Playing cards are thought to have first been introduced to the world in China before spreading across the globe to India, Persia. Cards arrived in Europe some time towards the end of the fourteenth century, making their appearance known in major cities, like Florence and Paris. The cards, however, didn’t resemble the decks we know and love today. They were still very much a work in progress, with artisan card makers still trying to figure out the best designs and deck configurations. Most of their creations revolved around the original playing coins, cups, and sticks – gaming apparatus of choice for much of the early middle-ages. Card playing continued to develop as a discipline. By the middle of the fifteenth century, it started to turn into something that we would recognise now. Between 1418 and 1450, card makers in Augsburg, Nuremberg, and Ulm began making printed decks, allowing people to purchase packs of cards for the first time. As manufacturers put the printing press to use, the popularity of cards grew even more, and their designs became increasingly complicated. They began printing cards with interesting symbols like hearts, acorns, bells, and shields. In France, card makers introduced clovers, pikes, and tiles. And by the time they reached England, the traditional suits of clubs and spaders were born, probably derived from the French clovers and pikes. I'm guessing that most of us don't keep a jar of pennies ready for when the cards come out at a family get-together. I can't actually remember the last time I played.
We often play a game called sevens, whoever has the 7 of diamonds starts and the other then lay the 6 or 8 depending on you hand and tactics, if you ha e any other seven you can then lay it down, if you can go you must, no holding onto cards, play tactically and get all your cards laid down to win good game spent many a rainy summer night playing this .
Used to play Bridge at lunchtimes but not played for years . I do have an old Cribbage board, made of brass and hardwood, lying unused in our wardrobe though.
Often play when camping with my lads, one of our favourites is double eights, but we also play sevens and whist, we have experimented with canasta and rummy.
We used to play Pontoon and 3 card Brag for pennies at school. Can remember Pontoon but will need to google the rules for Brag. That game Uno, used to play that with two standard card packs on family holidays in Scotland . Good memories
You get dealt three cards and if you’re the opener you put an amount in the pot, the next person either matches the pot, increases it or folds, and so on until everyone has folded or there are just two people left and one pays to see the other. Roughly!
I have great memories of when I was a kid getting on my bike and popping round to Grandad's and we always ended up playing cards, mostly Rummy and Cribbage. At home we played cards a lot, Rummy, Sevens, Pairs and best of all Donkey.
