PLAYING CARD SYMBOLS WINE GLASS ID CLIPS Franmara charms markers cards suits NEW

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Seller: sidewaysstairsco ✉️ (1,180) 100%, Location: Santa Ana, California, US, Ships to: US & many other countries, Item: 203839320061 PLAYING CARD SYMBOLS WINE GLASS ID CLIPS Franmara charms markers cards suits NEW. Check out my other new & used items>>>>>>HERE! (click me) FOR SALE: Playing card suit-themed drinking glass charm set FRANMARA 12-PIECE WINE GLASS ID CLIPS DETAILS: Perfect for game night! With Franmara Wine Glass ID Clips you'll spend more time enjoying moments and no time figuring out whose drink is whose. The "Playing Card Suit" drinking glass snap-on markers, or charms, can add a little more party spirit to any gathering all while keeping your beverages organized. The set contains 12 Wine Glass ID Clips - 3 of each card suit in 3 different colors. Made of a type of durable plastic in very cool translucent colors. Includes storage stick! Included is a clear plastic cylinder to assist in storing - just slide the charms on! CONDITION: New in packaging. Packaging has light storage wear. Please see photos. *To ensure safe delivery all items are carefully packaged before shipping out.* THANK YOU FOR LOOKING. QUESTIONS? JUST ASK. *ALL PHOTOS AND TEXT ARE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY OF SIDEWAYS STAIRS CO. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.* "A playing card is a piece of specially prepared card stock, heavy paper, thin cardboard, plastic-coated paper, cotton-paper blend, or thin plastic that is marked with distinguishing motifs. Often the front (face) and back of each card has a finish to make handling easier. They are most commonly used for playing card games, and are also used in magic tricks, cardistry,[1][2] card throwing,[3] and card houses; cards may also be collected.[4] Some patterns of Tarot playing card are also used for divination, although bespoke cards for this use are more common.[citation needed] Playing cards are typically palm-sized for convenient handling, and usually are sold together in a set as a deck of cards or pack of cards. The most common type of playing card is that found in the French-suited, standard 52-card pack, of which the most common design is the English pattern,[a] followed by the Belgian-Genoese pattern.[5] However, many countries use other, traditional types of playing card, including those that are German, Italian, Spanish and Swiss-suited. Tarot cards (also known locally as Tarocks or tarocchi) are an old genre of playing card that is still very popular in France, central and Eastern Europe and Italy. Asia, too, has regional cards such as the Japanese hanafuda. The reverse side of the card is often covered with a pattern that will make it difficult for players to look through the translucent material to read other people's cards. Playing cards are available in a wide variety of styles, as decks may be custom-produced for casinos[6] and magicians[7] (sometimes in the form of trick decks),[8] made as promotional items,[9] or intended as souvenirs,[10][11] artistic works, educational tools,[12][13][14] or branded accessories.[15] Decks of cards or even single cards are also collected as a hobby or for monetary value.[16][17] Cards may also be produced for trading card sets or collectible card games, which can comprise hundreds if not thousands of unique cards, or as supplements for board games. ... History China A Chinese printed playing card dated c. 1400 AD, Ming Dynasty, found near Turpan, measuring 9.5 by 3.5 cm. Further information: Chinese playing cards Playing cards may have been invented during the Tang dynasty around the 9th century AD as a result of the usage of woodblock printing technology.[18][19][20][21][22] The earliest known text containing a possible reference to card games is a 9th-century text known as the Collection of Miscellanea at Duyang, written by Tang dynasty writer Su E. It describes Princess Tongchang, daughter of Emperor Yizong of Tang, playing the "leaf game" in 868 with members of the Wei clan, the family of the princess's husband.[20][23][24] The first known book on the "leaf" game was called the Yezi Gexi and allegedly written by a Tang woman. It received commentary by writers of subsequent dynasties.[25] The Song dynasty (960–1279) scholar Ouyang Xiu (1007–1072) asserts that the "leaf" game existed at least since the mid-Tang dynasty and associated its invention with the development of printed sheets as a writing medium.[20][25] However, Ouyang also claims that the "leaves" were pages of a book used in a board game played with dice, and that the rules of the game were lost by 1067.[26] Other games revolving around alcoholic drinking involved using playing cards of a sort from the Tang dynasty onward. However, these cards did not contain suits or numbers. Instead, they were printed with instructions or forfeits for whomever drew them.[26] The earliest dated instance of a game involving cards occurred on 17 July 1294 when "Yan Sengzhu and Zheng Pig-Dog were caught playing cards [zhi pai] and that wood blocks for printing them had been impounded, together with nine of the actual cards."[26] William Henry Wilkinson suggests that the first cards may have been actual paper currency which doubled as both the tools of gaming and the stakes being played for,[19] similar to trading card games. Using paper money was inconvenient and risky so they were substituted by play money known as "money cards". One of the earliest games in which we know the rules is madiao, a trick-taking game, which dates to the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644). 15th-century scholar Lu Rong described it is as being played with 38 "money cards" divided into four suits: 9 in coins, 9 in strings of coins (which may have been misinterpreted as sticks from crude drawings), 9 in myriads (of coins or of strings), and 11 in tens of myriads (a myriad is 10,000). The two latter suits had Water Margin characters instead of pips on them[27] with Chinese to mark their rank and suit. The suit of coins is in reverse order with 9 of coins being the lowest going up to 1 of coins as the high card.[28] Persia and Arabia Despite the wide variety of patterns, the suits show a uniformity of structure. Every suit contains twelve cards with the top two usually being the court cards of king and vizier and the bottom ten being pip cards. Half the suits use reverse ranking for their pip cards. There are many motifs for the suit pips but some include coins, clubs, jugs, and swords which resemble later Mamluk and Latin suits. Michael Dummett speculated that Mamluk cards may have descended from an earlier deck which consisted of 48 cards divided into four suits each with ten pip cards and two court cards.[29] Egypt Four Mamluk playing cards. By the 11th century, playing cards were spreading throughout the Asian continent and later came into Egypt.[30] The oldest surviving cards in the world are four fragments found in the Keir Collection and one in the Benaki Museum. They are dated to the 12th and 13th centuries (late Fatimid, Ayyubid, and early Mamluk periods).[31] A near complete pack of Mamluk playing cards dating to the 15th century and of similar appearance to the fragments above was discovered by Leo Aryeh Mayer in the Topkapı Palace, Istanbul, in 1939.[32] It is not a complete set and is actually composed of three different packs, probably to replace missing cards.[33] The Topkapı pack originally contained 52 cards comprising four suits: polo-sticks, coins, swords, and cups. Each suit contained ten pip cards and three court cards, called malik (king), nā'ib malik (viceroy or deputy king), and thānī nā'ib (second or under-deputy). The thānī nā'ib is a non-existent title so it may not have been in the earliest versions; without this rank, the Mamluk suits would structurally be the same as a Ganjifa suit. In fact, the word "Kanjifah" appears in Arabic on the king of swords and is still used in parts of the Middle East to describe modern playing cards. Influence from further east can explain why the Mamluks, most of whom were Central Asian Turkic Kipchaks, called their cups tuman, which means "myriad" (10,000) in the Turkic, Mongolian and Jurchen languages.[34] Wilkinson postulated that the cups may have been derived from inverting the Chinese and Jurchen ideogram for "myriad", 万, which was pronounced as something like man in Middle Chinese. The Mamluk court cards showed abstract designs or calligraphy not depicting persons possibly due to religious proscription in Sunni Islam, though they did bear the ranks on the cards. Nā'ib would be borrowed into French (nahipi), Italian (naibi), and Spanish (naipes), the latter word still in common usage. Panels on the pip cards in two suits show they had a reverse ranking, a feature found in madiao, ganjifa, and old European card games like ombre, tarot, and maw.[35] A fragment of two uncut sheets of Moorish-styled cards of a similar but plainer style was found in Spain and dated to the early 15th century.[36] Export of these cards (from Cairo, Alexandria, and Damascus), ceased after the fall of the Mamluks in the 16th century.[37] The rules to play these games are lost but they are believed to be plain trick games without trumps.[38] Spread across Europe and early design changes Further information: Tarot Knave of Coins from the oldest known European deck (c. 1390–1410). Card players in 18th Century Venice, by Pietro Longhi. The earliest record of playing cards in Europe is believed by some researchers to be a ban on card games in the city of Bern in 1367,[39][40] although this source is questionable.[41][42] Generally accepted as the first is a Florentine ban dating to 1377.[43][44][45] Also appearing in 1377 was the treatise by John of Rheinfelden, in which he describes playing cards and their moral meaning.[46] From this year onwards more and more records (usually bans) of playing cards occur,[47][48] first appearing in England as early as 1413.[49] Among the early patterns of playing card were those probably derived from the Mamluk suits of cups, coins, swords, and polo-sticks, which are still used in traditional Latin decks.[50] As polo was an obscure sport to Europeans then, the polo-sticks became batons or cudgels.[51] Their presence is attested in Catalonia in 1371, 1377 in Switzerland, and 1380 in many locations including Florence and Paris.[52][53][54] Wide use of playing cards in Europe can, with some certainty, be traced from 1377 onward.[55] In the account books of Johanna, Duchess of Brabant and Wenceslaus I, Duke of Luxembourg, an entry dated May 14, 1379, by receiver general of Brabant Renier Hollander reads: "Given to Monsieur and Madame four peters and two florins, worth eight and a half sheep, for the purchase of packs of cards".[56] In his book of accounts for 1392 or 1393, Charles or Charbot Poupart, treasurer of the household of Charles VI of France, records payment for the painting of three sets of cards.