FOR SALE:
Playing cards become a construction set with Card Clips
CREATIVE CARD CLIPS BY METLUND TOY COMPANY (119 PIECES)
DETAILS:
Turns any deck of cards into a construction set!
Includes one unopened 60-count pack of red colored Creative Card Clips and 59 loose yellow colored Creative Card Clips. With Card Clips, and some playing cards (not included), you can construct crazy creatures, impressive spaceships, zany robots, various castles, and other simple and complicated shapes. Build whatever you want! The sky's the limit! Trading cards can be used with Creative Card Clips but playing cards work best.
Includes 119 Card Clips!
Rare Packaging!
These Creative Card Clips were produced before Metlund Toy Company officially changed its name to Metlund Toy Corporation in 1985. The red Creative Card Clips bare the original company name on its packaging.
For ages 5 and up!
CONDITION:
New/used. The red Card Clips are new in sealed package; packaging has some damage. The yellow card clips are in excellent, pre-owned condition. Please see photos.
*To ensure safe delivery all items are carefully packaged before shipping out*
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*ALL PHOTOS AND TEXT ARE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY OF SIDEWAYS STAIRS CO. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.*
"A house of cards (also known as a card tower or a card castle) is a structure created by stacking playing cards on top of each other, often in the shape of a pyramid. "House of cards" is also an expression that dates back to 1645[1] meaning a structure or argument built on a shaky foundation or one that will collapse if a necessary (but possibly overlooked or unappreciated) element is removed. Structures built by layering in this way, such as Stonehenge, are referred to as "house of cards architecture", which dates back to the Cyclopean and Megalithic ages.[2] The origin of the phrase is debated to be from the 18th century England but some believe that it has an American base....
Description
The structures created using this method rely on nothing more than balance and friction in order to stay upright. Ideally, adhesives or other external connecting methods are not used, and no damage or alterations are made to the cards themselves. The larger the structure, the higher the number of balanced cards that could fail and compromise the integrity of the card building. Professional card stacker Bryan Berg claims, however, that the more cards placed on a tower the stronger it becomes because the weight of the cards pushing down on the base (increasing friction) allows occasional cards to stumble without the entire structure collapsing. He also claims that proper stacking technique allows cards to function as shear walls, giving considerable stability to the structure.[4]
Different types of card stacking
A demonstration of using cards for balancing and support
A house of cards balancing a single card between its walls
A demonstration of stacking
A house of cards, with one level stacked on top of another.
Demonstration of card architecture
Amateur card stadium, similar in design to Bryan Berg's structures
A demonstration of bridging gaps
A house of cards with a bridge over the gap between its two pillars
From left to right: Balance and support, stacking, architecture, bridging gaps
World records
The first known record-setting house of cards originally appeared in The Strand Magazine in September 1901.
The earliest known record for card stacking was achieved by Victoria Maitland, of the United Kingdom. A photograph of her work was published in The Strand Magazine in September 1901. It was a fifteen-story structure.[5] Following the publication of this record, a second was submitted in April 1902 by Rosie Farner of England with a picture of a twenty-storied tower.[6] A third record was submitted by F. M. Hollams of England, with a tower of twenty-five stories, in February 1903.[7]
Other record holders (without bending or altering the cards) include:
Joe Whitlam, of England, with twenty-seven stories, on February 28, 1972[8]
James Warnock, of Canada, with sixty-one stories, on September 8, 1978[9]
John Slain, of the United States, with sixty-eight stories, on August 3, 1983[10]
Bryan Berg, of the United States, with seventy-five stories, on April 21, 1992[11]
Berg has since kept the record and created many sub-records. He currently holds the world record for tallest house of cards, a 25-foot-9+7⁄16-inch (7.860 m) "skyscraper" completed at the State Fair of Texas on October 14, 2007.[4] He also holds the record for the largest house of cards, a category Guinness invented for the event, for a replica of Cinderella's Castle at Walt Disney World.[12] On March 10, 2010, Berg broke his own record by building a replica of The Venetian Macao resort hotel. He completed it in 44 days, using 218,792 cards (more than 4,000 decks). The structure measured 10.5 by 3 metres (34.4 by 9.8 ft), and weighed more than 272 kilograms (600 lb)." (wikipedia.org)
"A playing card is a piece of specially prepared card stock, heavy paper, thin cardboard, plastic-coated paper, cotton-paper blend, or thin plastic that is marked with distinguishing motifs. Often the front (face) and back of each card has a finish to make handling easier. They are most commonly used for playing card games, and are also used in magic tricks, cardistry,[1][2] card throwing,[3] and card houses; cards may also be collected.[4] Some patterns of Tarot playing card are also used for divination, although bespoke cards for this use are more common.[citation needed] Playing cards are typically palm-sized for convenient handling, and usually are sold together in a set as a deck of cards or pack of cards.
The most common type of playing card is that found in the French-suited, standard 52-card pack, of which the most common design is the English pattern,[a] followed by the Belgian-Genoese pattern.[5] However, many countries use other, traditional types of playing card, including those that are German, Italian, Spanish and Swiss-suited. Tarot cards (also known locally as Tarocks or tarocchi) are an old genre of playing card that is still very popular in France, central and Eastern Europe and Italy. Asia, too, has regional cards such as the Japanese hanafuda.
Playing cards are available in a wide variety of styles, as decks may be custom-produced for casinos[6] and magicians[7] (sometimes in the form of trick decks),[8] made as promotional items,[9] or intended as souvenirs,[10][11] artistic works, educational tools,[12][13][14] or branded accessories.[15] Decks of cards or even single cards are also collected as a hobby or for monetary value.[16][17] Cards may also be produced for trading card sets or collectible card games, which can comprise hundreds if not thousands of unique cards....
History
China
A Chinese printed playing card dated c. 1400 AD, Ming Dynasty, found near Turpan, measuring 9.5 by 3.5 cm.
Further information: Chinese playing cards
Playing cards may have been invented during the Tang dynasty around the 9th century AD as a result of the usage of woodblock printing technology.[18][19][20][21][22] The earliest known text containing a possible reference to card games is a 9th-century text known as the Collection of Miscellanea at Duyang, written by Tang dynasty writer Su E. It describes Princess Tongchang, daughter of Emperor Yizong of Tang, playing the "leaf game" in 868 with members of the Wei clan, the family of the princess's husband.[20][23][24] The first known book on the "leaf" game was called the Yezi Gexi and allegedly written by a Tang woman. It received commentary by writers of subsequent dynasties.[25] The Song dynasty (960–1279) scholar Ouyang Xiu (1007–1072) asserts that the "leaf" game existed at least since the mid-Tang dynasty and associated its invention with the development of printed sheets as a writing medium.[20][25] However, Ouyang also claims that the "leaves" were pages of a book used in a board game played with dice, and that the rules of the game were lost by 1067.[26]
Other games revolving around alcoholic drinking involved using playing cards of a sort from the Tang dynasty onward. However, these cards did not contain suits or numbers. Instead, they were printed with instructions or forfeits for whomever drew them.[26]
The earliest dated instance of a game involving cards occurred on 17 July 1294 when "Yan Sengzhu and Zheng Pig-Dog were caught playing cards [zhi pai] and that wood blocks for printing them had been impounded, together with nine of the actual cards."[26]
William Henry Wilkinson suggests that the first cards may have been actual paper currency which doubled as both the tools of gaming and the stakes being played for,[19] similar to trading card games. Using paper money was inconvenient and risky so they were substituted by play money known as "money cards". One of the earliest games in which we know the rules is madiao, a trick-taking game, which dates to the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644). 15th-century scholar Lu Rong described it is as being played with 38 "money cards" divided into four suits: 9 in coins, 9 in strings of coins (which may have been misinterpreted as sticks from crude drawings), 9 in myriads (of coins or of strings), and 11 in tens of myriads (a myriad is 10,000). The two latter suits had Water Margin characters instead of pips on them[27] with Chinese to mark their rank and suit. The suit of coins is in reverse order with 9 of coins being the lowest going up to 1 of coins as the high card.[28]
Persia and Arabia
Despite the wide variety of patterns, the suits show a uniformity of structure. Every suit contains twelve cards with the top two usually being the court cards of king and vizier and the bottom ten being pip cards. Half the suits use reverse ranking for their pip cards. There are many motifs for the suit pips but some include coins, clubs, jugs, and swords which resemble later Mamluk and Latin suits. Michael Dummett speculated that Mamluk cards may have descended from an earlier deck which consisted of 48 cards divided into four suits each with ten pip cards and two court cards.[29]
Egypt
Four Mamluk playing cards.
