Playing card games is something familiar to most people and at all age levels, from children enjoying a game of ’snap’ to adults playing poker such as stud poker. But just how long have playing cards been around? According to Wikipedia playing cards can be traced back to 9th century China. Europeans were much slower to adopt playing cards with the first evidence of them in Europe around the mid 13th century. There is actual documented evidence in the late 14th century in countries such as Switzerland, Spain, Italy and France.

Over the centuries there have been many design changes with different countries and cultures bringing their influence to bear. Today you will find playing cards of different designs, different sizes and even with different numbers in the pack depending upon the country. I have visited Germany for many years to visit family and watched many German card games - Skat in particular. A very different game to anything played in England!

Two of the most interesting questions I’ve heard about playing cards are:

1. Who are the Jacks, Queens and Kings supposed to represent? Perhaps actual figures from history? Some people believe that the Queen of Hearts might be Elizabeth the wife of English King Henry VII or perhaps Anne Boleyn, second wife to the infamous King Henry VIII.

2. Why does the King Of Hearts not have a moustache when the 3 others do?

There are lots more questions that spring to mind as I write this - but I’ll save those for another post another day ……….

If you have a love of card tricks then you will probably have a strong affinity for most kinds of theatrical magic. I know I do. I was doing some Net searching on Google as I wanted to read up on some magicians and it occurred to me to check how many movies have been made with the word “magician” in the title. So I went to imdb.com (fantastic website) to find the answer.

Exact matches = 3
Partial matches = 93

It’s a list that makes for fascinating reading because you can follow every link through to more detailed information. It would take days to read it all!

One listing that caught my eye was a black & white, silent movie made in New York City over a century ago and released in September 1900 - it was entitled “How The Magician Got The Best Of The Installment Man“  What a wonderful title! Wonder what trick he used? A card trick perhaps?