Book published 1991 by
Oxford University Press
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You'll never guess what your ancestors did over the card table
Historic card games
by David Parlett
Some of the descriptions first appeared in my Oxford Guide to Card Games (1990, republished as A History of Card Games in 1991), but I've since been revising them in the light of further research and discoveries. If you have any comments, queries, or suggestions for additional entries, do let me know.
In the table below, p = number of players, pp = playing in fixed partnerships, 2-4p = 2, 3 or 4 players, 2/4p = 2 or 4 players (not easily or usually 3).
| Calypso | The personal trump game from Trinidad (4pp) |
| Costly Colours | The colourful cousin of Crib (2/4pp) |
| Euchre | A classic American game of European origin (2/4pp) |
| Gin Rummy | The great game of Hollywood and Broadway (2p) |
| Gleek | An old English of tricks and bluff (3p) |
| Laugh & lie down | An hilarious pairing-off game of Tudor England (4/5p) |
| Loo | A once notorious trick-taking gambling game (3-7p) |
| Losing Lodam | The Gargantuan ancestor of Hearts (3-7p) |
| Maw | The five-fingered game of the Gaels (2-7p, 5 best) |
| Noddy | The knavish ancestor of Cribbage (2/4pp) |
| Patience | Origins and history of card solitaires (1p) |
| Penneech | The game that changes trump from trick to trick (2p) |
| Piquet | The aristocrat of card games (2p) |
| Poker | Origins and history of the great American pastime (2-10p) |
| Pope Joan | Introducing "the Curse of Scotland" (3-7p) |
| Quadrille | The courtly ladies' game of 18th century France (4p) |
| Reversis | The 16th-century ancestor of Hearts (4pp) |
| Speculation | Jane Austen's Mansfield Park game (3-7p) |
