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8:59am on Saturday, 7th November, 2020:

Queens

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Here are some Queens of Spades from my playing cards collection.



The first two have full-length courts. The one on the left looks as if it's oldest because of the naive art style, but it's actually predated by the second one. The third one shows the innovation of being double-ended, although she has a different look to her face depending on which way up she is. The fourth one introduces another innovation: rounded corners. This allows for cards to be fanned out in the hand without hurting. The fifth one introduces the final innovation in the series: she's turned (that's the technical term). This is so the Spade symbol is in the top-left corner, so you can see it when you fan out the cards.

There is another innovation to come: indeces. Yes, you can tell she's a Spade but unless you know the Jack and King don't have flowers in their hands you don't know she's the Queen. As it happened, most people did know that, but they didn't know what most of the numbered cards were. This is why index numbers were later added.

I don't have any of the English decks that show that, though, as they're getting a bit too modern for my collection by then.




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