CARD & GAMES TABLES
Although
card playing had long been popular, the first tables made specifically for this
pastime appeared only in the late 1600s. They had folding tops lines with baize
or felt which, when open, were supported by gate-legs. But such tables were
uncomfortable to sit at as the stretchers and legs got in the players' way.
Advances in construction in the early 18th century meant that tables could be
fitted with a single hinged back leg that's swung out to support the top. An
accordion-fold mechanism was introduced in the mid-1700s to extend the back
leg and frame. Open
tops
had dish recesses for candlesticks, wells for counters or coins and occasionally
for cups.
The advent of neoclassicism led to a change in style. Card tables were now often
semicircular and decorated with marquetry or crossbanding. The marquetry at
times represented motifs of geometric or Grecian design. Many late 18th or early
19th century tables, called Tric-Trac
tables,
were fitted with a well for backgammon and a reversible sliding or non-hinged
top. Some tables were fitted with both Backgammon and chess and usually had
a frieze beneath the rectangular top which provided a drawer. A hinge or swivel
mechanism was developed whereby the top swiveled around an off-center pivot
then opened out to be supported by the table frame. Also popular were fold over
tables on a central column which could be quite ornate.
During the first part of the 19th century, the game table did not see any new
design or advancement. The use of the Louis
XVI game tables,
rectangular with tapered legs and a removable or hinged top, remained popular.
Although the overall design was the same, the highlights of the tables changed:
bronze mounts, Egyptian motifs and classical female figures were used extensively.
Under the reign of Charles X and Louis Philippe a new design is born. The mouchoir
tables with four inward folding corners allows small side tables to quickly
expand into a game table which can seat up to four people. A variety of wood
was also used straying from the walnut and expanding to fruitwoods and palissander.
GAMES
& DESIGN
The 18th century accorded the game table a privileged place among furniture.
Starting with the Regence, the design of game tables becomes more refined but
will not reach its ultimate peak until the mid 18th century under Louis XV.
A great number of card rooms open their doors in Paris looking to please the
many Bourgeois, becoming a growing number of the population and having free
time on their hands. With the opening of these rooms comes the demand for more
cards and games tables. Since card playing was almost a mania during the reign
of Louis XV, there was a great variety of card tables. The card game craze led
to innovations in design depending on the game played.
Piquet
Piquet tables were small side tables large enough for two people to sit at.
They were usually elegantly decorated with marquetry and kept in corners of
the games room and brought out to the center when needed.
Piquet is a very old card game which was well established by 1650 with similar
rules to the present ones (it differed in using a 36 card pack with a 12 card
talon, elder hand being allowed to change 7 cards, and a partie was ended by
the first to reach 100, a variant still sometimes played). It was mentioned
by Rabelais in 1535 although whether this was the same game is unclear. It has
retained its popularity to the present day as one of the best and most skilful
card games for two players. The rules described are those published by Cavendish
in 1882.
Piquet is game for two players, using a shortened pack of 32 cards which omits
2 to 6 in each suit. In ascending order, the cards rank 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K,
A (high). A number of French terms are traditionally used for various features
of the game and these are included below. A game consists of a set of 6 deals
called a partie, with the deal alternating. Each player is dealt 12 cards, with
8 left as a talon. A deal consists of three parts: discarding a number of cards
and replacing them from the talon to try to improve the hand, declaring various
features in the hand, and then playing the cards in tricks.
Ombre
Ombre tables
were triangular in shape. Also richly decorated, ombre tables could be used
as consoles lining a wall because of their shape.
L'Hombre was developed in Spain in the early 17th century, as a variation of
an earlier four player game, also called Hombre. The three player version, which
in Spain was originally called Hombre Renegado spread rapidly across Europe
and during the 17th and 18th centuries became the premier card game, occupying
a position of prestige similar to Bridge today. It was variously known as Hombre,
Ombre or L'Hombre, and over the years it acquired many variations, of increasing
complexity. Its popularity was eclipsed in the late 18th century by a new four
player variant Quadrille, which was in turn displaced by Whist, Boston and eventually
Bridge. Although L'Hombre died out in other parts of Europe, it remained popular
in Denmark right up to the present day. Versions of the game have also survived
in Spain itself, where it is known as El Tresillo, in the Faroes and in Iceland,
and in Peru and Bolivia, where it is known as Rocambor.
The game was played by three players with a deck of 40 cards. From the deck
of 40 cards, all the 8, 9, and 10's were removed. Each player would be dealt
9 cards while the rest would be part of a 'stock.' The player to the right of
the dealer commences play and is declared the "ombre" or literally "the man"
and trump is decided by that person.
L'Hombre was one of the first games to introduce bidding, through which one
player becomes the declarer, trying to make a contract, with the other players
cooperating to prevent him. The declarer was originally called Hombre (i.e.
the man). It was from L'Hombre that the idea of bidding was adopted into other
card games such as Tarot, Skat and Boston.
Quadrille
and four or five handed Reversi
Quadrille
and Reversi tables were rectangular in design. These tables usually had a folding
top mounted on a pivot.
Quadrille is an adaptation of Hombre for four players. All 40 cards are dealt
and the winner of the bidding selects a partner by calling a King. It became
extremely fashionable in Europe in the 18th century, eclipsing the parent game,
but declined in the 19th. It has now dies out as far as we know, though it was
the inspiration for many later games with variable partnerships.
Reversi was first mentioned in France under the name Reversin in 1601, was played
with the full 52-card pack. It more probably originated in Italy (rovescio means
reverse or wrong side) where they still play a negative variety of Tressette
called (amongst other names) Rovescino. Reversis (no relation to the board game
Reversi) is one of two probable ancestors of the Hearts family (with Coquimbert
or Losing Lodam) and was one of the great games of continental Europe from the
17th to the 19th centuries. It may be called Reversis because the aim of avoiding
tricks in general and penalty cards in particular is the reverse of conventional
trick games, though the name also denotes an exceptional slam bid which, like
"shooting the moon" in Hearts, itself "reverses" the normal practice of the
game.
Backgammon
The backgammon or Tric-Tables had an oblong removable top which frequently centered
an inlaid checkerboard. The frieze was designed with two drawers, one at each
end, for the convenience of the players.
Backgammon is believed to have originated in Mesopotamia in the Persian Empire
or the present day Iran, Iraq, and Syria and it is the oldest known recorded
game in history. The game was typically played on surfaces such as wood, using
stones as markers, and dice made from bones, stones, wood or pottery and it
can be traced back thousands of years BC to boardgames played by the Egyptians,
Sumerians, Romans, and Persians. It was not until 1743 that an Englishman called
Edmond Hoyle documented and standardized the rules of the game.
Read more about it
Board and Table Games Antiques by RC Bell - published by Lubrecht & Cramer,
Limited