one for
the device; but some of the choicer specimens display several colours;
and many of the designs are due to the pencil of Mr Owen Jones. The
printing of the design is done on the sheets of paper, before
the pasting to form cardboard. The pips or spots on the faces of
playing-cards are now spades, clubs, hearts, and diamonds; but at
different times, and in different countries, there have been leaves,
acorns, bells, cups, swords, fruit, heads, parasols, and other objects
similarly represented. In English cards the colours are red and black;
Messrs De la Rue once introduced red, black, green, and blue for the
four suits; but the novelty was not encouraged by card-players. The same
makers have also endeavoured to supersede the clumsy devices of kings,
queens, and knaves, by something more artistic; but this, too, failed
commercially; for the old patterns, like the old willow-pattern
dinner-plates, are still preferred--simply because the users have become
accustomed to them. Until within the last few years the printing of
cards was generally done by stencilling, the colour being applied
through perforated devices in a stencil-plate. The colour employed for
this purpose is mixed up with a kind of paste. When there is a device
at the back, the outline of the device is printed from an engraved
wood-block, and the rest filled in by stencilling. The stencilling of
the front and back can be done either before or after the pasting of the
sheets into cardboard. One great improvement in the manufacture has been
the substitution of oil colour for paste or size colour; and another,
the substitution of printing for stencilling. Messrs De la Rue have
expended large sums of money on these novelties; for many experiments
had to be made, to determine how best to employ oil colour so that the
spots or pips may be equal-tinted, the outline clear and sharp, the
pigment well adherent to the surface, and the drying such as to admit
of polishing without stickiness. The plates for printing are engraved
on copper or brass, or are produced by electrotype, or are built up with
small pieces of metal or interlaced wire. The printing is done in the
usual way of colour-printing, with as many plates as there are colours
(usually five), and one for the outlines; it is executed on the sheets
of paper, before being pasted into cardboard. When the printing, drying,
and pasting are all completed, a careful polish is effected by means of
brush-wheels, pas