By the 11th century, playing cards were spreading throughout the Asian continent and later came into Egypt.[30] The oldest surviving cards in the world are four fragments found in the Keir Collection and one in the Benaki Museum. They are dated to the 12th and 13th centuries (late Fatimid, Ayyubid, and early Mamluk periods).[31]
A near complete pack of Mamluk playing cards dating to the 15th century and of similar appearance to the fragments above was discovered by Leo Aryeh Mayer in the Topkapı Palace, Istanbul, in 1939.[32] It is not a complete set and is actually composed of three different packs, probably to replace missing cards.[33] The Topkapı pack originally contained 52 cards comprising four suits: polo-sticks, coins, swords, and cups. Each suit contained ten pip cards and three court cards, called malik (king), nā'ib malik (viceroy or deputy king), and thānī nā'ib (second or under-deputy). The thānī nā'ib is a non-existent title so it may not have been in the earliest versions; without this rank, the Mamluk suits would structurally be the same as a Ganjifa suit. In fact, the word "Kanjifah" appears in Arabic on the king of swords and is still used in parts of the Middle East to describe modern playing cards. Influence from further east can explain why the Mamluks, most of whom were Central Asian Turkic Kipchaks, called their cups tuman which means myriad in Turkic, Mongolian and Jurchen languages.[34] Wilkinson postulated that the cups may have been derived from inverting the Chinese and Jurchen ideogram for myriad (万).
The Mamluk court cards showed abstract designs or calligraphy not depicting persons possibly due to religious proscription in Sunni Islam, though they did bear the ranks on the cards. Nā'ib would be borrowed into French (nahipi), Italian (naibi), and Spanish (naipes), the latter word still in common usage. Panels on the pip cards in two suits show they had a reverse ranking, a feature found in madiao, ganjifa, and old European card games like ombre, tarot, and maw.[35]
A fragment of two uncut sheets of Moorish-styled cards of a similar but plainer style was found in Spain and dated to the early 15th century.[36]
Export of these cards (from Cairo, Alexandria, and Damascus), ceased after the fall of the Mamluks in the 16th century.[37] The rules to play these games are lost but they are believed to be plain trick games without trumps.[38]
Spread across Europe and early design changes
Further information: Tarot
Knave of Coins from the oldest known European deck (c. 1390–1410).
Card players in 18th Century Venice, by Pietro Longhi.
The earliest records of playing cards in Europe is believed by some researchers to be a ban on card games in the city of Berne in 1367,[39][40] although this source is questionable.[41][42] Generally accepted as the first is a Florentine ban dating to 1377.[43][44][45] Also appearing in 1377 was the treatise by John of Rheinfelden, in which he describes playing cards and their moral meaning.[46] From this year onwards more and more records (usually bans) of playing cards occur,[47][48] first appearing in England as early as 1413.[49]
Among the early patterns of playing card were those probably derived from the Mamluk suits of cups, coins, swords, and polo-sticks, which are still used in traditional Latin decks.[50] As polo was an obscure sport to Europeans then, the polo-sticks became batons or cudgels.[51] Their presence is attested in Catalonia in 1371, 1377 in Switzerland, and 1380 in many locations including Florence and Paris.[52][53][54] Wide use of playing cards in Europe can, with some certainty, be traced from 1377 onward.[55]
In the account books of Johanna, Duchess of Brabant and Wenceslaus I, Duke of Luxembourg, an entry dated May 14, 1379, by receiver general of Brabant Renier Hollander reads: "Given to Monsieur and Madame four peters and two florins, worth eight and a half sheep, for the purchase of packs of cards".[56] In his book of accounts for 1392 or 1393, Charles or Charbot Poupart, treasurer of the household of Charles VI of France, records payment for the painting of three sets of cards.[57]
From about 1418 to 1450[58] professional card makers in Ulm, Nuremberg, and Augsburg created printed decks. Playing cards even competed with devotional images as the most common uses for woodcuts in this period. Most early woodcuts of all types were coloured after printing, either by hand or, from about 1450 onwards, stencils. These 15th-century playing cards were probably painted. The Flemish Hunting Deck, held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, is the oldest complete set of ordinary playing cards made in Europe from the 15th century.[59]
As cards spread from Italy to Germanic countries, the Latin suits were replaced with the suits of leaves (or shields), hearts (or roses), bells, and acorns, and a combination of Latin and Germanic suit pictures and names resulted in the French suits of trèfles (clovers), carreaux (tiles), cœurs (hearts), and piques (pikes) around 1480. The trèfle (clover) was probably derived from the acorn and the pique (pike) from the leaf of the German suits. The names pique and spade, however, may have derived from the sword (spade) of the Italian suits.[60] In England, the French suits were eventually used, although the earliest packs circulating may have had Latin suits.[61] This may account for why the English called the clovers "clubs" and the pikes "spades".
In the late 14th century, Europeans changed the Mamluk court cards to represent European royalty and attendants. In a description from 1377, the earliest courts were originally a seated "king", an upper marshal that held his suit symbol up, and a lower marshal that held it down.[62][63] The latter two correspond with the ober and unter cards found in German and Swiss playing cards. The Italians and Iberians replaced the Ober/Unter system with the "Knight" and "Fante" or "Sota" before 1390, perhaps to make the cards more visually distinguishable. In England, the lowest court card was called the "knave" which originally meant male child (compare German Knabe), so in this context the character could represent the "prince", son to the king and queen; the meaning servant developed later.[64][65] Queens appeared sporadically in packs as early as 1377, especially in Germany. Although the Germans abandoned the queen before the 1500s, the French permanently picked it up and placed it under the king. Packs of 56 cards containing in each suit a king, queen, knight, and knave (as in tarot) were once common in the 15th century.
In 1628, the Mistery of Makers of Playing Cards of the City of London (now the Worshipful Company of Makers of Playing Cards) was incorporated under a royal charter by Charles I; the Company received livery status from the Court of Aldermen of the City of London in 1792.[66] The Company still exists today, having expanded its member ranks to include "card makers... card collectors, dealers, bridge players, [and] magicians".[67]
During the mid 16th century, Portuguese traders introduced playing cards to Japan. The first indigenous Japanese deck was the Tenshō karuta named after the Tenshō period.[68]
Later design changes
Imperial Bower, the earliest Joker, by Samuel Hart[69][circular reference], c. 1863. Originally designed for use in a specific variant of euchre, it contains instructions for unfamiliar players.
