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hitmouse Loyal user 249 Posts |
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On 2004-04-15 11:58, tommy wrote: I came across something similar when I tried to buy a pack of cards in Chiang Mai in about 1994. Very expensive. |
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NeoMagic Inner circle I have... 2017 Posts |
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On 2004-04-15 18:45, thumbslinger wrote: Page 166 of the Encyclopedia of Card Tricks has some brief information on one-way backs. Regular Bicycle Rider Backs are included in the list with the author describing a feature in the top left corner of each card. I've never been able to spot it myself. Perhaps the design has since been modified? See also this thread.
See and download my latest free card-suits-themed desktop wallpaper | HERE
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Curtis Kam V.I.P. same as you, plus 3 and enough to make 3498 Posts |
Catmouth's passages, and Wink Martindale's recording are all apparently based on a short story called "The Soldier's Prayerbook". It appeared in Punch, I believe, but it is most easily found in the Encyclopedia of Card Tricks.
RE: the "cheese" factor of the Martindale recording, Steve Spill uses the record to torture his audience until they hand over a hundred dollar bill for the lemon trick. It don't take long.
Is THAT a PALMS OF STEEL 5 Banner I see? YARRRRGH! Please visit The Magic Bakery
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Larry Davidson Inner circle Boynton Beach, FL 5270 Posts |
That sounds like classic Spill! He's a great thinker and performer.
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Partizan Inner circle London UK 1682 Posts |
What card is known as the "Curse of Scotland?"
The Answer The following is taken from The Playing-Card, Volume XXV, number 3, p. 120. From "The Official Encyclopedia of Bridge, 5th edition" (American Contract Bridge League): A term applied to the 9 of diamonds, for which various explanations are given, none completely authoritative. The Bridge Magazine once listed six possible origins for the term as follows: That in the once popular round game 'Pope Joan', the 9 of diamonds was called the Pope, the antichrist of Scottish Reformers. That the 9 of diamonds was the chief card in the game 'cornette', introduced into Scotland by the unhappy Queen Mary. That 'Butcher' Cumberland wrote the orders for the Balle of Culloden, 1746, on the back of the card. This is very doubtful. That the order for the Massacre of Glencoe (1692) was signed on the back of this card. That the dispositions for the fatal field of Flodden (1513) were drawn up on it by James IV of Scotland. Both these last have only the slightest authority. That it is derived from the nine lozenges that formed the arms of the Earl of Stair, who was especially loathed for his connection with the Massacre of Glencoe and the union with England (1707). The following comments are to be found in the "Dictionary of Phrase and Fable", Dr Ebenezer Cobham Brewer, 1870, revised edition, Ivor H. Evans, 1981: The Curse of Scotland. The nine of diamonds. The phrase seems to be first recorded in the early 18th century, for in Houston's Memoirs (1715-1747), we are told that Lord Justice Clerk Ormistone became universally hated in Scotland, and was called the Curse of Scotland; and when ladies encountered the nine of diamonds at cards they called it Justice Clerk. Among the suggested origin of the phrase are: It may refer to the arms of Dalrymple, Earl of Stair (see (6) above). as in point (2) above as in point (3) above The word 'curse' is a corruption of cross, and the nine of diamonds is so arranged as to form a St. Andrew's Cross; but so are the other nines. as in point (5) above Grose says somewhat inaccurately in his Tour Thro' Scotland (1789); "Diamonds... imply royalty... and every ninth king of Scotland has been observed for many ages to be a tyrant and a curse to the country."
"You cannot depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus."
- Mark Twain |
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RiffClown Inner circle Yorktown, Virginia (Previously Germany) 1579 Posts |
Cool Info. If you don't mind me asking, what were your sources?