[57] From about 1418 to 1450[58] professional card makers in Ulm, Nuremberg, and Augsburg created printed decks. Playing cards even competed with devotional images as the most common uses for woodcuts in this period. Most early woodcuts of all types were coloured after printing, either by hand or, from about 1450 onwards, stencils. These 15th-century playing cards were probably painted. The Flemish Hunting Deck, held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, is the oldest complete set of ordinary playing cards made in Europe from the 15th century.[59] As cards spread from Italy to Germanic countries, the Latin suits were replaced with the suits of leaves (or shields), hearts (or roses), bells, and acorns, and a combination of Latin and Germanic suit pictures and names resulted in the French suits of trèfles (clovers), carreaux (tiles), cœurs (hearts), and piques (pikes) around 1480. The trèfle (clover) was probably derived from the acorn and the pique (pike) from the leaf of the German suits. The names pique and spade, however, may have derived from the sword (spade) of the Italian suits.[60] In England, the French suits were eventually used, although the earliest packs circulating may have had Latin suits.[61] This may account for why the English called the clovers "clubs" and the pikes "spades". In the late 14th century, Europeans changed the Mamluk court cards to represent European royalty and attendants. In a description from 1377, the earliest courts were originally a seated "king", an upper marshal that held his suit symbol up, and a lower marshal that held it down.[62][63] The latter two correspond with the ober and unter cards found in German and Swiss playing cards. The Italians and Iberians replaced the Ober/Unter system with the "Knight" and "Fante" or "Sota" before 1390, perhaps to make the cards more visually distinguishable. In England, the lowest court card was called the "knave" which originally meant male child (compare German Knabe), so in this context the character could represent the "prince", son to the king and queen; the meaning servant developed later.[64][65] Queens appeared sporadically in packs as early as 1377, especially in Germany. Although the Germans abandoned the queen before the 1500s, the French permanently picked it up and placed it under the king. Packs of 56 cards containing in each suit a king, queen, knight, and knave (as in tarot) were once common in the 15th century. In 1628, the Mistery of Makers of Playing Cards of the City of London (now the Worshipful Company of Makers of Playing Cards) was incorporated under a royal charter by Charles I; the Company received livery status from the Court of Aldermen of the City of London in 1792.[66] The Company still exists today, having expanded its member ranks to include "card makers... card collectors, dealers, bridge players, [and] magicians".[67] During the mid 16th century, Portuguese traders introduced playing cards to Japan. The first indigenous Japanese deck was the Tenshō karuta named after the Tenshō period.[68] Later design changes Imperial Bower, the earliest Joker, by Samuel Hart[69][circular reference], c. 1863. Originally designed for use in a specific variant of euchre, it contains instructions for unfamiliar players. Packs with corner and edge indices (i.e. the value of the card printed at the corner(s) of the card) enabled players to hold their cards close together in a fan with one hand (instead of the two hands previously used).[70] The first such pack known with Latin suits was printed by Infirerra and dated 1693,[71] but this feature was commonly used only from the end of the 18th century. The first American-manufactured (French) deck with this innovation was the Saladee's Patent, printed by Samuel Hart in 1864. In 1870, he and his cousins at Lawrence & Cohen followed up with the Squeezers, the first cards with indices that had a large diffusion.[4] Girl with Cards by Lucius Kutchin, 1933, Smithsonian American Art Museum This was followed by the innovation of reversible court cards. This invention is attributed to a French card maker of Agen in 1745. But the French government, which controlled the design of playing cards, prohibited the printing of cards with this innovation. In central Europe (Trappola cards) and Italy (Tarocco Bolognese) the innovation was adopted during the second half of the 18th century. In Great Britain, the pack with reversible court cards was patented in 1799 by Edmund Ludlow and Ann Wilcox. The French pack with this design was printed around 1802 by Thomas Wheeler.[72] Sharp corners wear out more quickly, and could possibly reveal the card's value, so they were replaced with rounded corners. Before the mid-19th century, British, American, and French players preferred blank backs. The need to hide wear and tear and to discourage writing on the back led cards to have designs, pictures, photos, or advertising on the reverse.[73][74] The United States introduced the joker into the deck. It was devised for the game of euchre, which spread from Europe to America beginning shortly after the American Revolutionary War. In euchre, the highest trump card is the Jack of the trump suit, called the right bower (from the German Bauer); the second-highest trump, the left bower, is the jack of the suit of the same color as trumps. The joker was invented c. 1860 as a third trump, the imperial or best bower, which ranked higher than the other two bowers.[75] The name of the card is believed to derive from juker, a variant name for euchre.[76][77] The earliest reference to a joker functioning as a wild card dates to 1875 with a variation of poker.[78] Research Columbia University's Rare Book and Manuscript Library holds the Albert Field Collection of Playing Cards, an archive of over 6,000 individual decks from over 50 countries and dating back to the 1550s.[13] In 2018 the university digitized over 100 of its decks.[79] Since 2017, Vanderbilt University has been home to the 1,000-volume George Clulow and United States Playing Card Co. Gaming Collection, which has been called one of the "most complete and scholarly collections [of books on cards and gaming] that has ever been gathered together".[80] Modern deck formats German     Hearts Bay herz.svg     Bells Bay schellen.svg     Acorns Bay eichel.svg     Leaves Bay gras.svg French     Hearts SuitHearts.svg     Tiles SuitDiamonds.svg     Clovers SuitClubs.svg     Pikes SuitSpades.svg Italian     Cups Seme coppe carte trevisane.svg     Coins Seme denari carte trevisane.svg     Clubs Seme bastoni carte trevisane.svg     Swords Seme spade carte trevisane.svg Spanish     Cups Seme coppe carte spagnole.svg     Coins Seme denari carte spagnole.svg     Clubs Seme bastoni carte spagnole.svg     Swords Seme spade carte spagnole.svg Swiss-German     Roses RosendeutschschweizerBlatt.svg     Bells SchellendeutschschweizerBlatt.svg     Acorns EichelndeutschschweizerBlatt.svg     Shields Bouclier jeu de carte.svg Main article: List of traditional card and tile packs See also: Suit (cards) Contemporary playing cards are grouped into three broad categories based on the suits they use: French, Latin, and Germanic. Latin suits are used in the closely related Spanish and Italian formats. The Swiss-German suits are distinct enough to merit their subcategory. Excluding jokers and tarot trumps, the French 52-card deck preserves the number of cards in the original Mamluk deck, while Latin and Germanic decks average fewer. Latin decks usually drop the higher-valued pip cards, while Germanic decks drop the lower-valued ones. Within suits, there are regional or national variations called "standard patterns." Because these patterns are in the public domain, this allows multiple card manufacturers to recreate them.[81] Pattern differences are most easily found in the face cards but the number of cards per deck, the use of numeric indices, or even minor shape and arrangement differences of the pips can be used to distinguish them. Some patterns have been around for hundreds of years. Jokers are not part of any pattern as they are a relatively recent invention and lack any standardized appearance so each publisher usually puts its own trademarked illustration into their decks. The wide variation of jokers has turned them into collectible items. Any card that bore the stamp duty like the ace of spades in England, the ace of clubs in France or the ace of coins in Italy are also collectible as that is where the manufacturer's logo is usually placed. Typically, playing cards have indices printed in the upper-left and lower-right corners. While this design doesn't restrict which hand players hold their cards, some left-handed players may prefer to fan their cards in the opposite direction. Some designs exist with indices in all four corners.[82][83] French-suited decks Main article: French playing cards 52 French playing cards with jokers French decks come in a variety of patterns and deck sizes. The 52-card deck is the most popular deck and includes 13 ranks of each suit with reversible "court" or face cards. Each suit includes an ace, depicting a single symbol of its suit, a king, queen, and jack, each depicted with a symbol of their suit; and ranks two through ten, with each card depicting that number of pips of its suit. As well as these 52 cards, commercial packs often include between one and six jokers, most often two. Decks with fewer than 52 cards are known as stripped decks. The piquet pack has all values from 2 through 6 in each suit removed for a total of 32 cards. It is popular in France, the Low Countries, Central Europe and Russia and is used to play piquet, belote, bezique and skat. It is also used in the Sri Lankan, whist-based game known as omi. Forty-card French suited packs are common in northwest Italy; these remove the 8s through 10s like Latin suited decks. 24 card decks, removing 2s through 8s are also sold in Austria and Bavaria to play schnapsen. A pinochle deck consists of two copies of a 24 card schnapsen deck, thus 48 cards. The 78 card tarot nouveau adds the knight card between queens and jacks along with 21 numbered trumps and the unnumbered Fool. Manufacturing Today the process of making playing cards is highly automated. Large sheets of paper are glued together to create a sheet of pasteboard; the glue may be black or dyed another dark color to increase the card stock's opacity. In the industry, this black compound is sometimes known as "gick".[citation needed] Some card manufacturers may purchase pasteboard from various suppliers; large companies such as USPCC create their own proprietary pasteboard. After the desired imagery is etched into printing plates, the art is printed onto each side of the pasteboard sheet, which is coated with a textured or smooth finish, sometimes called a varnish or paint coating. These coatings can be water- or solvent-based, and different textures and visual effects can be achieved by adding certain dyes or foils, or using multiple varnish processes.[84] The pasteboard is then split into individual uncut sheets, which are cut into single cards and sorted into decks.[85] The corners are then rounded, after which the decks are packaged, commonly in tuck boxes wrapped in cellophane. The tuck box may have a seal applied.