Packs with corner and edge indices (i.e. the value of the card printed at the corner(s) of the card) enabled players to hold their cards close together in a fan with one hand (instead of the two hands previously used).[70] The first such pack known with Latin suits was printed by Infirerra and dated 1693,[71] but this feature was commonly used only from the end of the 18th century. The first American-manufactured (French) deck with this innovation was the Saladee's Patent, printed by Samuel Hart in 1864. In 1870, he and his cousins at Lawrence & Cohen followed up with the Squeezers, the first cards with indices that had a large diffusion.[4]
Girl with Cards by Lucius Kutchin, 1933, Smithsonian American Art Museum
This was followed by the innovation of reversible court cards. This invention is attributed to a French card maker of Agen in 1745. But the French government, which controlled the design of playing cards, prohibited the printing of cards with this innovation. In central Europe (Trappola cards) and Italy (Tarocco Bolognese) the innovation was adopted during the second half of the 18th century. In Great Britain, the pack with reversible court cards was patented in 1799 by Edmund Ludlow and Ann Wilcox. The French pack with this design was printed around 1802 by Thomas Wheeler.[72]
Sharp corners wear out more quickly, and could possibly reveal the card's value, so they were replaced with rounded corners. Before the mid-19th century, British, American, and French players preferred blank backs. The need to hide wear and tear and to discourage writing on the back led cards to have designs, pictures, photos, or advertising on the reverse.[73][74]
The United States introduced the joker into the deck. It was devised for the game of euchre, which spread from Europe to America beginning shortly after the American Revolutionary War. In euchre, the highest trump card is the Jack of the trump suit, called the right bower (from the German Bauer); the second-highest trump, the left bower, is the jack of the suit of the same color as trumps. The joker was invented c. 1860 as a third trump, the imperial or best bower, which ranked higher than the other two bowers.[75] The name of the card is believed to derive from juker, a variant name for euchre.[76][77] The earliest reference to a joker functioning as a wild card dates to 1875 with a variation of poker.[78]
Research
Columbia University's Rare Book and Manuscript Library holds the Albert Field Collection of Playing Cards, an archive of over 6,000 individual decks from over 50 countries and dating back to the 1550s.[13] In 2018 the university digitized over 100 of its decks.[79]
Since 2017, Vanderbilt University has been home to the 1,000-volume George Clulow and United States Playing Card Co. Gaming Collection, which has been called one of the "most complete and scholarly collections [of books on cards and gaming] that has ever been gathered together".[80]
Modern deck formats
Swiss-German Roses
RosendeutschschweizerBlatt.svg
Bells
SchellendeutschschweizerBlatt.svg
Acorns
EichelndeutschschweizerBlatt.svg
Shields
Bouclier jeu de carte.svg
German Hearts
Bay herz.svg
Bells
Bay schellen.svg
Acorns
Bay eichel.svg
Leaves
Bay gras.svg
French Hearts
Suit Hearts.svg
Tiles
SuitDiamonds.svg
Clovers
SuitClubs.svg
Pikes
SuitSpades.svg
Italian Cups
Seme coppe carte trevisane.svg
Coins
Seme denari carte trevisane.svg
Clubs
Seme bastoni carte trevisane.svg
Swords
Seme spade carte trevisane.svg
Spanish Cups
Seme coppe carte spagnole.svg
Coins
Seme denari carte spagnole.svg
Clubs
Seme bastoni carte spagnole.svg
Swords
Seme spade carte spagnole.svg
Main article: List of traditional card and tile packs
See also: Suit (cards)
Contemporary playing cards are grouped into three broad categories based on the suits they use: French, Latin, and Germanic. Latin suits are used in the closely related Spanish and Italian formats. The Swiss-German suits are distinct enough to merit their subcategory. Excluding jokers and tarot trumps, the French 52-card deck preserves the number of cards in the original Mamluk deck, while Latin and Germanic decks average fewer. Latin decks usually drop the higher-valued pip cards, while Germanic decks drop the lower-valued ones.
Within suits, there are regional or national variations called "standard patterns." Because these patterns are in the public domain, this allows multiple card manufacturers to recreate them.[81] Pattern differences are most easily found in the face cards but the number of cards per deck, the use of numeric indices, or even minor shape and arrangement differences of the pips can be used to distinguish them. Some patterns have been around for hundreds of years. Jokers are not part of any pattern as they are a relatively recent invention and lack any standardized appearance so each publisher usually puts its own trademarked illustration into their decks. The wide variation of jokers has turned them into collectible items. Any card that bore the stamp duty like the ace of spades in England, the ace of clubs in France or the ace of coins in Italy are also collectible as that is where the manufacturer's logo is usually placed.
Usually, the cards have their indices printed in the upper left and lower right corners, assuming they will be held in the left hand of a right-handed person. This design is often uncomfortable for left-handed people who may prefer to hold their cards in the right hand. To mitigate this issue non-biased designs exist, that have indices in all four corners of the card.[82][83]
French-suited decks
Main article: French playing cards
52 French playing cards with jokers
French decks come in a variety of patterns and deck sizes. The 52-card deck is the most popular deck and includes 13 ranks of each suit with reversible "court" or face cards. Each suit includes an ace, depicting a single symbol of its suit, a king, queen, and jack, each depicted with a symbol of their suit; and ranks two through ten, with each card depicting that number of pips of its suit. As well as these 52 cards, commercial packs often include between one and six jokers, most often two.
Decks with fewer than 52 cards are known as stripped decks. The piquet pack has all values from 2 through 6 in each suit removed for a total of 32 cards. It is popular in France, the Low Countries, Central Europe and Russia and is used to play piquet, belote, bezique and skat. It is also used in the Sri Lankan, whist-based game known as omi. Forty-card French suited packs are common in northwest Italy; these remove the 8s through 10s like Latin suited decks. 24 card decks, removing 2s through 8s are also sold in Austria and Bavaria to play schnapsen.
A pinochle deck consists of two copies of a 24 card schnapsen deck, thus 48 cards.
The 78 card tarot nouveau adds the knight card between queens and jacks along with 21 numbered trumps and the unnumbered Fool.
Manufacturing
Today the process of making playing cards is highly automated. Large sheets of paper are glued together to create a sheet of pasteboard; the glue may be black or dyed another dark color to increase the card stock's opacity. In the industry, this black compound is sometimes known as "gick".[citation needed] Some card manufacturers may purchase pasteboard from various suppliers; large companies such as USPCC create their own proprietary pasteboard. After the desired imagery is etched into printing plates, the art is printed onto each side of the pasteboard sheet, which is coated with a textured or smooth finish, sometimes called a varnish or paint coating. These coatings can be water- or solvent-based, and different textures and visual effects can be achieved by adding certain dyes or foils, or using multiple varnish processes.[84]
The pasteboard is then split into individual uncut sheets, which are cut into single cards and sorted into decks.[85] The corners are then rounded, after which the decks are packaged, commonly in tuck boxes wrapped in cellophane. The tuck box may have a seal applied.[86][87]
Card manufacturers must pay special attention to the registration of the cards, as non-symmetrical cards can be used to cheat.[88][6]
Design and use
Casinos
Gambling corporations commonly have playing cards made specifically for their casinos. As casinos go through large numbers of decks each day, they may sometimes resell used cards that were "on the [casino] floor". The cards sold to the public are altered, either by cutting the deck's corners or by punching a hole in the deck[6], to prevent these cards from being used in the casino to cheat.