Rob "Riff, the Magical Clown" Eubank aka RiffClown
<BR>http://www.riffclown.com <BR>Magic is not the method, but the presentation. |
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Bill Palmer Eternal Order Only Jonathan Townsend has more than 24312 Posts |
Quote:
On 2004-04-07 13:43, alekz wrote: I hope you didn't get any of that on your Lederhosen. It is difficult to get out. The one way back aspect of Bicycle Rider Backs that is mentioned in the Hillard Notebook was eliminated about 20 years ago, when USPCCo re-did the back design. I have some old Bikes where this is very obvious. Here's one that nobody has mentioned. Factory printed blank bikes, DF's and DB's were unavailable for many years. Back in the 1970's a famous magician whose name we would all recognize was working at a casino in Vegas, and he noticed something about the cards (never told me what it was, but I have my suspicions) that made it possible to read the 10's from the back. He spotted this during a blackjack game. So he went to the pit boss of the casino he was working in, and had them call the USPCCo rep. He told the guy that he was selling marked cards to the casino. This is a felony in Nevada. The guy told Johnny he didn't know what he was talking about. So they pulled out a new box of cards, and this magician identified all of the tens from the back. The rep nearly lost control of his bodily functions at that point. So, he asked what he needed to do. TFM said, "if you will get USPCCo to reissue gaffed Bikes, and straighten out this problem with the cards, I'll keep mum." They did, so he did. I think what was happening was that the frame around the center of the face cards was "telling" through the backs. That's not all the 10's but it is enough to rig a game. So JT to
"The Swatter"
Founder of CODBAMMC My Chickasaw name is "Throws Money at Cups." www.cupsandballsmuseum.com |
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Mxn New user 67 Posts |
Wow...There are so many....
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On 2004-03-30 10:06, AltaCartomagia wrote: What... |
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Jacko New user Canada 59 Posts |
Very good thread. So many interesting points.
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Jeff Hinchliffe Loyal user Toronto, ON Canada 280 Posts |
Bill,
Thanks for the info! That was definitely a "strange card fact" that I didn't know before! Out of curiosity, is this "famous magician" still among us? Jeff
Pick a card, any card...
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Partizan Inner circle London UK 1682 Posts |
Hey Rob, Here you go mate. dive on in.....
http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/playing-cards/curse.html The English design The English (i.e. International) pattern derives originally from designs produced in Rouen (in France) before 1516, more fully represented in a better-known example of 1540-67, also from Rouen. These show entirely credible and well-executed pictures of elegant persons wearing the typical elaborate court costumes of the period. In fact, the Jack of Spades and the King of Diamonds are depicted as seen from the rear, with their heads turned back over the shoulder so that they are seen in profile. The same was also true of the Jack of Hearts. These designs, like others, were soon disfigured by uninformed and unskilled copying by block makers, particularly by incompetent English artisans, who produced the grotesque distortions from which our modern cards are ultimately descended. Many changes happened to the English design during the second and third quarters of the nineteenth century: Most striking is that the design was made double-ended, so it was no longer necessary to turn a court card round to see it clearly. But this also meant that aspects of the designs which made sense when the figures had arms and legs often lost all meaning, e.g. the King of Club's orb now unsupported by his hand and suspended in mid-air. The suit sign moved to be always top left and bottom right on the courts. As a result some court cards were 'turned' to face the other way. This happened to the Queen and Jack of Clubs, the Queen and Jack of Diamonds, the Jack of Hearts and the Queen of Spades. Players had found it tiresome that 6 courts had their suit-signs on the right, which was inconvenient when cards were held in a fan. Some makers, however, persisted in their use of unturned courts. Indices were added to the top left and bottom right corners. This also allowed the suit sign to be visible when the cards were held in a fan; a necessary innovation since so many popular games of the time (such as Whist) required the player to hold 13 cards in their hand at one time. The first attempt to place an index on each card was via the device of putting a miniature card in the left hand corner, which had the undesirable effect of obscuring the suit-sign. Later a letter index was added. Later still, a suit sign was added to the letter index and the miniature card abandoned. The design was redrawn to make it neater but keep the same style. Any attempts at realism were abandoned completely. Why is the Jack called a Jack, rather than a prince or earl or another nobleman? The Answer The first European cards had all-male court cards; a seated king, a cavalier astride his horse and a foot servant or soldier. Thus we have the idea of rank increasing with the sequence of cards, starting with 1 (the Ace), 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 10, Knave, Cavalier, King. (Sometimes the Ace