[86][87] Card manufacturers must pay special attention to the registration of the cards, as non-symmetrical cards can be used to cheat.[88][6] Non-standard design and use Casinos Gambling corporations commonly have playing cards made specifically for their casinos. As casinos go through large numbers of decks each day, they may sometimes resell used cards that were "on the [casino] floor". The cards sold to the public are altered, either by cutting the deck's corners or by punching a hole in the deck,[6] to prevent these cards from being used in the casino to cheat. Collecting A deck of playing cards featuring a skull motif A deck of custom-designed playing cards. Because of the long history and wide variety in designs, playing cards are also collector's items.[89] According to Guinness World Records, the largest playing card collection comprises 11,087 decks and is owned by Liu Fuchang of China.[90] Individual playing cards are also collected, such as the world record collection of 8,520 different Jokers belonging to Tony De Santis of Italy.[91] Custom designs and artwork Custom decks may be produced for myriad purposes. Across the world, both individuals and large companies such as United States Playing Card Company (USPCC) design and release many different styles of decks,[92] including commemorative decks[93] and souvenir decks.[11][94] Bold and colorful designs tend to be used for cardistry decks,[1][95][96] while more generally, playing cards (as well as tarot cards) may focus on artistic value.[93][97][98][99] Custom deck production is commonly funded on platforms such as Kickstarter,[100][101][102] with companies offering card printing services to the public. In 1976, the JPL Gallery in London commissioned a card deck from a variety of contemporary British artists including Maggie Hambling, Patrick Heron, David Hockney, Howard Hodgkin, John Hoyland, and Allen Jones called "The Deck of Cards".[103] Forty years later in 2016, the British Council commissioned a similar deck called "Taash ke Patte" featuring Indian artists such as Bhuri Bai, Shilpa Gupta, Krishen Khanna, Ram Rahman, Gulam Mohammed Sheikh, Arpita Singh, and Thukral & Tagra.[103][104][105] Cold case cards A single card from an Australian cold case playing card deck. Police departments,[106] local governments, state prison systems,[107] and even private organizations[108] across the United States have created decks of cards that feature photos, names, and details of cold case victims or missing persons on each card.[13][109] These decks are sold in prison commissaries, or even to the public,[106] in the hopes that an inmate (or anyone else) might provide a new lead.[110] Cold case card programs have been introduced in over a dozen states, including by Oklahoma's State Bureau of Investigation,[111] Connecticut's Division of Criminal Justice, Delaware's Department of Correction,[112] the Florida Department of Law Enforcement,[113] and Rhode Island's Department of Corrections,[114] among others. Among inmates, they may be called "snitch cards".[115] Symbols in Unicode ♠ ♣ ♥ ♦ ♤ ♧ ♡ ♢ Suit symbols In Unicode    U+2660 ♠ BLACK SPADE SUIT U+2661 ♡ WHITE HEART SUIT U+2662 ♢ WHITE DIAMOND SUIT U+2663 ♣ BLACK CLUB SUIT U+2664 ♤ WHITE SPADE SUIT U+2665 ♥ BLACK HEART SUIT U+2666 ♦ BLACK DIAMOND SUIT U+2667 ♧ WHITE CLUB SUIT Main article: Playing cards in Unicode The Unicode standard for text encoding on computers defines 8 characters for card suits in the Miscellaneous Symbols block, at U+2660–2667. Unicode 7.0 added a unified pack for French-suited tarot nouveau's trump cards and the 52 cards of the modern French pack, with 4 knights, together with a character for "Playing Card Back" and black, red, and white jokers in the block U+1F0A0–1F0FF.[116] The Unicode names for each group of four glyphs are 'black' and 'white' but might have been more accurately described as 'solid' and 'outline' since the colour actually used at display or printing time is an application choice." (wikipedia.org) "The standard 52-card deck of French-suited playing cards is the most common pack of playing cards used today.[a] In English-speaking countries it is the only traditional pack[b] used for playing cards; in many countries of the world, however, it is used alongside other traditional, often older, standard packs with different suit symbols and pack sizes. The most common pattern worldwide and the only pattern commonly available in Britain and America is the English pattern pack. The second most common is the Belgian-Genoese pattern, designed in France, but whose use spread to Spain, Italy, the Ottoman Empire, the Balkans and much of North Africa and the Middle East.[1] In addition to those, there are other major international and regional patterns.... Composition A standard 52-card deck comprises 13 ranks in each of the four French suits: clubs (♣), diamonds (♦), hearts (♥) and spades (♠). Each suit includes three court cards (face cards), King, Queen and Jack, with reversible (double-headed) images. Each suit also includes ten numeral cards or pip cards, from one to ten. The card with one pip is known as an Ace. Each pip card dispays the number of pips (symbols of the suit) corresponding to its number, as well as the appropriate numeral (but "A" for the Ace) in at least two corners. In addition, commercial decks often include anywhere from one to six (most often two or three since the mid-20th century) Jokers, often distinguishable with one being more colourful than the other, as some card games require these extra cards.[2][3] Example set of 52 playing cards; 13 of each suit: clubs, diamonds, hearts, and spades     Ace     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9     10     Jack     Queen     King Clubs     Ace of clubs     2 of clubs     3 of clubs     4 of clubs     5 of clubs     6 of clubs     7 of clubs     8 of clubs     9 of clubs     10 of clubs     Jack of clubs     Queen of clubs     King of clubs Diamonds     Ace of diamonds     2 of diamonds     3 of diamonds     4 of diamonds     5 of diamonds     6 of diamonds     7 of diamonds     8 of diamonds     9 of diamonds     10 of diamonds     Jack of diamonds     Queen of diamonds     King of diamonds Hearts     Ace of hearts     2 of hearts     3 of hearts     4 of hearts     5 of hearts     6 of hearts     7 of hearts     8 of hearts     9 of hearts     10 of hearts     Jack of hearts     Queen of hearts     King of hearts Spades     Ace of spades     2 of spades     3 of spades     4 of spades     5 of spades     6 of spades     7 of spades     8 of spades     9 of spades     10 of spades     Jack of spades     Queen of spades     King of spades Design Dondorf Rhineland pattern The most popular standard pattern of the French deck is the English pattern[c] (pictured above), sometimes referred to as the International pattern or Anglo-American pattern.[4] The second most common is the Belgian-Genoese pattern, which was designed in France for export and spread to Spain, Italy, the Ottoman Empire, the Balkans and much of North Africa and the Middle East.[1] There are also numerous others such as the Berlin pattern, Nordic pattern, Dondorf Rhineland pattern (pictured right) and the variants of the European pattern. Modern playing cards carry index labels on opposite corners or in all four corners to facilitate identifying the cards when they overlap and so that they appear identical for players on opposite sides. For the Ace and court cards, this label is the initial letter or letters of the name of that card. In English-speaking countries they are lettered A, K, Q and J for Ace, King, Queen and Jack. In other countries the letters may vary, although the English versions are also sometimes used. Germany uses A, K, D and B (Ass,[d] König, Dame and Bube); Russia uses (the Cyrillic equivalents of?) T, K, D and B (Tuz, Korol, Dama and Valet); Sweden uses E, K, D and Kn (Ess, Kung, Dam and Knekt) and France uses 1, R, D, V (1, Roi, Dame, and Valet). Although French-suited, 52-card packs are the most common playing cards used internationally, there are many countries or regions where the traditional pack size is only 36 (Russia, Bavaria) or 32 (north and central Germany, Austria) or where regional cards with smaller packs are preferred for many games. For example, 40- or 48-card Italian-suited packs are common in Italy; 40- and 48-card Spanish-suited packs on the Iberian peninsula; and 36-card German-suited packs are very common in Bavaria and Austria. In addition, tarot cards are required for games such as French tarot (78 cards), which is widely played in France, and the Tarock family of games (42 or 54 cards) played in countries like Austria and Hungary. History The English pattern pack originated in Britain which was importing French playing cards from Rouen and Antwerp by 1480. The earliest cards of the English pattern date to around 1516. But Britain only started manufacturing its own cards towards the end of the 16th century, when card production began in London. These were based on the Rouen pattern, but unlike the traditional French cards, they dropped the names on the court cards. The English pattern evolved, in the process losing "some of its Rouen flavour and elegance and became more and more stylised. The figures took more space in the cards and many details were distorted."[4] All early cards of this type were single-headed, but around 1860, the double-headed cards, universally used on modern decks, appeared. Corner indices were added around 1880. During the 19th century, the English pattern spread all over the world and is now used almost everywhere, even in countries where traditional patterns and other suits are popular. In America, the English pattern was copied onto wider cards.[4] The fanciful design and manufacturer's logo commonly displayed on the ace of spades began under the reign of James I of England, who passed a law requiring an insignia on that card as proof of payment of a tax on local manufacture of cards. Until August 4, 1960, decks of playing cards printed and sold in the United Kingdom were liable for taxable duty and the ace of spades carried an indication of the name of the printer and the fact that taxation had been paid on the cards.[e] The packs were also sealed with a government duty wrapper. Card size Manufacturer     Country     Marketed as     Length     Width in     mm     in     mm De La Rue (c. 1870)     UK     not specified     3.7     94     2.5     64 Ravensburger     Germany     Poker     3.6     92     2.3     59 Handa (wide)[f]     Denmark     not specified     3.6     91     2.4     62 ASS Altenburger     Germany     Poker, Rummy     3.6     91     2.3     59 De La Rue (c. 1890) (Pneumatic Series F (Thin))     UK     not specified     3.5     90     2.4     62 Kem (wide)     US     Poker[g]     3.5     89     2.5     64 Piatnik (narrow)     Austria     Bridge, Poker, Whist     3.5     89     2.3     58 Kem (narrow)     US     Bridge     3.5     89     2.25     57 Piatnik (wide)     Austria     Classic Poker, Poker Pro     3.5     88     2.5     63 Waddingtons     UK     not specified     3.5     88     2.3     58 Handa (narrow)     Denmark     not specified     3.4     87     2.2     56 Oberg     Sweden     Poker     3.4     87     2.2     56 Bicycle     US     Poker     3.5     88     2.5     63 Historically the size of playing cards was down to the printer, but during the 19th century sizes became standardised, initially to a size of 3½ x 2½ inches. Today these are often referred to as "wide" cards or "poker-sized" cards. Wider playing cards had advantages: it was harder to cheat and, if packs were unavailable, dog-eared cards could be trimmed smaller. Narrower cards, known as "whist-sized" or "bridge-sized" cards, probably first appeared in Europe and enabled players to handle the larger numbers of cards required for games like bridge.