A brief but useful guide to 18th- and 19th-century British playing cards, especially valuable for its excellent photographs (from items in the author's own collection) and its detailed discussion of the 1765–1862 'duty' aces of spades. One page shows the development of the King of Diamonds from the 1760s to the 1860s, and images of court cards from many different makers and periods allow readers to trace the evolution of these in the same way. On a subject often treated in a spirit of frivolous fancy, the author has kept strictly to the facts.
