What are the earliest extant card decks? This question is for playing card decks in particular, although I’d like an answer for both asian and european decks. The earliest extant tarot, well…tarocchi, decks are 15th c. Italian.
According to Scarne, “What is probably the oldest playing card still in existence is one found in Chinese Turkestan that dates from the eleventh century. It is an honor card (the red flower) of the coin suit.”
The next paragraph says the first cards appeared in Europe in the 14th century. There are text references in the early 1300s, and the oldest European cards are believed to be a hand-painted set made in 1392 for Charles VI of France.
That material is ca. 1975 and updated from material written between the 1940s and that last update; there may be newer info or other discoveries.
So the oldest extant european playing card deck would be the 1392 Charles VI? It would make sense that these decks specially made for the royalty would have a longer life span. Do you know if the text references in the early 1300s refer to cards made for royalty?
Yes, I left a word out there - that’s believed to be the oldest EXTANT European deck. Other text (this is from Chapter 26 of Scarne’s New Complete Guide to Gambling) says cards were introduced in Europe in the early 14th century, probably in Italy, and spread throughout Europe by 1375. Earliest written references are beween 1328-41.
It’s four hundred years later, but one of Benjamin Franklin’s electrical experiments used discs cut from playing cards as insulators.