[5][6] However, there is no formal requirement for precise adherence and minor variations are produced by various manufacturers in different countries.[7] In Germany, for example, standard Poker and Rummy packs by ASS Altenburger and Ravensburger measure 92 × 59 mm.[8] Austria's Piatnik sells packs marketed for Bridge, Poker and Whist measuring 89 × 58 mm;[9] while Britain's Waddingtons produce generic packs sized at 88 × 58 mm. Other sizes are also available, such as a medium size (usually 67 × 42 mm or 2.6 × 1.7 in) and a miniature size (typically 45 × 32 mm or 1.8 × 1.3 in).[10] These are often intended for playing patience or solitaire games.[10] Larger 'jumbo' cards are produced for card tricks and those with poor eyesight. The thickness and weight of modern playing cards are subject to numerous variables related to their purpose of use and associated material design for durability, stiffness, texture and appearance.[11] Markings Some decks include additional design elements. Casino blackjack decks may include markings intended for a machine to check the ranks of cards, or shifts in rank location to allow a manual check via an inlaid mirror. Many casino decks and solitaire decks have four indices instead of just two. Some modern decks have bar code markings on the edge of the face to enable them to be sorted by machine (for playing duplicate bridge, especially simultaneous events where the same hands may be played at many different venues). Some decks have large indices for clarity. These are sometimes sold as 'seniors' cards for older people with limited eyesight, but may also be used in games like stud poker, where being able to read cards from a distance is a benefit and hand sizes are small. Four-colour packs Main article: Four-colour pack The standard French-suited pack uses black for the spades and clubs, and red for the hearts and diamonds. However, some packs use four colours for the suits in order to make it easier to tell them apart. There are several schemes: a common one is the English Poker format with black spades (♠), red hearts (♥), blue diamonds (♦) and green clubs (♣). Another common system is based on the German suits and uses green spades (♠) and yellow diamonds (♦) with red hearts (♥) and black clubs (♣). Nomenclature When giving the full written name of a specific card, the rank is given first followed by the suit, e.g., "ace of spades" or "Ace of Spades".[h] Shorthand notation may reflect this by listing the rank first, "A♠"; this is common usage when discussing poker; but it is equally common in more general sources to find the suit listed first, as in "♠K" for a single card or "♠AKQ" for multiple cards. This is common practice when writing about bridge as it helps differentiate between the card(s) and the contract (e.g. "4♥", a contract of four hearts). Tens may be either abbreviated to T or written as 10. Terminology Common collective and individual terms for playing cards relevant, but not exclusive to, the 52-card pack are:     Face cards or court cards – jacks, queens and kings.     Honour cards - aces and the face cards     Wild cards – When deciding which cards are to be made wild in some games, the phrase "acey, deucey or one-eyed jack" (or "deuces, aces, one-eyed faces") is sometimes used, which means that aces, twos, and the one-eyed jacks are all wild.     Numerals or pip cards are the cards numbered from 2 to 10.     "2" cards are also known as deuces.     "3" cards are also known as treys.     "4" cards are also known as sailboats     "8" cards are also known as snowmen Nicknames For a comprehensive list of card nicknames, see List of playing-card nicknames.     One-eyed Royals – the jack of spades and jack of hearts (often called the "one-eyed jacks"[12]) and the king of diamonds are drawn in profile; therefore, these cards are commonly referred to as "one-eyed". The rest of the courts are shown in full or oblique face.     The jack of diamonds is sometimes known as "laughing boy".[12]     Suicide kings – The king of hearts is typically shown with a sword behind his head, making him appear to be stabbing himself. Similarly, the one-eyed king of diamonds is typically shown with an ax behind his head with the blade facing toward him. These depictions, and their blood-red colour, inspired the nickname "suicide kings".[12]     The king of diamonds is traditionally armed with an ax, while the other three kings are armed with swords; thus, the king of diamonds is sometimes referred to as "the man with the axe". This is the basis of the trump "one-eyed jacks and the man with the axe". Poker may be played with wild cards, often "Aces, Jacks, and the King with the Axe".[12]     The ace of spades, unique in its large, ornate spade, is sometimes said to be the death card or the picture card, and in some games is used as a trump card.[12]     The queen of spades usually holds a sceptre and is sometimes known as "the bedpost queen", though more often she is called the "black lady". She also is the only queen facing left.[12]     In many decks, the queen of clubs holds a flower. She is thus known as the "flower queen", though this design element is among the most variable; the Bicycle Poker deck depicts all queens with a flower styled according to their suit.[12] Unicode As of Unicode 7.0, playing cards are now represented. Note that the following chart ("Cards", Range: 1F0A0–1F0FF) includes cards from the Tarot Nouveau deck, as well as the standard 52-card deck." (wikipedia.org) "In playing cards, a suit is one of the categories into which the cards of a deck are divided. Most often, each card bears one of several pips (symbols) showing to which suit it belongs; the suit may alternatively or additionally be indicated by the color printed on the card. The rank for each card is determined by the number of pips on it, except on face cards. Ranking indicates which cards within a suit are better, higher or more valuable than others, whereas there is no order between the suits unless defined in the rules of a specific card game. In a single deck, there is exactly one card of any given rank in any given suit. A deck may include special cards that belong to no suit, often called jokers.... History Various languages have different terminology for suits such as colors, signs, or seeds. Modern Western playing cards are generally divided into two or three general suit-systems. The older Latin suits are subdivided into the Italian and Spanish suit-systems. The younger Germanic suits are subdivided into the German and Swiss suit-systems. The French suits are a derivative of the German suits but are generally considered a separate system.[1][2] Origin and development of the Latin suits Latin suits Italian[a]     Cups (Coppe) Seme coppe carte trevisane.svg     Coins (Denari) Seme denari carte trevisane.svg     Clubs (Bastoni) Seme bastoni carte trevisane.svg     Swords (Spade) Seme spade carte trevisane.svg Spanish[b]     Cups (Copas) Seme coppe carte spagnole.svg     Coins (Oros) Seme denari carte spagnole.svg     Clubs (Bastos) Seme bastoni carte spagnole.svg     Swords (Espadas) Seme spade carte spagnole.svg Main articles: Spanish-suited playing cards and Italian playing cards The earliest card games were trick-taking games and the invention of suits increased the level of strategy and depth in these games. A card of one suit cannot beat a card from another regardless of its rank. The concept of suits predate playing cards and can be found in Chinese dice and domino games such as Tien Gow. Chinese money-suited cards are believed to be the oldest ancestor to the Latin suit-system. The money-suit system is based on denominations of currency: Coins, Strings of Coins, Myriads of Strings (or of coins), and Tens of Myriads. Old Chinese coins had holes in the middle to allow them to be strung together. A string of coins could easily be misinterpreted as a stick to those unfamiliar with them. By then the Islamic world had spread into Central Asia and had contacted China, and had adopted playing cards. The Muslims renamed the suit of myriads as cups; this may have been due to seeing a Chinese character for "myriad" (万) upside-down. The Chinese numeral character for Ten (十) on the Tens of Myriads suit may have inspired the Muslim suit of swords.[3] Another clue linking these Chinese, Muslim, and European cards are the ranking of certain suits. In many early Chinese games like Madiao, the suit of coins was in reverse order so that the lower ones beat the higher ones. In the Indo-Persian game of Ganjifa, half the suits were also inverted, including a suit of coins. This was also true for the European games of Tarot and Ombre. The inverting of suits had no purpose in terms of play but was an artifact from the earliest games. These Turko-Arabic cards, called Kanjifa, used the suits coins, clubs, cups, and swords, but the clubs represented polo sticks; Europeans changed that suit, as polo was an obscure sport to them. The Latin suits are coins, clubs, cups, and swords. They are the earliest suit-system in Europe, and were adopted from the cards imported from Mamluk Egypt and Moorish Granada in the 1370s. There are four types of Latin suits: Italian, Spanish, Portuguese,[c] and an extinct archaic type.[4][5] The systems can be distinguished by the pips of their long suits: swords and clubs.     Northern Italian swords are curved outward and the clubs appear to be batons. They intersect one another.     Southern Italian and Spanish swords are straight, and the clubs appear to be knobbly cudgels. They do not cross each other (The common exception being the three of clubs).     Portuguese pips are like the Spanish, but they intersect like Northern Italian ones. They sometimes have dragons on the aces.[6] This system lingers on only in the Tarocco Siciliano and the Unsun Karuta of Japan.     The archaic system[d] is like the Northern Italian one, but the swords are curved inward so they touch each other without intersecting.