Collecting
A deck of playing cards featuring a skull motif
A deck of custom-designed playing cards.
Because of the long history and wide variety in designs, playing cards are also collector's items.[89] According to Guinness World Records, the largest playing card collection comprises 11,087 decks and is owned by Liu Fuchang of China.[90] Individual playing cards are also collected, such as the world record collection of 8,520 different Jokers belonging to Tony De Santis of Italy.[91]
Custom designs and artwork
Custom decks may be produced for myriad purposes. Across the world, both individuals and large companies such as United States Playing Card Company (USPCC) design and release many different styles of decks,[92] including commemorative decks[93] and souvenir decks.[11][94] Bold and colorful designs tend to be used for cardistry decks,[1][95][96] while more generally, playing cards (as well as tarot cards) may focus on artistic value.[93][97][98][99] Custom deck production is commonly funded on platforms such as Kickstarter,[100][101][102] with companies offering card printing services to the public.
In 1976, the JPL Gallery in London commissioned a card deck from a variety of contemporary British artists including Maggie Hambling, Patrick Heron, David Hockney, Howard Hodgkin, John Hoyland, and Allen Jones called "The Deck of Cards".[103] Forty years later in 2016, the British Council commissioned a similar deck called "Taash ke Patte" featuring Indian artists such as Bhuri Bai, Shilpa Gupta, Krishen Khanna, Ram Rahman, Gulam Mohammed Sheikh, Arpita Singh, and Thukral & Tagra.[103][104][105]
Cold case cards
A single card from an Australian cold case playing card deck.
Police departments,[106] local governments, state prison systems,[107] and even private organizations[108] across the United States have created decks of cards that feature photos, names, and details of cold case victims or missing persons on each card.[13][109] These decks are sold in prison commissaries, or even to the public,[106] in the hopes that an inmate (or anyone else) might provide a new lead.[110] Cold case card programs have been introduced in over a dozen states, including by Oklahoma's State Bureau of Investigation,[111] Connecticut's Division of Criminal Justice, Delaware's Department of Correction,[112] the Florida Department of Law Enforcement,[113] and Rhode Island's Department of Corrections,[114] among others. Among inmates, they may be called "snitch cards".[115]
Symbols in Unicode
♠ ♣
♥ ♦
♤ ♧
♡ ♢
Suit symbols
In Unicode U+2660 ♠ BLACK SPADE SUIT
U+2661 ♡ WHITE HEART SUIT
U+2662 ♢ WHITE DIAMOND SUIT
U+2663 ♣ BLACK CLUB SUIT
U+2664 ♤ WHITE SPADE SUIT
U+2665 ♥ BLACK HEART SUIT
U+2666 ♦ BLACK DIAMOND SUIT
U+2667 ♧ WHITE CLUB SUIT
Main article: Playing cards in Unicode
The Unicode standard for text encoding on computers defines 8 characters for card suits in the Miscellaneous Symbols block, at U+2660–2667. Unicode 7.0 added a unified pack for French-suited tarot nouveau's trump cards and the 52 cards of the modern French pack, with 4 knights, together with a character for "Playing Card Back" and black, red, and white jokers in the block U+1F0A0–1F0FF.[116]
The Unicode names for each group of four glyphs are 'black' and 'white' but might have been more accurately described as 'solid' and 'outline' since the colour actually used at display or printing time is an application choice." (wikipedia.org)
"A transformation playing card (sometimes referred to as a transformation deck when assembled into a complete set) is a type of playing card where an artist incorporates the pips of the non-face cards into an artistic design. In a classical transformation playing card, the pips retain their standard position and coloration on the card. In some variations, the pips may be different in size, location or color. There is some debate as to whether these cards, often referred to as semi-transformed, should be considered true transformation playing cards....
History
7 of Hearts from Metastasis
By the 19th century, the standard form for playing cards had become fixed in most of Europe and America. French cards used hearts, diamonds, spades and clubs. German cards used acorns, leaves, hearts and bells. It was at this time that designers in Germany, France and England began to draw small figures around the pips.[2]
The first transformation playing cards were created by D.W. Soltan and D. Berger in 1801 as illustrations for a German edition of Hudibras. The cards illustrated were the 2 of hearts, 3 of hearts, 5 of hearts and 8 of hearts.[3] In 1803, John Nixon published the first complete set (52 cards) of transformed cards. Titled Metastasis, this collection was also published as illustrations on sheets of paper.[4] In 1804, J.C. Cotta, a publisher and bookseller in Tübingen, Germany, produced the first set of transformation cards that was published as an actual deck of playing cards.[5] These decks were published as almanacs, in which each of the 52 cards corresponded to one of the 52 weeks of the year.[6][7]
In 1865, Dean and Son published a deck in which the pips are changed in both size and location, being placed at the artist's whim. Collectors debate as to whether or not this deck should be considered a transformation deck, due to these differences.[8] The Dean and Son deck remained the only deck to manipulate the pips until the 1970s, when the practice gained some popularity.[9] Today, cards that do not strictly adhere to standard pip placement, size and color are referred to as semi-transformation playing cards.
An article entitled "Playing Card Squiggles." was published in the December 1910 issue of Strand Magazine. Several Cotta cards were pictured, erroneously attributed to an unnamed French artist. Strand subsequently asked its readers to submit their own designs for card squiggles, which the magazine periodically published. John Butler Yeats was one of the first to contribute a card design to the magazine. The feature remained popular for some time.[1][10]
Some[who?] have estimated that around 70 different transformation decks were created throughout the entire nineteenth century, which by modern standards is a relatively small number. This period of time also witnessed progression with this art-form. By the late 19th century more colourful and creative transformation decks by Vanity Fair and Harlequin appeared, which showed pips incorporated into artwork that depicted people dining, skating, playing tennis and riding bicycles.
Contemporary designs
Transformation playing cards like Art for the Earth by The Friends of the Earth and Under the Sea by the Marine Stewardship Counsel, are created for charity purposes, with different artists contributing art for each card. Similarly, other collective projects like Ultimate Deck from Dan & Dave and Stranger & Stranger or the series from Black Rock Collective brings multiple artists together to create semi-transformation decks.
Three Blind Mice as portrayed on the 3 of Clubs from The Key to the Kingdom
One of the more notable contemporary sets is the award-winning The Key to the Kingdom, a semi-transformation deck commissioned by London's V&A Museum of Childhood and created by Tony Meeuwissen. It won the WH Smith Literary Award for best illustration and The Designers and Art Directory Association of London gold award.[11] This set of cards was created around the theme of nursery rhymes and poems. The cards were sold with a book containing each poem and a picture of the corresponding card on the opposite page. Additionally, the deck was constructed as a puzzle contest laid out in the form of an original poem. The poem gave clues to pick certain cards, which then could be decrypted into a secret message. The prize of $10,000 and a golden key was won by Susan Kavanagh of Essex.[12]
With the advent of Kickstarter and other crowdfunded websites, individual artists are more easily able to bring transformation and semi-transformation decks to the public." (wikipedia.org)
"The standard 52-card deck of French-suited playing cards is the most common pack of playing cards used today.[a] In English-speaking countries it is the only traditional pack[b] used for playing cards; in many countries of the world, however, it is used alongside other traditional, often older, standard packs with different suit symbols and pack sizes. The most common pattern worldwide and the only pattern commonly available in Britain and America is the English pattern pack. The second most common is the Belgian-Genoese pattern, designed in France, but whose use spread to Spain, Italy, the Ottoman Empire, the Balkans and much of North Africa and the Middle East.[1] In addition to those, there are other major international and regional patterns....
