'Lord Curzon's Notes on Persia: About 1889-1890' [‎694r] (1408/1486)

May 10 , 1889 ,
JOLRNAL OF THE SOCIETY Of ARTS.
577
the Inland Revenue Department, as the means
of collecting the duty of 3 d. per pack levied on
all playing cards sold for use in the United
Kingdom. This tax upon playing cards is
universal in Europe, with the exception of
Spain, America being the only other country
which does not now tax playing cards sold for
home consumption. France collects this tax
by means of the paper used for making the
cards, which is manufactured specially, and is
sold by the Government at a rate which
covers the tax. The method used in this
country is cumbrous, and may with advantage
to the revenue on the one hand, and the con
venience of the manufacturer on the other, be
re-considered in comparison with the method
for collecting the tax which was in use in the
United States up to 1882 , which was by means
of an adhesive stamp of about the same size
as our postage stamp, which was placed on
the pack, not before it left the manufacturer,
but as it left the retailer ; or with that now in
use in Italy and Germany, each of which
countries impress a small device upon the ace
of hearts, indicating that the tax has been
paid, as now shown on the screen.
You will expect me to say something as
to the relative merits of the playing cards
made in different countries, and I am able to
do so from a very complete collection of the
cards made in every country in Europe—in
Russia and in America. I speak now without
reference to the playing cards of the East—
India, China, and Japan—which are dis
tinctively apart from all other playing cards
both as to their material and their manu
facture. I find it difficult to do this with
perfect frankness without running the risk of
offending the prejudices of some who may be
present; but as the object of this paper is to
convey information I am compelled to say that
the playing cards made in England are inferior
in material and in manufacture to those made
in two other countries. I place America first,
and next Russia, then England, Sweden, Ger
many, Spain, Italy, and Belgium. Part of
this may be due to protection in some of
these countries, notably America, which
has an ad valorem tariff against imported
cards of 100 per cent., thus enabling the
manufacturer to rely upon higher prices being
obtained for his wares than the English manu
facturer can do, exposed as he is to the com
petition of the world, upon a nominal tariff
only; but as to workmanship, very much, I
.^fear, is to be found in the fact that the English
workman has not yet learned the lesson which
he must learn if he is to hold his own with
others, viz., that the day has gone by when the
nameof“ English,” as applied to manufactures,
was sufficiently indicative of good quality and
approximate perfection, because perfection, as
applied to manufacture, is only a relative term,
and English manufacturers in this, as in other
trades, are being daily outstripped in the race
for trade by nations whose workpeople are
trained not to be satisfied with anything
which is not the best that human hands
can produce, and the foreign workman is well
learning the lesson. I am, in saying this, how
ever, glad to be able to reserve a point in favour
of the English manufacturer, for in no other
country has the decorative treatment of
the backs of playing cards had the
development which it has received here.
Germany has for some years followed us
in the decorative treatment of the backs of
cards in more than one colour, but these are for
the most part indifferent in design, while they
are fairly good in execution. In Russia there
is also an advance in this direction, the designs
being simply geometric and harmless, while
they are well and carefully printed; here also,
as in America, the question of price obtained,
it is right to say, enters largely, for in Russia
the price is high, and, moreover, the manu
facture is a monopoly of a member of the Im
perial family. In Germany there have been
issued at intervals playing cards for special
purposes which present features of luxurious
treatment which cause them to stand alone,
and I have been unable to resist the tempta
tion of showing you two slides giving a re
production, in one case, of the face, and
in the other of the back, of a card from a
pack which were produced for presentation to
the late Emperor Frederick, upon the occasion
of his silver wedding. I regret that I cannot
show you the exquisite printing of the faces of
these cards; they are simply perfect, but in
their production the lithographic A lithograph is an image reproduced from a printing plate whose image areas attract ink and non-image areas repel it. and not the
letterpress process has been employed.
The decoration of the backs has been aspecial
feature of the playing cards manufactured in
England within the last 40 years, and it had its
first really artistic development in the hands of
the Messrs. De la Rue, who nearly 30 years
ago, under the able art control of Mr. Owen
Jones, produced in great variety playing cards
with floral, heraldic, geometrical, and other
devices printed in colours varying from
one to seven. One of the earliest of these,
and one which was very popular, and I
believe is so still, was the ‘‘cotton plant,”