[7][8]     Minchiate (a game that used a 97-card deck) used a mixed system of Italian clubs and Portuguese swords. Despite a long history of trade with China, Japan was introduced to playing cards with the arrival of the Portuguese in the 1540s. Early locally made cards, Karuta, were very similar to Portuguese decks. Increasing restrictions by the Tokugawa shogunate on gambling, card playing, and general foreign influence, resulted in the Hanafuda card deck that today is used most often for fishing-type games. The role of rank and suit in organizing cards became switched, so the hanafuda deck has 12 suits, each representing a month of the year, and each suit has 4 cards, most often two normal, one Ribbon and one Special (though August, November and December each differ uniquely from this convention). Invention of German and French suits Main articles: German-suited playing cards and French-suited playing cards Comparison of German, French and Swiss suits[e] Swiss-German[f]     Roses[g] RosendeutschschweizerBlatt.svg     Bells[h] SchellendeutschschweizerBlatt.svg     Acorns[i] EichelndeutschschweizerBlatt.svg     Shields[j] Bouclier jeu de carte.svg German     Hearts[k] Bay herz.svg     Bells[l] Bay schellen.svg     Acorns[m] Bay eichel.svg     Leaves[n] Bay gras.svg French     Hearts SuitHearts.svg     Tiles (Diamonds) SuitDiamonds.svg     Clovers (Clubs)[o] SuitClubs.svg     Pikes (Spades)[p] SuitSpades.svg During the 15th-century, manufacturers in German speaking lands experimented with various new suit systems to replace the Latin suits. One early deck had five suits, the Latin ones with an extra suit of shields.[9] The Swiss-Germans developed their own suits of shields, roses, acorns, and bells around 1450.[10] Instead of roses and shields, the Germans settled with hearts and leaves around 1460. The French derived their suits of trèfles (clovers or clubs ♣), carreaux (tiles or diamonds ♦), cœurs (hearts ♥), and piques (pikes or spades ♠) from the German suits around 1480. French suits correspond closely with German suits with the exception of the tiles with the bells but there is one early French deck that had crescents instead of tiles. The English names for the French suits of clubs and spades may simply have been carried over from the older Latin suits.[11] Tarot Beginning around 1440 in northern Italy, some decks started to include an extra suit of (usually) 21 numbered cards known as trionfi or trumps, to play tarot card games.[12] Always included in tarot decks is one card, the Fool or Excuse, which may be part of the trump suit depending on the game or region. These cards do not have pips or face cards like the other suits. Most tarot decks used for games come with French suits but Italian suits are still used in Piedmont, Bologna, and pockets of Switzerland. A few Sicilian towns use the Portuguese-suited Tarocco Siciliano, the only deck of its kind left in Europe. Tarot decks intended for divination typically have the suits cups, pentacles (or coins), wands, and swords, along with the Major Arcana trump cards.[13][14] Suits in games with traditional decks Trumps In a large and popular category of trick-taking games, one suit may be designated in each deal to be trump and all cards of the trump suit rank above all non-trump cards, and automatically prevail over them, losing only to a higher trump if one is played to the same trick.[15] Non-trump suits are called plain suits.[16] Special suits Some games treat one or more suits as being special or different from the others. A simple example is Spades, which uses spades as a permanent trump suit. A less simple example is Hearts, which is a kind of point trick game in which the object is to avoid taking tricks containing hearts. With typical rules for Hearts (rules vary slightly) the queen of spades and the two of clubs (sometimes also the jack of diamonds) have special effects, with the result that all four suits have different strategic value. Tarot decks have a dedicated trump suit. Chosen suits Games of the Karnöffel Group have between one and four chosen suits, sometimes called selected suits, which are typified by having a disrupted ranking and cards with varying privileges which may range from full to none and which may depend on the order they are played to the trick. For example, chosen Sevens may be unbeatable when led, but otherwise worthless. In Swedish Bräus some cards are even unplayable. In games where the number of chosen suits is less than four, the others are called unchosen suits and rank in their natural order. Ranking of suits Whist-style rules generally preclude the necessity of determining which of two cards of different suits has higher rank, because a card played on a card of a different suit either automatically wins or automatically loses depending on whether the new card is a trump. However, some card games also need to define relative suit rank. An example of this is in auction games such as bridge, where if one player wishes to bid to make some number of heart tricks and another to make the same number of diamond tricks, there must be a mechanism to determine which takes precedence in the bidding order. There is no standard order for the four suits and so there are differing conventions among games that need a suit hierarchy. Examples of suit order are (from highest to lowest):     Bridge (for bidding and scoring) and occasionally poker: spades, hearts, diamonds, clubs.     Preferans: hearts, diamonds, clubs, spades. Only used for bidding.     Five Hundred: hearts, diamonds, clubs, spades (for bidding and scoring)     Ninety-nine: clubs, hearts, spades, diamonds (supposedly mnemonic as they have respectively 3, 2, 1, 0 lobes; see article for how this scoring is used)     Skat: clubs, spades, hearts, diamonds; or acorns, leaves, hearts, bells (for bidding and to determine which Jack beats which in play)     Cego: clubs, spades, hearts, diamonds (for determining highest card in certain situations)     Big Two: spades, hearts, clubs, diamonds (Presidents reverses suit strength: hearts, diamonds, spades, clubs)     Thirteen: hearts, diamonds, clubs, spades. Pairing or ignoring suits The pairing of suits is a vestigial remnant of Ganjifa, a game where half the suits were in reverse order, the lower cards beating the higher. In Ganjifa, progressive suits were called "strong" while inverted suits were called "weak". In Latin decks, the traditional division is between the long suits of swords and clubs and the round suits of cups and coins. This pairing can be seen in Ombre and Tarot card games. German and Swiss suits lack pairing but French suits maintained them and this can be seen in the game of Spoil Five.[17] In some games, such as blackjack, suits are ignored. In other games, such as Canasta, only the color (red or black) is relevant. In yet others, such as bridge, each of the suit pairings are distinguished. In contract bridge, there are three ways to divide four suits into pairs: by color, by rank and by shape resulting in six possible suit combinations.     Color is used to denote the red suits (hearts and diamonds) and the black suits (spades and clubs).     Rank is used to indicate the major (spades and hearts) versus minor (diamonds and clubs) suits.     Shape is used to denote the pointed (diamonds and spades, which visually have a sharp point uppermost) versus rounded (hearts and clubs) suits. This is used in bridge as a mnemonic. Four-color suits The aces of a four-color deck See also: Four-color deck Some decks, while using the French suits, give each suit a different color to make the suits more distinct from each other. In bridge, such decks are known as no-revoke decks, and the most common colors are black spades, red hearts, blue diamonds and green clubs, although in the past the diamond suit usually appeared in a golden yellow-orange. A pack occasionally used in Germany uses green spades (comparable to leaves), red hearts, yellow diamonds (comparable to bells) and black clubs (comparable to acorns). This is a compromise deck devised to allow players from East Germany (who used German suits) and West Germany (who adopted the French suits) to be comfortable with the same deck when playing tournament Skat after the German reunification.[18] Other suited decks Suited-and-ranked decks A large number of games are based around a deck in which each card has a rank and a suit (usually represented by a color), and for each suit there is exactly one card having each rank, though in many cases the deck has various special cards as well. Examples include Mü und Mehr, Lost Cities, DUO, Sticheln, Rage, Schotten Totten, UNO, Phase 10, Oh-No!, Skip-Bo, Roodles, and Rook. Other modern decks Decks for some games are divided into suits, but otherwise bear little relation to traditional games. An example would be the board game Taj Mahal, in which each card has one of four background colors, the rule being that all the cards played by a single player in a single round must be the same color. The selection of cards in the deck of each color is approximately the same and the player's choice of which color to use is guided by the contents of their particular hand. In the trick-taking card game Flaschenteufel ("The Bottle Imp"), all cards are part of a single sequence ranked from 1 to 37 but split into three suits depending on its rank. players must follow the suit led, but if they are void in that suit they may play a card of another suit and this can still win the trick if its rank is high enough. For this reason every card in the deck has a different number to prevent ties. A further strategic element is introduced since one suit contains mostly low-ranking cards and another, mostly high-ranking cards. Whereas cards in a traditional deck have two classifications—suit and rank—and each combination is represented by one card, giving for example 4 suits × 13 ranks = 52 cards, each card in a Set deck has four classifications each into one of three categories, giving a total of 3 × 3 × 3 × 3 = 81 cards. Any one of these four classifications could be considered a suit, but this is not really enlightening in terms of the structure of the game. Uses of playing card suit symbols Card suit symbols occur in places outside card playing:     The four suits were famously employed by the United States' 101st Airborne Division during World War II to distinguish its four constituent regiments:         Clubs (♣) identified the 327th Glider Infantry Regiment; currently worn by the 1st Brigade Combat Team.         Diamonds (♦) identified the 501st PIR. 1st Battalion, 501st Infantry Regiment is now part of the 4th Brigade (ABN), 25th Infantry Division in Alaska; the Diamond is currently used by the 101st Combat Aviation Brigade.         Hearts (♥) identified the 502nd PIR;[19] currently worn by the 2nd Brigade Combat Team.         Spades (♠) identified the 506th PIR; currently worn by the 4th Brigade Combat Team. Character encodings In computer and other digital media, suit symbols can be represented with character encoding, notably in the ISO and Unicode standards, or with Web standard (SGML's named entity syntax): UTF code:     U+2660 (9824dec)     U+2665 (9829dec)     U+2666 (9830dec)     U+2663 (9827dec) Symbol:     ♠     ♥     ♦     ♣ Name:     Black Spade Suit     Black Heart Suit     Black Diamond Suit     Black Club Suit Entity:     ♠     ♥     ♦     ♣ UTF code:     U+2664 (9828dec)     U+2661 (9825dec)     U+2662 (9826dec)     U+2667 (9831dec) Symbol:     ♤     ♡     ♢     ♧ Name:     White Spade Suit     White Heart Suit     White Diamond Suit     White Club Suit UTF codes are expressed by the Unicode code point "U+hexadecimal number" syntax, and as subscript the respective decimal number. Symbols are expressed here as they are in the web browser's HTML renderization. Name is the formal name adopted in the standard specifications. Unicode is the most frequently used encoding standard, and suits are in the Miscellaneous Symbols Block (2600–26FF) of the Unicode. Metaphorical uses In some card games the card suits have a dominance order, for example: club (lowest) - diamond - heart - spade (highest). That led to in spades being used to mean more than expected, in abundance, very much.