Composition
A standard 52-card deck comprises 13 ranks in each of the four French suits: clubs (♣), diamonds (♦), hearts (♥) and spades (♠), with reversible (double-headed) court cards (face cards). Each suit includes an Ace, a King, Queen and Jack, each depicted alongside a symbol of its suit; and numerals or pip cards from the Deuce (Two) to the Ten, with each card depicting that many symbols (pips) of its suit. Anywhere from one to six (most often two or three since the mid-20th century) Jokers, often distinguishable with one being more colourful than the other, are added to commercial decks, as some card games require these extra cards.[2][3]
Example set of 52 playing cards; 13 of each suit: clubs, diamonds, hearts, and spades Ace 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Jack Queen King
Clubs Ace of clubs 2 of clubs 3 of clubs 4 of clubs 5 of clubs 6 of clubs 7 of clubs 8 of clubs 9 of clubs 10 of clubs Jack of clubs Queen of clubs King of clubs
Diamonds Ace of diamonds 2 of diamonds 3 of diamonds 4 of diamonds 5 of diamonds 6 of diamonds 7 of diamonds 8 of diamonds 9 of diamonds 10 of diamonds Jack of diamonds Queen of diamonds King of diamonds
Hearts Ace of hearts 2 of hearts 3 of hearts 4 of hearts 5 of hearts 6 of hearts 7 of hearts 8 of hearts 9 of hearts 10 of hearts Jack of hearts Queen of hearts King of hearts
Spades Ace of spades 2 of spades 3 of spades 4 of spades 5 of spades 6 of spades 7 of spades 8 of spades 9 of spades 10 of spades Jack of spades Queen of spades King of spades
Design
Dondorf Rhineland pattern
The most popular standard pattern of the French deck is the English pattern[c] (pictured above), sometimes referred to as the International pattern or Anglo-American pattern.[4] The second most common is the Belgian-Genoese pattern, which was designed in France for export and spread to Spain, Italy, the Ottoman Empire, the Balkans and much of North Africa and the Middle East.[1] There are also numerous others such as the Berlin pattern, Nordic pattern, Dondorf Rhineland pattern (pictured right) and the variants of the European pattern.
Modern playing cards carry index labels on opposite corners or in all four corners to facilitate identifying the cards when they overlap and so that they appear identical for players on opposite sides. For the court cards, this comprises the initial letter or letters from the name of that card. In English countries they are lettered A, K, Q and J for Ace, King, Queen and Jack. In other countries the letters may vary. Germany uses A, K, D and B (As, König, Dame and Bube); Russia uses T, K, D and B (Tuz, Korol, Dama and Valet); Sweden uses E, K, D and Kn (Ess, Kung, Dam and Knekt) and France uses 1, R, D, V (1, Roi, Dame, and Valet).
Although French-suited, 52-card packs are the most common playing cards used internationally, there are many countries or regions where the traditional pack size is only 36 (Russia, Bavaria) or 32 (north and central Germany, Austria) or where regional cards with smaller packs are preferred for many games. For example, 40- or 48-card Italian-suited packs are common in Italy; 40- and 48-card Spanish-suited packs on the Iberian peninsula; and 36-card German-suited packs are very common in Bavaria and Austria. In addition, tarot cards are required for games such as French tarot (78 cards), which is widely played in France, and the Tarock family of games (42 or 54 cards) played in countries like Austria and Hungary.
History
English pattern
The English pattern pack originated in Britain which was importing French playing cards from Rouen and Antwerp by 1480. The earliest cards of the English pattern date to around 1516. But Britain only started manufacturing its own cards towards the end of the 16th century, when card production began in London. These were based on the Rouen pattern, but unlike the traditional French cards, they dropped the names on the court cards. The English pattern evolved, in the process losing "some of its Rouen flavour and elegance and became more and more stylised. The figures took more space in the cards and many details were distorted."[4]
All early cards of this type were single-headed, but around 1860, the double-headed cards, universally used on modern decks, appeared. Corner indices were added around 1880. During the 19th century, the English pattern spread all over the world and is now used almost everywhere, even in countries where traditional patterns and other suits are popular. In America, the English pattern was copied onto wider cards.[4]
The fanciful design and manufacturer's logo commonly displayed on the ace of spades began under the reign of James I of England, who passed a law requiring an insignia on that card as proof of payment of a tax on local manufacture of cards. Until August 4, 1960, decks of playing cards printed and sold in the United Kingdom were liable for taxable duty and the ace of spades carried an indication of the name of the printer and the fact that taxation had been paid on the cards.[d] The packs were also sealed with a government duty wrapper.
Size of the cards
Manufacturer Country Marketed for Length Width
in mm in mm
Ravensburger Germany Poker 3.6 92 2.3 59
Handa (wide)[e] Denmark not specified 3.6 91 2.4 62
ASS Altenburger Germany Poker, Rummy 3.6 91 2.3 59
Kem (wide) US Poker[f] 3.5 89 2.5 64
Piatnik (narrow) Austria Bridge, Poker, Whist 3.5 89 2.3 58
Kem (narrow) US Bridge 3.5 89 2.25 57
Piatnik (wide) Austria Classic Poker, Poker Pro 3.5 88 2.5 63
Waddingtons UK not specified 3.5 88 2.3 58
Handa (narrow) Denmark not specified 3.4 87 2.2 56
Oberg Sweden Poker 3.4 87 2.2 56
Bicycle US Poker 3.5 88 2.5 63
Standard playing cards are available in various sizes, sometimes designated as "wide" and "narrow" or referred by the manufacturer as either "poker" or "bridge" sized;[5] nominal dimensions are summarized in the adjacent table. However, there is no formal requirement for precise adherence and minor variations are produced by various manufacturers in different countries.[6] In Germany, for example, standard Poker and Rummy packs by ASS Altenburger and Ravensburger measure 92 × 59 mm.[7] Austria's Piatnik sells packs marketed for Bridge, Poker and Whist measuring 89 × 58 mm;[8] while Britain's Waddingtons produce generic packs sized at 88 × 58 mm.
The slightly narrower cards are more suitable for games such as bridge and some types of poker, where a number of cards must be held or concealed in a player's hand.[citation needed] In most U.S. casino poker games, plastic bridge (narrow) sized cards are used; this is for both ease of use and dealing, and the plastic cards last much longer than paper decks. U.S. casino shuffling machines have traditionally been designed for bridge-size (narrow) cards for these reasons. In other table games, such as 21 (blackjack), a modern casino may use hundreds or even thousands of decks per day, so paper cards are used for those, for economic reasons. Poker-size (wide) paper decks are used for 21 and other similar games.[citation needed] Other sizes are also available, such as a smaller 'patience' size (usually 1+3⁄4 × 2+3⁄8 in or 44 × 60 mm) and larger 'jumbo' ones for card tricks.
The thickness and weight of modern playing cards are subject to numerous variables related to their purpose of use and associated material design for durability, stiffness, texture and appearance.[9]
Markings
Some decks include additional design elements. Casino blackjack decks may include markings intended for a machine to check the ranks of cards, or shifts in rank location to allow a manual check via an inlaid mirror. Many casino decks and solitaire decks have four indices instead of just two. Some modern decks have bar code markings on the edge of the face to enable them to be sorted by machine (for playing duplicate bridge, especially simultaneous events where the same hands may be played at many different venues). Some decks have large indices for clarity. These are sometimes sold as 'seniors' cards for older people with limited eyesight, but may also be used in games like stud poker, where being able to read cards from a distance is a benefit and hand sizes are small.