ranks above the King.) In the 15th century, for some reason (unknown), the French card makers substituted a Queen instead of the Cavalier. French cards became popular in England and formed the basis of the standard English pack. Originally, in England, the court cards were called King, Queen and Knave, with Knave being the now-defunct term for a male servant [e.g. in 1568 in a stage direction to a play we find "Here entereth Nichol Newfangle... and hath a knave of clubs in his hand"]. Card game books still referred to the Knave in the 3rd quarter of the 19th century. In the game of All Fours, Jack is the name of the point awarded for winning a trick containing the Knave of trumps. It was therefore also applied to the Knave of trumps itself in this game [quoted in Cotton's Compleat Gamester of 1674-80]. Later it also meant any of the Knaves [ref. Martin's English Dictionary of 1749]. The word Jack also had 'a common man' as one of its meanings. When it was felt necessary in the middle of the 19th century to label 2 or 4 corners of each card with an index to indicate its value, the makers naturally picked the first initial of two court cards giving the indices K (for the King), Q (for the Queen) and the first 2 initals of Knave giving Kn. Obviously this was confusing, so by using an alternative term for a common man which was also associated with the Knave card, Jack, we end up with court indices being an unambiguous K, Q, J (packs do exist with initials K, Q, Kn but this was a short-lived experiment which presumably didn't sell well). At first Jack was considered a lower class term [ref. Dickens's Great Expectations, 1861; Estelle says mockingly of Pip "He calles the knaves, Jacks, this boy!"] but it gained acceptance while Knave became obsolete. Modern English usage has knave now left with just one of its originl meanings -- a scoundrel. Why does the Ace rank greater than the King? John McLeod supplied the following answer: There has been a general tendency in card games to shift low cards up to the top of the card order. The ace outranking the king is the most familiar example but there are also games in which the process was continued by promoting twos and even threes above the aces (the Latin American game Truco and Italian game Tressette are examples). The reason for the promotion is hard to understand. There may at one time have been a political undertone, in that people wanted to see a king overthrown by the most humble peasant, in a card game if not in real life. The 15th century game of Karn366ffel in which various low cards were promoted to beat the court cards was apparently considered subversive by some people for this reason. Games in which the ace is the highest card, outranking the king, certainly existed in the early 16th century - for example the Venetian game Trappola, the French game Piquet and the English game Triumph, and my guess would be that the transition began in the late 15th century. Games with the king high survived for a long while alongside ace high games, and some continue to survive - examples are cribbage, most Games with the king high survived for a long while alongside ace high games, and some continue to survive - examples are cribbage, most patience (solitaire) games and all of the Tarot games. You can find a discussion of the problem of the promotion of the ace in Michael Dummett's book "The Game of Tarot" (Duckworth, 1980) on pages 24/25. Some old theories, now discredited: "Cards reached Europe from China in or following the 13th century voyages of Marco Polo". True, the Chinese did have cards, but trade with them had petered out long before playing-cards were described as new in Europe. Also Chinese cards are too different in kind to have been directly ancestral to the European model. "Cards were found in the baggage of crusaders returning from the east" is unsupported guesswork. Crusading was effectively over by 1300 and cards were not mentioned in Europe before 1371. "They were introduced by the gypsies". No, gypsies appeared in Europe some 40 years after cards. "They are derived from a Persian poker-like game called `As-Nas'". As-Nas is not recorded earlier than the 17th century. "Cards are based on Indian 4-sided chess". This idea has failed to win support since it does not mesh well with generally accepted historical outlines. "Cards were invented by Gringonneur for the amusement of a mad king (Charles VI of France)". This is quite gratuitous.
"You cannot depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus."
- Mark Twain |
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Chris Keppel Special user Kansas City MO 544 Posts |
I think the card pip thing could really be any number. Because every deck is different. I have a deck that only shows the card and that's it. No pips at all. Times that by each card and your really getting a number a little over 100. Then I also have a deck that has extra pips, 2 on each corner (just how they made it, it is a cheapy deck though) IF you added those up you would come up with double the normal number. I also have seen but don't own a deck that had no pips at all. Just the K or the 10 ect. Then it only had one large suit in the middle. You add these up and there is only 52 because each card only has one suit on the whole card. So you see, there really can be many different numbers. Of course if we only had bicycle then we all would have the same number and there would be no mystery. I did enjoy reading some of your other post though, there was a few I didn't know and that I like very much.
