Mark Lee Rotenberg - Stacked Decks: The Art and History of Erotic Playing Cards

I
can remember with perfect clarity my fateful initiation into the world of erotica. Rifling idly through my fathers night table, I came upon a hidden treasure: a deck of European pin-up cards, tantalizingly sexy and absolutely forbidden. It was my first glimpse into a mysterious adult world. Over the years, while acquiring and discussing erotic playing cards with dealers and collectors, Ive heard very similar tales of first exposure to erotica. It seems to be a rite of passagean enticing early glimpse into the world of adulthood.

Nearly forty-five years later, my archive, the Rotenberg Collection, holds a treasure trove of vintage eroticaincluding more than 450 decks of playing cards dating as far back as 1830.

Part of the fascination with erotic cards is the diversity of images. How else could you hold fifty-four different sexy ladies in the palm of your hand? Each deck offers an opportunity to become acquainted with a bevy of beautiful women from all over the world. Its no wonder naughty playing cards have endured the test of time and continue to sell today.

To better understand the evolution of erotic playing cards, a brief history of standard playing cards is in order. Though historians generally agree that playing cards originated in China during the ninth century, the earliest documented history of their presenceas paper dominoes played by a Chinese emperor and his wifecomes from the tenth century. Its generally believed that decks with four suits and court cards evolved in the Islamic world and were brought to Spain in the thirteenth or fourteenth century. From Spain, playing cards made their way to Italy, France, Switzerland, Germany, England, and the North American colonies. In what would become Canada, playing cards were actually used as an early form of paper currency.

Suits varied from one nation to another and included such symbols as flowers, bells, acorns, leaves, and books. The four suits we know todayhearts, clubs, diamonds, and spadesoriginated in France.

The first cards were handmade and expensive, and card games were thus an amusement for only the wealthy. With the advent of printing, the popularity of card games spread like wildfire, and many companies began producing playing cards. Different designs were printed on the backs to distinguish one brand of cards from another.

Jokers were an American invention, added to decks in the mid-1860s when the popular game of euchre was modified to include extra trump cards (the word euchre evolved into the term joker we know today). Another American addition to playing cards was the use of corner indices, which made it easier to quickly identify cards fanned out in the hand. By the 1890s, most European cards included corner indices. The deck primarily in use today, called Anglo-American playing cards, has fifty-two cardsthirteen of each of the four French suits, including reversible court cardsand one to four jokers.

It didnt take long for cards manufacturers to learn that themed decks increased sales. In a standard deck, court cards depicted royalty, and the balance of the cards simply had pips. To sell more decks, manufacturers added other images to card faces, including historic figures, artists, composers, and characters from popular fiction and folk tales. The incorporation of erotic imagery was inevitable: What sells better than sex?

The first known instance of erotica on printed playing cards occurred around 1830 in a translucent, or hold-to-the-light, deck. Produced in very limited numbers in Germany or France, this rare hand-tinted deck holds a secret that was probably unknown to many of its owners. Hidden within these thin cards are images that, when held before a bright light, transform stately court cards with images of kings and queens into scenes of a most intimate sexual nature. The pip cards morph into orgiastic paintings, often portraying members of the clergy in compromising positions. You can see cards from this kind of deck .