Four-colour packs
Main article: Four-colour pack
The standard French-suited pack uses black for the spades and clubs, and red for the hearts and diamonds. However, some packs use four colours for the suits in order to make it easier to tell them apart. There are several schemes: a common one is the English Poker format with black spades (♠), red hearts (♥), blue diamonds (♦) and green clubs (♣). Another common system is based on the German suits and uses green spades (♠) and yellow diamonds (♦) with red hearts (♥) and black clubs (♣).
Nomenclature
When giving the full written name of a specific card, the rank is given first followed by the suit, e.g., "ace of spades" or "Ace of Spades".[g] Shorthand notation may reflect this by listing the rank first, "A♠"; this is common usage when discussing poker; but it is equally common in more general sources to find the suit listed first, as in "♠K" for a single card or "♠AKQ" for multiple cards. This common practice when writing about bridge as it helps differentiate between the card(s) and the contract (e.g. "4♥", a contract of four hearts). Tens may be either abbreviated to T or written as 10.
Terminology
Common collective and individual terms for playing cards relevant, but not exclusive to, the 52-card pack are:
Face cards or court cards – jacks, queens and kings.
Honour cards - aces and the face cards
Wild cards – When deciding which cards are to be made wild in some games, the phrase "acey, deucey or one-eyed jack" (or "deuces, aces, one-eyed faces") is sometimes used, which means that aces, twos, and the one-eyed jacks are all wild.
Numerals or pip cards are the cards numbered from 2 to 10.
"2" cards are also known as deuces.
"3" cards are also known as treys.
"4" cards are also known as sailboats
"8" cards are also known as snowmen
Nicknames
For a comprehensive list of card nicknames, see List of playing-card nicknames.
One-eyed Royals – the jack of spades and jack of hearts (often called the "one-eyed jacks"[10]) and the king of diamonds are drawn in profile; therefore, these cards are commonly referred to as "one-eyed". The rest of the courts are shown in full or oblique face.
The jack of diamonds is sometimes known as "laughing boy".[10]
Suicide kings – The king of hearts is typically shown with a sword behind his head, making him appear to be stabbing himself. Similarly, the one-eyed king of diamonds is typically shown with an ax behind his head with the blade facing toward him. These depictions, and their blood-red colour, inspired the nickname "suicide kings".[10]
The king of diamonds is traditionally armed with an ax, while the other three kings are armed with swords; thus, the king of diamonds is sometimes referred to as "the man with the axe". This is the basis of the trump "one-eyed jacks and the man with the axe". Poker may be played with wild cards, often "Aces, Jacks, and the King with the Axe".[10]
The ace of spades, unique in its large, ornate spade, is sometimes said to be the death card or the picture card, and in some games is used as a trump card.[10]
The queen of spades usually holds a sceptre and is sometimes known as "the bedpost queen", though more often she is called the "black lady". She also is the only queen facing left.[10]
In many decks, the queen of clubs holds a flower. She is thus known as the "flower queen", though this design element is among the most variable; the Bicycle Poker deck depicts all queens with a flower styled according to their suit.[10]
Combinations
It has been shown that because of the large number of possibilities from shuffling a 52-card deck (52!, equaling roughly 8.0658×1067 or 80,658 vigintillion possibilities), it is probable that no two fair card shuffles have ever yielded exactly the same order of cards.[11]
Unicode
As of Unicode 7.0, playing cards are now represented. Note that the following chart ("Cards", Range: 1F0A0–1F0FF) includes cards from the Tarot Nouveau deck, as well as the standard 52-card deck." (wikipedia.org)
"A construction set is a set of standardized pieces that allow for the construction of a variety of different models. The pieces avoid the lead-time of manufacturing custom pieces, and of requiring special training or design time to construct complex systems. This makes them suitable for temporary structures, or for use as children's toys. One very popular brand is Lego....
Categories
Construction sets can be categorized according to their connection method and geometry:
Struts of variable length that are connected to any point along another strut, and at nodes.
Tesseract[permanent dead link] connection points are initially flexible but can be made rigid with the addition of clips.
Struts of fixed but multiple lengths that are connected by nodes are good for building space frames, and often have components that allow full rotational freedom.
D8h (*228) nodes are used for K'Nex, Tinkertoys, Playskool Pipeworks, Cleversticks and interlocking disks in general.
D6h nodes are used for interlocking disks.[1]
Ih (*532) nodes are used for Zometool
Panels of varying sizes and shapes
Panels of varying sizes and shapes are connected by pins or screws perpendicular to the panels, which are good for building linkages such as an Erector Set, Mini Unit Beams[permanent dead link] Meccano, Merkur, Steel Tec, Lego Technic, Trix, FAC-System, and Überstix
Panels of varying sizes and shapes with flexible panels or hinges between panels such as Tog'l, Jovo Click 'N Construct, Zaks, and Polydron.
Struts and panels
Girder and Panel building sets
Synestructics (does not make pentagonal structures)
Ramagon (some panels include studs for connecting with Lego clones)
Geomag (components are magnetic)
Bayko
Building components with various methods of connection include:
No connection: toy blocks, Anchor Stone Blocks, KEVA planks, Kapla, and Unit Bricks
Studs: Engino, Rokenbok, Lego, Lego clone, Coco, Rasti, Tente, Mega Bloks, Fischertechnik, Playmobil, Loc Blocs, Cobi blocks, Betta Builda, Guangdong Loongon (and its subbrands: Cogo, Lepin, Xingboa) and Oxford, Kre-O.
Notches: Lincoln Logs, GIK, and Stickle bricks
Sleeves: Capsela
Spherical magnets
Psychological benefits
Construction toy play is beneficial for building social skills and building trust in others because it acts as a collaborative task where individuals have to cooperate in order to finish the task — building an object out of Legos, for example. The effect was found in high school students.[2]
For children specifically, children who complete models using toy building blocks have much better spatial ability than children who do not complete such models. Spatial ability also predicts completion of models.[3]
Construction toy play is also beneficial for autistic children when both individual and group play with building blocks is incorporated. Autistic children who played with building blocks were motivated to initiate social contact with children their age, they were able to maintain and endure contact with those children, and autistic children were also able to surpass the barriers of being withdrawn and being highly structured.[4]
Influence on architecture
Renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright credited his childhood building blocks designed by Friedrich Fröbel as a major influence, and his son John Lloyd Wright created the widely known Lincoln Logs building set.[5] In addition to teaching architectural concepts such as modularity and load-bearing construction,[6] many architects credit construction set play as influencing their later design." (wikipedia.org)
"A hobby is considered to be a regular activity that is done for enjoyment, typically during one's leisure time. Hobbies include collecting themed items and objects, engaging in creative and artistic pursuits, playing sports, or pursuing other amusements. Participation in hobbies encourages acquiring substantial skills and knowledge in that area. A list of hobbies changes with renewed interests and developing fashions, making it diverse and lengthy. Hobbies tend to follow trends in society, for example stamp collecting was popular during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries as postal systems were the main means of communication, while video games are more popular nowadays following technological advances. The advancing production and technology of the nineteenth century provided workers with more leisure time to engage in hobbies. Because of this, the efforts of people investing in hobbies has increased with time.