[20] In European games, the order is often different: diamond or bell (lowest) - heart - spade or leaf - club or acorn (highest). See, for example, the game of Bruus. Other expressions drawn from bridge and similar games include strong suit (any area of personal strength) and to follow suit (to imitate another's actions). " (wikipedia.org) "A wine glass is a type of glass that is used to drink and taste wine. Most wine glasses are stemware, that is they are goblets composed of three parts: the bowl, stem, and foot.... Shapes Variety of shapes of wine glasses and flutes The effect of glass shape on the taste of wine has not been demonstrated decisively by any scientific study and remains a matter of debate. One study[1] suggests that the shape of the glass is important, as it concentrates the flavour and aroma (or bouquet) to emphasize the varietal's characteristic. One common belief is that the shape of the glass directs the wine itself into the best area of the mouth for the varietal[2] despite flavour being perceived by olfaction in the upper nasal cavity, not the mouth.[dubious – discuss] The importance of wine glass shape could also be based on false ideas about the arrangement of different taste buds on the tongue, such as the thoroughly discredited tongue map.[citation needed] Most wine glasses are stemware, that is they are goblets composed of three parts: the bowl, stem, and foot. In some designs, the opening of the glass is narrower than the widest part of the bowl (to concentrate the aroma[3]), others are more conical. In addition, "stemless" wine glasses (tumblers) are available in a variety of sizes and shapes.[4] The latter are typically used more casually than their traditional counterparts, as they negate the benefits of using stemmed wine glasses.[citation needed] Some common types of wine glasses are described below. Red wine glasses Red Wine Glass.jpg Glasses for red wine are characterized by their rounder, wider bowl, which increases the rate of oxidation.[citation needed] As oxygen from the air chemically interacts with the wine, flavor and aroma are believed to be subtly altered. This process of oxidation is generally considered more compatible with red wines, whose complex flavours are said to be smoothed out after being exposed to air. Red wine glasses can have particular styles of their own, such as     Bordeaux glass: tall with a broad bowl, and is designed for full bodied red wines like Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah as it directs wine to the back of the mouth.     Burgundy glass: broader than the Bordeaux glass, it has a bigger bowl to accumulate aromas of more delicate red wines such as Pinot noir. This style of glass directs wine to the tip of the tongue.[5] White wine glasses White Wine Glas.jpg White wine glasses vary enormously in size and shape, from the delicately tapered Champagne flute, to the wide and shallow glasses used to drink Chardonnay. Different shaped glasses are used to accentuate the unique characteristics of different styles of wine. Wide-mouthed glasses function similarly to red wine glasses discussed above, promoting rapid oxidation which alters the flavor of the wine.[citation needed] White wines which are best served slightly oxidized are generally full-flavored wines, such as oaked chardonnay. For lighter, fresher styles of white wine, oxidation is less desirable as it is seen to mask the delicate nuances of the wine.[citation needed] To preserve a crisp, clean flavored wine, many white wine glasses will have a smaller mouth, which reduces surface area and in turn, the rate of oxidization. In the case of sparkling wine, such as Champagne or Asti, an even smaller mouth is used to keep the wine sparkling longer in the glass. Champagne flutes Main article: Champagne stemware Champagne flutes are characterised by a long stem with a tall, narrow bowl on top. The shape is designed to keep sparkling wine desirable during its consumption. Just as with wine glasses, the flute is designed to be held by the stem to help prevent the heat from the hand from warming the liquid inside. The bowl itself is designed in a manner to help retain the signature carbonation in the beverage. This is achieved by reducing the surface area at the opening of the bowl. Additionally, the flute design adds to the aesthetic appeal of champagne, allowing the bubbles to travel further due to the narrow design, giving a more pleasant visual appeal. Sherry glass A sherry copita A sherry glass A sherry glass or schooner is drinkware generally used for serving aromatic alcoholic beverages, such as sherry, port, aperitifs, and liqueurs, and layered shooters. The copita, with its aroma-enhancing narrow taper, is a type of sherry glass. Boccalino Five Boccalini A boccalino is a mug used in Ticino, Switzerland, to drink local wine (Merlot or similar). It has a volume of approximately 200 ml. Use Some authors recommend one holds the glass by the stem, to avoid warming the wine and smudging the bowl.[3] Materials High quality wine glasses once were made of lead glass, which has a higher index of refraction and is heavier than ordinary glass, but health concerns regarding the ingestion of lead resulted in their being replaced by lead-free glass.[6] Wine glasses, with the exception of the hock glass, are generally not coloured or frosted as doing so would diminish appreciation of the wine's colour.[3] There used to be an ISO standard (ISO/PAS IWA 8:2009) for glass clarity and freedom from lead and other heavy metals, but it was withdrawn.[7] Some producers of high-end wine glasses such as Schott Zwiesel have pioneered methods of infusing titanium into the glass to increase its durability and reduce the likelihood of the glass breaking.[8] Decoration In the 18th Century, glass makers would draw spiral patterns in the stem as they made the glass. If they used air bubbles it was called an airtwist; if they used threads, either white or coloured, it would be called opaque twist.[9] ISO wine tasting glass The International Organization for Standardization has a specification (ISO 3591:1977) for a wine-tasting glass. It consists of a cup (an "elongated egg") supported on a stem resting on a base. INAO official wine tasting glass. The glass of reference is the INAO wine glass, a tool defined by specifications of the French Association for Standardization (AFNOR), which was adopted by INAO as the official glass in 1970, received its standard AFNOR in June 1971 and its ISO 3591 standard in 1972.[10] The INAO has not submitted a file at the National Institute of Industrial Property, it is therefore copied en masse and has gradually replaced other tasting glasses in the world.[11] The glass must be lead crystal (9% lead). Its dimensions give it a total volume between 210 mL and 225 mL, they are defined as follows:     Diameter of the rim: 46 mm     Calyx height: 100 mm     Height of the foot: 55 mm     Shoulder diameter: 65 mm     Foot diameter: 9 mm     Diameter of the base: 65 mm The opening is narrower than the convex part so as to concentrate the bouquet. The capacity is approximately 215 ml, but it is intended to take a 50 ml pour.[12] Some glasses of a similar shape, but with different capacities, may be loosely referred to as ISO glasses, but they form no part of the ISO specification. Measures in licensed premises Globe icon.     The examples and perspective in this section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. You may improve this section, discuss the issue on the talk page, or create a new section, as appropriate. (November 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) In the UK there has been a steady trend away from serving wine in the standard size of 125 ml, towards the larger size of 250 ml, even though, since 1 October 2010, alcohol retailers have been obliged by law to offer customers the choice of a smaller measure. A code of practice, introduced in April 2010 as an extension to the Licensing Act 2003, contains five mandatory conditions for the sale of alcohol, including an obligation for the licensee to make the customer aware that small measures are available.[13] Capacity measure As a supplemental unit of apothecary measure, the wineglass (also known as wineglassful, pl. wineglassesful, or cyathus vinarius in pharmaceutical Latin) was defined as 1⁄8 of a pint, (2 fluid ounces by US measure, or 21⁄2 fluid ounces by imperial measure).[14][15] An older version (before c. 1800) was 11⁄2 fluid ounces.[16] These units bear little relation to the capacity of most contemporary wineglasses, or to the ancient Roman cyathus." (wikipedia.org) "Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from fermented grapes. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts are major factors in different styles of wine. These differences result from the complex interactions between the biochemical development of the grape, the reactions involved in fermentation, the grape's growing environment (terroir), and the wine production process. Many countries enact legal appellations intended to define styles and qualities of wine. These typically restrict the geographical origin and permitted varieties of grapes, as well as other aspects of wine production. Wines not made from grapes involve fermentation of other crops including rice wine and other fruit wines such as plum, cherry, pomegranate, currant and elderberry. Wine has been produced for thousands of years. The earliest evidence of wine is from ancient China (c. 7000 BC),[1][2][3][4][5] Georgia (6000 BC),[6][7] Persia (5000 BC), and Italy (4000 BC). New World wine has some connection to alcoholic beverages made by the indigenous peoples of the Americas, but is mainly connected to later Spanish traditions in New Spain.[8] Later, as Old World wine further developed viticulture techniques, Europe would encompass three of the largest wine-producing regions. Today, the five countries with the largest wine-producing regions are in Italy, Spain, France, the United States, and China.[9] Wine has long played an important role in religion. Red wine was associated with blood by the ancient Egyptians[10] and was used by both the Greek cult of Dionysus and the Romans in their Bacchanalia; Judaism also incorporates it in the Kiddush, and Christianity in the Eucharist. Egyptian, Greek, Roman, and Israeli wine cultures are still connected to these ancient roots. Similarly the largest wine regions in Italy, Spain, and France have heritages in connection to sacramental wine, likewise, viticulture traditions in the Southwestern United States started within New Spain as Catholic friars and monks first produced wines in New Mexico and California.