www.chriskeppel.com
Kepp's Custom Carbon Fiber |
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Keith Raygor Special user Naples, FL 968 Posts |
Quote:
On 2004-04-21 12:57, Partizan wrote: Some believe that Vernon's Five Card Mental Force was based in part on this notion, though he doesn't spell it out in the $20 Manuscript. He just says the 9 of diamonds is not chosen "for some unaccountable psychological reason". The nine of diamonds was more widely thought of as the curse or devil card at the time his manuscript was printed than it is now. In 1999, Rhett Bryson of Furman University published a WeeMagicBook called "The Devil's Prayerbook" detailing all of the factoids he'd collected. It's a little smaller than a playing card, 29 pages, with a lot of information including most everything that has been brought up here. It's a delightful read with historic references and may still be available from him. |
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Vernest Regular user 169 Posts |
IN SEARCH OF A FAVORITE CARD
I was searching for a card to become my "favorite card". But I wanted this card to be a special one,not just one that I felt like picking. After noticing the orientation of which the court cards look at(right or left) I noticed something unusual that drove me to what today is my favorite card; the Jack of Clubs. Take a Bicycle deck (just to be sure you are looking at what I am right now). 1. The number cards are boring,few colors and designs,so get rid of does. 2. You only got now the court cards. Look at their faces, each faces either to the left or to the right. Sort the cards by the way they look. On one pile all of the ones that face to the right, in the other all the ones facing to the left. 3. You will notice now that all the cards facing to the right are Spades, except for the Jack of Clubs. If Spades is a group, then the Jack of Clubs is the only different card of the entire deck that does not belong to a group, has an expression (although a little dull like Mona Lisa), and faces the oposite direction of rest of the court cards that are not Spades. Another thing that I really admire is the Faro Shuffle. Nobody even things that a deck of cards could have that capacity of mathematical adjustments or even a chance to have such an intricate system of control over the cards based on a mathematical principle. I just find these two the best "mysteries" of a deck of cards. I love what you can do with only 52 cards, and I love what the deck keeps secret between the faces and the backs. Your friend, Vernest |
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Hamilton New user Maine 90 Posts |
Checked in one of my old books:
Tricks and Stunts with Playing Cards (An abridgement of GAMES WITH PLAYING CARDS Plus Tricks and Stunts) by Joseph Leeming And came up with the following quotes "In the early packs of cards, each of the suits represented one of the four social classes of the life of the Middle Ages. The nobility were represented by swords, which later became our Spades. The churchmen were represented by cups, which were later turned into Hearts. The merchant class was represented by coins, which later became Diamonds; and the peasants were represented by staves, which later became Clubs." "Later, in France, the King of Clubs represented the Pope; the King of Spades the King of France; the King of Diamonds |the King of Spain; and the King of Hearts the King of England. The Queen of Spades at that time represented Joan of Arc." (already mentioned above) Also: "Playing cards were first brought to America by the sailors on Columbus's first voyage to the New World in 1492. They took their cards back to Spain with them, however, and it was not until Cortez conquered Mexico in 1521 that playing cards were really introduced into America. After that the other explorers—and there were many of them—brought more packs of cards to this country and card playing became popular in many camps and settlements established in the New World. Later on, when America began to manufacture its own playing cards, an effort was made to get rid of the Kings and Queens. A picture of George Washington took the place of the King of Hearts, and the card was called the President of Hearts. John Adams, our second president, replaced the King of Diamonds; and Benjamin Franklin and the Marnnis de Lafayette (who had come from France to help us win our freedom) replaced the King of Clubs and the King of Spades. The four Queens became the Goddesses of Love, Wisdom, Fortune, and Harvests; and four fierce-looking Indian chiefs took the places of the Jacks." - Tricks and Stunts with Playing Cards by Joseph Leeming And one more... "The Six of Hearts, on the other hand, is known to some people as the card of "loyalty at the risk of death." This is because in 1688 an English soldier. Colonel Richard Grace, used this card to write a refusal to surrender and sent it to William of Orange. Colonel Grace was loyal to King James II of England, and risked being shot or hanged for his refusal to give up. The words that Colonel Grace wrote were, "Tell your master I despise his offer, and that honor and conscience are dearer to a gentleman than all the wealth and titles a prince can bestow." - Tricks and Stunts with Playing Cards by Joseph Leeming Hope this might be of interest to the story tellers in the crowd. |
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Reis O'Brien Inner circle Seattle, WA 2467 Posts |
Excellent info, Hamilton! Thanks for taking the time to post it!
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Hamilton New user Maine 90 Posts |
Your welcome... I am still keeping an eye out for more.
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Harlequin Special user Melbourne, Australia 686 Posts |
Wow, so much info on 52 pieces of pasteboard!
My secret about cards is that I think the four Kings in my favourite bicycle deck are conspiring to assassinate me. May have something to do with me palming the queen of hearts that lonely night in Paris. Err..now I gotta go check out that noise I heard coming from my magic trunk. |
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GypsyPirate Regular user 110 Posts |
Quote:
On 2004-04-15 21:40, Rafa wrote: Let's have none of that... you earn your money, he earns his... Black and red pips.... Black pips are obvious... but who chose red? And why? Why weren't they blue or green pips? Personally, I think purple pips would be cool.
Magic Mark
"How'd you do that?" ... "Very carefully." |
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Reis O'Brien Inner circle Seattle, WA 2467 Posts |
The red comes from the 15th century when most cards were actually used in divination. The witches who printed these cards began to block print the hearts and diamonds with frog's blood.
Ok... I just made that up. |
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