Hobbyists may be identified under three sub-categories: casual leisure which is intrinsically rewarding, short-lived, pleasurable activity requiring little or no preparation, serious leisure which is the systematic pursuit of an amateur, hobbyist, or volunteer that is substantial, rewarding and results in a sense of accomplishment, and finally project-based leisure which is a short-term, often one-off, project that is rewarding....
Etymology
Writing and editing articles for Wikipedia is a hobby for some people.
In the 16th century, the term "hobyn" had the meaning of "small horse and pony". The term "hobby horse" was documented in a 1557 payment confirmation for a "Hobbyhorse" from Reading, England.[2] The item, originally called a "Tourney Horse", was made of a wooden or basketwork frame with an artificial tail and head. It was designed for a child to mimic riding a real horse. By 1816 the derivative, "hobby", was introduced into the vocabulary of a number of English people.[3] Over the course of subsequent centuries, the term came to be associated with recreation and leisure. In the 17th century, the term was used in a pejorative sense by suggesting that a hobby was a childish pursuit, however, in the 18th century with more industrial society and more leisure time, hobbies took on greater respectability.[4] A hobby is also called a pastime, derived from the use of hobbies to pass the time. A hobby became an activity that is practised regularly and usually with some worthwhile purpose.[5] Hobbies are usually, but not always, practised primarily for interest and enjoyment, rather than financial reward.
History
Hobbies were originally described as pursuits that others thought somewhat childish or trivial. However, as early as 1676 Sir Matthew Hale, in Contemplations Moral and Divine, wrote "Almost every person hath some hobby horse or other wherein he prides himself."[6] He was acknowledging that a "hobby horse" produces a legitimate sense of pride. By the mid 18th century there was a flourishing of hobbies as working people had more regular hours of work and greater leisure time. They spent more time to pursue interests that brought them satisfaction.[7] However, there was concern that these working people might not use their leisure time in worthwhile pursuits. "The hope of weaning people away from bad habits by the provision of counter-attractions came to the fore in the 1830s, and has rarely waned since. Initially the bad habits were perceived to be of a sensual and physical nature, and the counter attractions, or perhaps more accurately alternatives, deliberately cultivated rationality and the intellect."[8] The flourishing book and magazine trade of the day encouraged worthwhile hobbies and pursuits. The burgeoning manufacturing trade made materials used in hobbies cheap and was responsive to the changing interests of hobbyists.
The English have been identified as enthusiastic hobbyists, as George Orwell observed. "[A]nother English characteristic which is so much a part of us that we barely notice it … is the addiction to hobbies and spare-time occupations, the privateness of English life. We are a nation of flower-lovers, but also a nation of stamp-collectors, pigeon-fanciers, amateur carpenters, coupon-snippers, darts-players, crossword-puzzle fans. All the culture that is most truly native centres round things which even when they are communal are not official—the pub, the football match, the back garden, the fireside and the 'nice cup of tea'."[9]
Deciding what to include in a list of hobbies provokes debate because it is difficult to decide which pleasurable pass-times can also be described as hobbies. During the 20th century the term hobby suggested activities, such as stamp collecting, embroidery, knitting, painting, woodwork, and photography. Typically the description did not include activities like listening to music, watching television, or reading. These latter activities bring pleasure, but lack the sense of achievement usually associated with a hobby. They are usually not structured, organised pursuits, as most hobbies are. The pleasure of a hobby is usually associated with making something of value or achieving something of value. "Such leisure is socially valorised precisely because it produces feelings of satisfaction with something that looks very much like work but that is done of its own sake."[5] "Hobbies are a contradiction: they take work and turn it into leisure, and take leisure and turn it into work."[10]
Hobbies change with time. In the 21st century, the video game industry is a very large hobby involving millions of kids and adults in various forms of 'play'. Stamp collecting declined along with the importance of the postal system. Woodwork and knitting declined as hobbies, because manufactured goods provide cheap alternatives for handmade goods. Through the internet, an online community has become a hobby for many people; sharing advice, information and support, and in some cases, allowing a traditional hobby, such as collecting, to flourish and support trading in a new environment.
Hobbyists
Hobbyists are a part of a wider group of people engaged in leisure pursuits where the boundaries of each group overlap to some extent. The Serious Leisure Perspective[11] groups hobbyists with amateurs and volunteers and identifies three broad groups of leisure activity with hobbies being found mainly in the Serious leisure category. Casual leisure is intrinsically rewarding, short-lived, pleasurable activity requiring little or no preparation. Serious leisure is the systematic pursuit of an amateur, hobbyist, or volunteer that is substantial, rewarding and results in a sense of accomplishment. Finally, project-based leisure is a short-term often a one-off project that is rewarding.[1]
The terms amateur and hobbyist are often used interchangeably. Stebbins[11] has a framework which distinguishes the terms in a useful categorisation of leisure in which casual leisure is separated from serious Leisure. He describes serious leisure as undertaken by amateurs, hobbyists and volunteers. Amateurs engage in pursuits that have a professional counterpart, such as playing an instrument or astronomy. Hobbyists engage in five broad types of activity: collecting, making and tinkering (like embroidery and car restoration), activity participation (like fishing and singing), sports and games, and liberal-arts hobbies (like languages, cuisine, literature). Volunteers commit to organisations where they work as guides, counsellors, gardeners and so on. The separation of the amateur from the hobbyist is because the amateur has the ethos of the professional practitioner as a guide to practice. An amateur clarinetist is conscious of the role and procedures of a professional clarinetist.
A large proportion of hobbies are mainly solitary in nature.[12] However, individual pursuit of a hobby often includes club memberships, organised sharing of products and regular communication between participants. For many hobbies there is an important role in being in touch with fellow hobbyists. Some hobbies are of communal nature, like choral singing and volunteering.
People who engage in hobbies have an interest in and time to pursue them. Children have been an important group of hobbyists because they are enthusiastic for collecting, making and exploring, in addition to this they have the leisure time that allows them to pursue those hobbies. The growth in hobbies occurred during industrialisation which gave workers set time for leisure. During the Depression there was an increase in the participation in hobbies because the unemployed had the time and a desire to be purposefully occupied.[13] Hobbies are often pursued with an increased interest by retired people because they have the time and seek the intellectual and physical stimulation a hobby provides.
Types of hobbies
For a more comprehensive list, see List of hobbies.
Hobbies are a diverse set of activities and it is difficult to categorize them in a logical manner. The following categorization of hobbies was developed by Stebbins.[1]
Collecting
Collectable Antique Antiquities
Terms
Ephemera Premium Prize Souvenir Special edition
Topics
List of collectables List of hobbies
vte
Collecting
[additional citation(s) needed]
Main article: Collecting
Collecting includes seeking, locating, acquiring, organizing, cataloging, displaying and storing.[14] Collecting is appealing to many people due to their interest in a particular subject and a desire to categorise and make order out of complexity. Some collectors are generalists, accumulating items from countries of the world. Others focus on a subtopic within their area of interest, perhaps 19th century postage stamps, milk bottle labels from Sussex, or Mongolian harnesses and tack, Firearms (both modern and vintage).
text
A stamp album used in stamp collecting.
Collecting is an ancient hobby, with the list of coin collectors showing Caesar Augustus as one. Sometimes collectors have turned their hobby into a business, becoming commercial dealers that trade in the items being collected.