[... History The Areni-1 cave in Armenia is the world's oldest known winery.[14] Main article: History of wine The earliest known traces of wine are from Georgia (c. 6000 BC),[6][7][15][16][17][18] Iran (Persia) (c. 5000 BC),[19][20] and Sicily (c. 4000 BC).[21] Wine reached the Balkans by 4500 BC and was consumed and celebrated in ancient Greece, Thrace and Rome. Throughout history, wine has been consumed for its intoxicating effects.[22][23][24] The earliest archaeological and archaeobotanical evidence for grape wine and viniculture, dating to 6000–5800 BC was found on the territory of modern Georgia.[25][26] Both archaeological and genetic evidence suggest that the earliest production of wine elsewhere was relatively later, likely having taken place in the Southern Caucasus (which encompasses Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan), or the West Asian region between Eastern Turkey, and northern Iran.[27][28] The earliest evidence of a grape and rice mixed based fermented drink was found in ancient China (c. 7000 BC),[1][2][3][4][5][29] earliest evidence of wine in Georgia from 6000 BC,[30][31][32] Iran from 5000 BC,[19] and Sicily from 4000 BC.[21] The earliest known wineries from 4100 BC is the Areni-1 winery in Armenia.[14][33] Detail of a relief of the eastern stairs of the Apadana, Persepolis, depicting Armenians bringing an amphora, probably of wine, to the king A 2003 report by archaeologists indicates a possibility that grapes were mixed with rice to produce mixed fermented drinks in ancient China in the early years of the seventh millennium BC. Pottery jars from the Neolithic site of Jiahu, Henan, contained traces of tartaric acid and other organic compounds commonly found in wine. However, other fruits indigenous to the region, such as hawthorn, cannot be ruled out.[34][35] If these drinks, which seem to be the precursors of rice wine, included grapes rather than other fruits, they would have been any of the several dozen indigenous wild species in China, rather than Vitis vinifera, which was introduced 6000 years later.[34] The spread of wine culture westwards was most probably due to the Phoenicians who spread outward from a base of city-states along the Mediterranean coast centered around modern day Lebanon (as well as including small parts of Israel/Palestine and coastal Syria).[36] The wines of Byblos were exported to Egypt during the Old Kingdom and then throughout the Mediterranean. Evidence includes two Phoenician shipwrecks from 750 BC discovered by Robert Ballard, whose cargo of wine was still intact.[37] As the first great traders in wine (cherem), the Phoenicians seem to have protected it from oxidation with a layer of olive oil, followed by a seal of pinewood and resin, similar to retsina. Although the Nuragic culture in Sardinia already had a custom of consuming wine before the arrival of the Phoenicians.[38][39] The earliest remains of Apadana Palace in Persepolis dating back to 515 BC include carvings depicting soldiers from Achaemenid Empire subject nations bringing gifts to the Achaemenid king, among them Armenians bringing their famous wine. Literary references to wine are abundant in Homer (8th century BC, but possibly relating earlier compositions), Alkman (7th century BC), and others. In ancient Egypt, six of 36 wine amphoras were found in the tomb of King Tutankhamun bearing the name "Kha'y", a royal chief vintner. Five of these amphoras were designated as originating from the king's personal estate, with the sixth from the estate of the royal house of Aten.[40] Traces of wine have also been found in central Asian Xinjiang in modern-day China, dating from the second and first millennia BC.[41] Pressing wine after the harvest; Tacuinum Sanitatis, 14th century The first known mention of grape-based wines in India is from the late 4th-century BC writings of Chanakya, the chief minister of Emperor Chandragupta Maurya. In his writings, Chanakya condemns the use of alcohol while chronicling the emperor and his court's frequent indulgence of a style of wine known as madhu.[42] The ancient Romans planted vineyards near garrison towns so wine could be produced locally rather than shipped over long distances. Some of these areas are now world-renowned for wine production.[43] The Romans discovered that burning sulfur candles inside empty wine vessels kept them fresh and free from a vinegar smell.[44] In medieval Europe, the Roman Catholic Church supported wine because the clergy required it for the Mass. Monks in France made wine for years, aging it in caves.[45] An old English recipe that survived in various forms until the 19th century calls for refining white wine from bastard—bad or tainted bastardo wine.[46] Later, the descendants of the sacramental wine were refined for a more palatable taste. This gave rise to modern viticulture in French wine, Italian wine, Spanish wine, and these wine grape traditions were brought into New World wine. For example, Mission grapes were brought by Franciscan monks to New Mexico in 1628 beginning the New Mexico wine heritage, these grapes were also brought to California which started the California wine industry. Thanks to Spanish wine culture, these two regions eventually evolved into the oldest and largest producers, respectively, of wine of the United States.[47][48][49] Viking sagas earlier mentioned a fantastic land filled with wild grapes and high-quality wine called precisely Vinland.[50] Prior to the Spanish establishing their American wine grape traditions in California and New Mexico, both France and Britain had unsuccessfully attempted to establish grapevines in Florida and Virginia respectively.[51] Etymology Map showing the words for wine in European languages The English word "wine" comes from the Proto-Germanic *winam, an early borrowing from the Latin vinum, Georgian ღვინო, "wine" or "(grape) vine", itself derived from the Proto-Indo-European stem *win-o- (cf. Armenian: գինի, gini; Ancient Greek: οἶνος oinos; Aeolic Greek: ϝοῖνος woinos; Hittite: wiyana; Lycian: oino).[52][53][54] The earliest attested terms referring to wine are the Mycenaean Greek 𐀕𐀶𐀺𐄀𐀚𐀺 me-tu-wo ne-wo (*μέθυϝος νέϝῳ),[55][56] meaning "in (the month)" or "(festival) of the new wine", and 𐀺𐀜𐀷𐀴𐀯 wo-no-wa-ti-si,[57] meaning "wine garden", written in Linear B inscriptions.[58][59][60][61] Linear B also includes, inter alia, an ideogram for wine, i.e. 𐂖. The ultimate Indo-European origin of the word is the subject of some continued debate. Some scholars have noted the similarities between the words for wine in Indo-European languages (e.g. Armenian gini, Latin vinum, Ancient Greek οἶνος, Russian вино [vʲɪˈno]), Kartvelian (e.g. Georgian ღვინო [ɣvinɔ]), and Semitic (*wayn; Hebrew יין [jajin]), pointing to the possibility of a common origin of the word denoting "wine" in these language families.[62] The Georgian word goes back to Proto-Kartvelian *ɣwino-,[63] which is either a borrowing from Proto-Indo-European[63][64][65][66][67][68] or the lexeme was specifically borrowed from Proto-Armenian *ɣʷeinyo-, whence Armenian gini.[69][70][71][72][63] An alternate hypothesis by Fähnrich supposes *ɣwino-, a native Kartvelian word derived from the verbal root *ɣun- ('to bend').[73] See *ɣwino- for more. All these theories place the origin of the word in the same geographical location, South Caucasus, that has been established based on archeological and biomolecular studies as the origin of viticulture. Styles Wine is made in many ways from different fruits, with grapes being the most common. From grapes The type of grape used and the amount of skin contact while the juice is being extracted determines the color and general style of the wine. The color has no relation to a wine's sweetness—all may be made sweet or dry. Types of wine from grapes     Long contact with grape skins     Short contact with grape skins     No contact with grape skins Red grapes     red wine     rosé wine     white wine White grapes     orange wine Red Main article: Red wine Red wine gains its color and flavor (notably, tannins) from the grape skin, by allowing the grapes to soak in the extracted juice. Red wine is made from dark-colored red grape varieties. The actual color of the wine can range from violet, typical of young wines, through red for mature wines, to brown for older red wines. The juice from most red grapes is actually greenish-white; the red color comes from anthocyanins present in the skin of the grape. A notable exception is the family of rare teinturier varieties, which actually have red flesh and produce red juice. White Main article: White wine To make white wine, grapes are pressed quickly with the juice immediately drained away from the grape skins. The grapes used are typically white grape varieties, though red grapes may be used if the winemaker is careful not to let the skin stain the wort during the separation of the pulp-juice. For example, pinot noir (a red grape) is commonly used in champagne. Dry (low sugar) white wine is the most common, derived from the complete fermentation of the juice, however sweet white wines such as Moscato d'Asti are also made. Rosé Main article: Rosé wine A rosé wine gains color from red grape skins, but not enough to qualify it as a red wine. It may be the oldest known type of wine, as it is the most straightforward to make with the skin contact method. The color can range from a pale orange to a vivid near-purple, depending on the varietals used and wine-making techniques. There are three primary ways to produce rosé wine: Skin contact (allowing dark grape skins to stain the wort), saignée (removing juice from the must early in fermentation and continuing fermentation of the juice separately), and blending of a red and white wine (uncommon and discouraged in most wine growing regions). Rosé wines have a wide range of sweetness levels from dry Provençal rosé to sweet White Zinfandels and blushes. Rosé wines are made from a wide variety of grapes all over the world.[74][75] Orange Main article: Orange wine Sometimes called amber wines, these are wines made with white grapes but with the skins allowed to soak during pressing, similar to red and rosé wine production. They are notably tannic, and usually made dry.[76] Sparkling Main article: Sparkling wine These are effervescent wines, made in any of the above styles (ie, orange, red, rosé, white). They must undergo secondary fermentation to create carbon dioxide, which creates the bubbles.[77] Two common methods of accomplishing this are the traditional method, used for Cava, Champagne, and more expensive sparkling wines, and the Charmat method, used for Prosecco, Asti, and less expensive wines. A hybrid transfer method is also used, yielding intermediate results, and simple addition of carbon dioxide is used in the cheapest of wines.[78] The bottles used for sparkling wine must be thick to withstand the pressure of the gas behind the cork, which can be up to 6 standard atmospheres (88 psi).