzerland, including the town of Besançon.
John McLeod is a British mathematician, author, historian and card game researcher who is particularly well known for his work on tarot games as well as his reference website pagat.com which contains the rules for over 500 card games worldwide. He is described as a "prominent member" of the International Playing Card Society and is Secretary of the British Skat Association.
Thierry Depaulis is an independent historian of games and especially of playing cards, card games, and board games. He is President of the association Le Vieux Papier, a member of the editorial board of the International Board Game Studies Association, and a member of the board of directors of the foundation of the Swiss Museum of Games. He was President of the International Playing-Card Society from 2017 to 2022.