CARDS, PLAYING

( Cartes à jouer , Fr.; Karten , Germ.) Mr. de la Rue obtained, in February, 1832, a patent for certain improvements in the manufacture of playing cards, which he distributed under three heads: first, printing the pips, and also the picture or court-cards, in oil colours by means of types or blocks; secondly, effecting the same in oil colours by means of lithography; and thirdly, gilding or silvering borders, and other parts of the characters, by the printing proce , either by types, blocks, or lithography. In the ordinary mode of manufacturing playing cards, their devices are partly produced by copperplate printing, and they are filled up with water colours by the means called stencilling. The patentee does not propose any material alteration in the devices or forms upon the cards, but only to produce them with oil colours; and, to effect this, he follows precisely the same mode as that practised by calico printers. A set of blocks or types properly devised, are produced for printing the different pips of hearts, diamonds, spades, and clubs, or they are drawn, as other subjects, in the usual way upon stone. The ink or colour, whether black or red, is to be prepared from the best French lamp-black, or the best Chinese vermillion ground in oil, and laid on the types and blocks, or on the stone, in the same way as printers’ ink, and the impre ions taken-on to thick drawing paper by means of a suitable pre in the ordinary manner of printing. colours, fitting into each other exactly in the same way as in printing paper hangings, or silks and calicoes, observing that all the colours are to be prepared with oil. For this purpose a series of blocks or types are to be provided for each subject, and which, when put together, will form the whole device. These blocks are to be used separately, that is, all the yellow parts of the picture, for instance, are to be printed at one impre ion, then all the red parts, next all the flesh colour, then the blue portions, and so on, finishing with the black outlines, which complete the picture. If the same is to be done by lithography, there must be as many stones as there are to be colours, each to print its portion only; and the impre ion, or part of the picture given by one stone, must be exactly fitted into by the impre ion given from the next stone, and so on until the whole subject is complete. A superior kind of card is proposed to be made, with gold or silver devices in parts of the pictures, or gold or silver borders round the pips. This is to be effected by printing the lines which are to appear as gold or silver, with gilders’ size, in place of ink or colour; and immediately after the impre ion has been given, the face of the card is to be powdered over with gold dust, silver, or bronze, by means of a soft cotton or wool dabber, by which the gold, silver, or bronze will be made to adhere to the picture, and the superfluous portions of the metal will wipe off by a very slight rubbing. When the prints are perfectly dry, the face of the card may be polished by means of a soft brush. If it should be desirable to make these improved cards to resemble ivory, that may be done by preparing the face of the paper in the first instance with a composition of size and fine French white, and a drying oil, mixed together to about the consistence of cream; this is to be washed over the paper, and dried before printing, and when the cards are finished, they will exactly resemble ivory. The only thing remaining to be described, is the means by which the succe ive impre ions of the types, blocks, or stones forming the parts of the pictures, are to be brought exactly to join each other, so as to form a perfect whole design when complete; this is by printers called registering, and is to be effected much in the usual way, by points in the tympan of the pre , or by marks upon the stones. The parts of the subject having been all accurately cut or drawn to fit, small holes are to be made with a fine awl through a quire or more of the paper at once, by placing upon the paper a gauge-plate, having marks or guide-holes, and by observing these, the same sheet laid on several times, and always made to correspond with the points or marks, the several parts of the picture must inevitably register, and produce a perfect subject.