An alternative to collecting physical objects is collecting records of events of a particular kind. Examples include train spotting, bird-watching, aircraft spotting, railfans, and any other form of systematic recording a particular phenomenon. The recording form can be written, photographic, online, etc.
Making and tinkering
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Making and tinkering includes working on self-motivated projects for fulfillment. These projects may be progressive, irregular tasks performed over a long period of time.[1] Making and Tinkering hobbies include higher-end projects, such as building or restoring a car or building a computer from individual parts, like CPUs and SSDs. For computer savvy do-it-yourself hobbyists, CNC (Computer Numerical Control) machining may also popular. A CNC machine can be assembled and programmed to make different parts from wood or metal.
Tinkering is 'dabbling' with the making process, often applied to the hobby of tinkering with car repairs, and various kinds of restoration: of furniture, antique cars, etc. It also applies to household tinkering: repairing a wall, laying a pathway, etc. Examples of Making and Tinkering hobbies include Scale modeling, model engineering, 3D printing, dressmaking, and cooking.
Scale modeling is making a replica of a real-life object in a smaller scale and dates back to prehistoric times with small clay "dolls" and other children's toys that have been found near known populated areas. Some of the earliest scale models of residences were found in Cucuteni–Trypillia culture in Eastern Europe. These artifacts were dated to be around 3000-6000 BC.[15] Similar models dating back to the same period were found in ancient Egypt, India, China and Mesopotamia archaeological sites.[16]
At the turn of the Industrial Age and through the 1920s, some families could afford things such as electric trains, wind-up toys (typically boats or cars) and the increasingly valuable tin toy soldiers. Scale modeling as we know it today became popular shortly after World War II. Before 1946, children as well as adults were content in carving and shaping wooden replicas from block wood kits, often depicting enemy aircraft to help with identification in case of an invasion.[citation needed]
With the advent of modern plastics, the amount of skill required to get the basic shape accurately shown for any given subject was lessened, making it easier for people of all ages to begin assembling replicas in varying scales. Superheroes, aeroplanes, boats, cars, tanks, artillery, and even figures of soldiers became quite popular subjects to build, paint and display. Although almost any subject can be found in almost any scale, there are common scales for such miniatures which remain constant today.
Model engineering refers to building functioning machinery in metal, such as internal combustion motors and live steam models or locomotives. This is a demanding hobby that requires a multitude of large and expensive tools, such as lathes and mills. This hobby originated in the United Kingdom in the late 19th century, later spreading and flourishing in the mid-20th century. Due to the expense and space required, it is becoming rare.
A coffee-table sized model railroad
3D Printing is a relatively new technology and already a major hobby as the cost of printers has fallen sharply. It is a good example of how hobbyists quickly engage with new technologies, communicate with one another and become producers related to their former hobby. 3D modeling is the process of making mathematical representations of three dimensional items and is an aspect of 3D printing.
Dressmaking has been a major hobby up until the late 20th century, in order to make cheap clothes, but also as a creative design and craft challenge. It has been reduced by the low cost of manufactured clothes.
Cooking is for some people an interest, a hobby, a challenge and a source of significant satisfaction. For many other people it is a job, a chore, a duty, like cleaning. In the early 21st century the importance of cooking as a hobby was demonstrated by the high popularity of competitive television cooking programs.
Activity participation
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Find sources: "Hobby" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (October 2019)
Activity participation includes partaking in "non-competitive, rule-based pursuits."[1]
Outdoor pursuits are the group of activities which occur outdoors. These hobbies include gardening, hill walking, hiking, backpacking, cycling, canoeing, climbing, caving, fishing, hunting, target shooting (informal or formal), wildlife viewing (as birdwatching) and engaging in watersports and snowsports.
Gardening
One large subset of outdoor pursuits is gardening. Residential gardening most often takes place in or about one's own residence, in a space referred to as the garden. Although a garden typically is located on the land near a residence, it may also be located on a roof, in an atrium, on a balcony, in a windowbox, or on a patio or vivarium.
Gardening also takes place in non-residential green areas, such as parks, public or semi-public gardens (botanical gardens or zoological gardens), amusement and theme parks, along transportation corridors, and around tourist attractions and hotels. In these situations, a staff of gardeners or groundskeepers maintains the gardens.
A variety of flowers and vegetables in an indoor garden.
Indoor gardening is concerned with growing houseplants within a residence or building, in a conservatory, or in a greenhouse. Indoor gardens are sometimes incorporated into air conditioning or heating systems.
Water gardening is concerned with growing plants that have adapted to pools and ponds. Bog gardens are also considered a type of water garden. A simple water garden may consist solely of a tub containing the water and plants.
Container gardening is concerned with growing plants in containers that are placed above the ground.
Liberal arts pursuits
Main article: Liberal arts education
Main article: The arts
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An amateur magician performing
Many hobbies involve performances by the hobbyist, such as singing, acting, juggling, magic, dancing, playing a musical instrument, martial arts, and other performing arts.
Some hobbies may result in an end product. Examples of this would be woodworking, photography, moviemaking, jewelry making, software projects such as Photoshopping and home music or video production, making bracelets, artistic projects such as drawing, painting, Cosplay (design, creation, and wearing a costume based on an already existing creative property), creating models out of card stock or paper – called papercraft. Many of these fall under the category visual arts.
Writing hobby is often taken up by aspiring writers and usually appears in the form of personal blog, guest posting or fan fiction (literary art resulting in creation of written content based on already existing, licensed creative property under specified terms[17]).
Reading, books, ebooks, magazines, comics, or newspapers, along with browsing the internet is a common hobby, and one that can trace its origins back hundreds of years. A love of literature, later in life, may be sparked by an interest in reading children's literature as a child. Many of these fall under the category literary arts.
Sports and games
Main article: Sport
Main article: Game
Stebbins[1] distinguishes an amateur sports person and a hobbyist by suggesting a hobbyist plays in less formal sports, or games that are rule bound and have no professional equivalent. While an amateur sports individual plays a sport with a professional equivalent, such as football or tennis. Amateur sport may range from informal play to highly competitive practice, such as deck tennis or long distance trekking.
The Department for Culture, Media, and Support in England suggests that playing sports benefits physical and mental health. A positive relationship appeared between engaging in sports and improving overall health.[18]
Psychological role
During the 20th century there was extensive research into the important role that play has in human development. While most evident in childhood, play continues throughout life for many adults in the form of games, hobbies, and sport.[19] Moreover, studies of ageing and society support the value of hobbies in healthy ageing.[20]
Significant achievements
There have been many instances where hobbyists and amateurs have achieved significant discoveries and developments. These are a small sample.
Amateur astronomers have explored the skies for centuries and there is a long list of Notable amateur astronomers who have made major discoveries. Amateur astronomers Alan Hale and Thomas Bopp discovered the Comet Hale–Bopp.[21]
A substantial amount of early scientific research came from the amateur activities of the wealthy, such as Antoine Lavoisier's contributions to the science of chemistry.[22] At that time there were few professional scientists and little formal study in the area. Another example is the experimentation in electricity that Benjamin Franklin undertook that resulted in his invention of the lightning rod.[23]
Open source is a development model using the internet to cooperate on projects. It is most notable in the development of software and widely used software, which has been developed and maintained by large numbers of people, including many home-based amateurs with high level expertise.
While the general public was not aware of nature observation which was formally conducted as field research, during the 1930s, practitioners of the hobby went on to become the pioneers of the conservation movement that flourished in the UK from 1965 onwards." (wikipedia.org)