In
English cards the colours are red and black; Messrs De la Rue
once introduced red, black, green, and blue for the four suits;
but the novelty was not encouraged by card-players. The same
makers have also endeavoured to supersede the clumsy devices of
kings, queens, and knaves, by something more artistic; but this,
too, failed commercially; for the old patterns, like the old
willow-pattern dinner-plates, are still preferred--simply because
the users have become accustomed to them. Until within the last
few years the printing of cards was generally done by
stencilling, the colour being applied through perforated devices
in a stencil-plate. The colour employed for this purpose is
mixed up with a kind of paste. When there is a device at the
back, the outline of the device is printed from an engraved wood-
block, and the rest filled in by stencilling. The stencilling of
the front and back can be done either before or after the pasting
of the sheets into cardboard. One great improvement in the
manufacture has been the substitution of oil colour for paste or
size colour; and another, the substitution of printing for
stencilling. Messrs De la Rue have expended large sums of money
on these novelties; for many experiments had to be made, to
determine how best to employ oil colour so that the spots or pips
may be equal-tinted, the outline clear and sharp, the pigment
well adherent to the surface, and the drying such as to admit of
polishing without stickiness.
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