While the Middle Ages treated play cards asobjects of sorceryand the more fairish French introduced the four main wooing that are still used today ( hearts , clubs , spade , rhombus ) , a more recent exploitation almost changed everything we reckon we knew about a full household . There was once a 5th suit .
In the late 1930s , the United States Playing Card Company was one of several manufacturing business to introduce a 65 - card deck . In addition to the four established suits , the package contained a fifth : the eagle . ( In England , companies sometimes used a royal symbol of crown describe in blue . ) The carte were light-green instead of red or black and were intend for consumption in bridge games . Hoyle ’s Modern Encyclopedia of Card Gamesmakes apassing referenceto the suit in its index finger ; collector who have gotten the deck have noted it contained instructions for playing a five - suit of clothes interlingual rendition of salamander , where Five of a form was a possibleness and terminus that now seem strange to the natural language and ear ( “ nance of Eagles ” ) were commonplace .
Nate Steffenhagen viaPortfolio52
But where did the whimsey issue forth from ? Though other acknowledgment of four - plus decks appear in bet add-in retrospective , playing card historian Andrew Wardattributesthe idea for five - causa bridge circuit to Walter Marseille , a Viennese psychologist whothoughtthe added carte du jour made the games more complex and interesting . While bridge players seemed intrigued by the variation — pack of cards expel to New York for retail cut-rate sale were snapped up now — it pose a unnerving assiduity challenge . According to media reportage of the earned run average , most people had enough trouble focusing on 52 visiting card , have alone 65 . “ The psyche cellphone of average bridge fans are sorely tax by the strain of 52 visiting card and four suits through the complex succession of play,”Lifemagazinewrotein 1938 . “ To players with indestructible memory the new game offer a challenge , to others a high vault . ” One journalistsnipedthat “ four - goal football game ” might be next .
The naysayers were right . While popular in Europe for a time , five - suit games never really arrest on . By the conclusion of World War II , the eagle was nowhere to be found , and Marseille ’s contribution was largely bury .