[79] Dessert Main article: Dessert wine This refers to sweet wines that have a high level of sugar remaining after fermentation. There are various ways of increasing the amount of sugar in a wine, yielding products with different strengths and names. Icewine, Port, Sauternes, Tokaji Aszú, Trockenbeerenauslese, and Vin Santo are some examples. From other fruits and foods Fruit Main article: Fruit wine Wines from other fruits, such as apples and berries, are usually named after the fruit from which they are produced, and combined with the word "wine" (for example, apple wine and elderberry wine) and are generically called fruit wine or country wine (similar to French term vin de pays). Other than the grape varieties traditionally used for wine-making, most fruits naturally lack either sufficient fermentable sugars, proper amount of acidity, yeast amounts needed to promote or maintain fermentation, or a combination of these three materials. This is probably one of the main reasons why wine derived from grapes has historically been more prevalent by far than other types, and why specific types of fruit wines have generally been confined to the regions in which the fruits were native or introduced for other reasons.[citation needed] Honey Main article: Mead Mead, also called honey wine, is created by fermenting honey with water, sometimes with various fruits, spices, grains, or hops. As long as the primary substance fermented is honey, the drink is considered mead.[80] Mead was produced in ancient history throughout Europe, Africa and Asia,[81] and was known in Europe before grape wine.[82] Starch Other drinks called "wine", such as barley wine and rice wine (e.g. sake, huangjiu and cheongju), are made from starch-based materials and resemble beer more than traditional wine, while ginger wine is fortified with brandy. In these latter cases, the term "wine" refers to the similarity in alcohol content rather than to the production process.[83] The commercial use of the English word "wine" (and its equivalent in other languages) is protected by law in many jurisdictions.[84] Some UK supermarkets have been criticized for selling "wine based" drinks, which only contain 75% wine, but which are still marketed as wine. The International Organisation of Vine and Wine requires that a "wine-based drink" must contain a minimum of 75% wine, but producers do not have to divulge the nature of the remaining 25%.[85] Grape varieties Grape vineyard Main article: List of grape varieties Wine is usually made from one or more varieties of the European species Vitis vinifera, such as Pinot noir, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Gamay and Merlot. When one of these varieties is used as the predominant grape (usually defined by law as minimums of 75% to 85%), the result is a "varietal" as opposed to a "blended" wine. Blended wines are not necessarily inferior to varietal wines, rather they are a different style of wine-making.[86] Wine can also be made from other species of grape or from hybrids, created by the genetic crossing of two species. V. labrusca (of which the Concord grape is a cultivar), V. aestivalis, V. rupestris, V. rotundifolia and V. riparia are native North American grapes usually grown to eat fresh or for grape juice, jam, or jelly, and only occasionally made into wine. Hybridization is different from grafting. Most of the world's vineyards are planted with European Vitis vinifera vines that have been grafted onto North American species' rootstock, a common practice due to their resistance to phylloxera, a root louse that eventually kills the vine. In the late 19th century, most of Europe's vineyards (excluding some of the driest in the south) were devastated by the infestation, leading to widespread vine deaths and eventual replanting. Grafting is done in every wine-producing region in the world except in Argentina and the Canary Islands — the only places not yet exposed to the insect.[87] In the context of wine production, terroir is a concept that encompasses the varieties of grapes used, elevation and shape of the vineyard, type and chemistry of soil, climate and seasonal conditions, and the local yeast cultures.[88] The range of possible combinations of these factors can result in great differences among wines, influencing the fermentation, finishing, and aging processes as well. Many wineries use growing and production methods that preserve or accentuate the aroma and taste influences of their unique terroir.[89] However, flavor differences are less desirable for producers of mass-market table wine or other cheaper wines, where consistency takes precedence. Such producers try to minimize differences in sources of grapes through production techniques such as micro-oxygenation, tannin filtration, cross-flow filtration, thin-film evaporation, and spinning cones.[90] About 700 grapes go into one bottle of wine, approximately 2.6 pounds.... Culinary uses Further information: Wine and food pairing Reduction of red wine for a sauce by cooking it on a stovetop. It is called a reduction because the heat boils off some of the water, leaving a more concentrated, wine-flavoured sauce. Wine is a popular and important drink that accompanies and enhances a wide range of cuisines, from the simple and traditional stews to the most sophisticated and complex haute cuisines. Wine is often served with dinner. Sweet dessert wines may be served with the dessert course. In fine restaurants in Western countries, wine typically accompanies dinner. At a restaurant, patrons are helped to make good food-wine pairings by the restaurant's sommelier or wine waiter. Individuals dining at home may use wine guides to help make food–wine pairings. Wine is also drunk without the accompaniment of a meal in wine bars or with a selection of cheeses (at a wine and cheese party). Wines are also used as a theme for organizing various events such as festivals around the world; the city of Kuopio in North Savonia, Finland is known for its annual Kuopio Wine Festivals (Kuopion viinijuhlat).[126] Wine is important in cuisine not just for its value as a drink, but as a flavor agent, primarily in stocks and braising, since its acidity lends balance to rich savory or sweet dishes.[127] Wine sauce is an example of a culinary sauce that uses wine as a primary ingredient.[128] Natural wines may exhibit a broad range of alcohol content, from below 9% to above 16% ABV, with most wines being in the 12.5–14.5% range.[129] Fortified wines (usually with brandy) may contain 20% alcohol or more. Religious significance See also: Religion and alcohol Ancient religions The use of wine in ancient Near Eastern and Ancient Egyptian religious ceremonies was common. Libations often included wine, and the religious mysteries of Dionysus used wine as a sacramental entheogen to induce a mind-altering state. Judaism Main article: Kosher wine     Baruch atah Hashem (Ado-nai) Eloheinu melech ha-olam, boray p'ree hagafen – Praised be the Lord, our God, King of the universe, Creator of the fruit of the vine.     — The blessing over wine said before consuming the drink. Wine is an integral part of Jewish laws and traditions. The Kiddush is a blessing recited over wine or grape juice to sanctify the Shabbat. On Pesach (Passover) during the Seder, it is a Rabbinic obligation of adults to drink four cups of wine.[130] In the Tabernacle and in the Temple in Jerusalem, the libation of wine was part of the sacrificial service.[131] Note that this does not mean that wine is a symbol of blood, a common misconception that contributes to the Christian beliefs of the blood libel. "It has been one of history's cruel ironies that the blood libel—accusations against Jews using the blood of murdered gentile children for the making of wine and matzot—became the false pretext for numerous pogroms. And due to the danger, those who live in a place where blood libels occur are halachically exempted from using red wine, lest it be seized as "evidence" against them."[132] Christianity Main articles: Christian views on alcohol and Alcohol in the Bible Jesus making wine from water in The Marriage at Cana, a 14th-century fresco from the Visoki Dečani monastery In Christianity, wine is used in a sacred rite called the Eucharist, which originates in the Gospel account of the Last Supper (Gospel of Luke 22:19) describing Jesus sharing bread and wine with his disciples and commanding them to "do this in remembrance of me." Beliefs about the nature of the Eucharist vary among denominations (see Eucharistic theologies contrasted). While some Christians consider the use of wine from the grape as essential for the validity of the sacrament, many Protestants also allow (or require) pasteurized grape juice as a substitute. Wine was used in Eucharistic rites by all Protestant groups until an alternative arose in the late 19th century. Methodist dentist and prohibitionist Thomas Bramwell Welch applied new pasteurization techniques to stop the natural fermentation process of grape juice. Some Christians who were part of the growing temperance movement pressed for a switch from wine to grape juice, and the substitution spread quickly over much of the United States, as well as to other countries to a lesser degree.[133] There remains an ongoing debate between some American Protestant denominations as to whether wine can and should be used for the Eucharist or allowed as an ordinary drink, with Catholics and some mainline Protestants allowing wine drinking in moderation, and some conservative Protestant groups opposing consumption of alcohol altogether.[citation needed] The earliest viticulture tradition in the Southwestern United States starts with sacramental wine, beginning in the 1600s, with Christian friars and monks producing New Mexico wine.[134] Islam All alcohol is prohibited under Islamic law, although there has been a long tradition of drinking wine in some Islamic areas, especially in Iran. Main article: Islam and alcohol Alcoholic drinks, including wine, are forbidden under most interpretations of Islamic law.[135] In many Muslim countries, possession or consumption of alcoholic drinks carry legal penalties. Iran had previously had a thriving wine industry that disappeared after the Islamic Revolution in 1979.[136] In Greater Persia, mey (Persian wine) was a central theme of poetry for more than a thousand years, long before the advent of Islam. Some Alevi sects – one of the two main branches of Islam in Turkey (the other being Sunni Islam) – use wine in their religious services.[citation needed] Certain exceptions to the ban on alcohol apply. Alcohol derived from a source other than the grape (or its byproducts) and the date[137] is allowed in "very small quantities" (loosely defined as a quantity that does not cause intoxication) under the Sunni Hanafi madhab, for specific purposes (such as medicines), where the goal is not intoxication. However, modern Hanafi scholars regard alcohol consumption as totally forbidden.... Packaging See also: Cork (material), Closure (bottle), Alternative wine closure, Wine bottle, Box wine, and Screw cap (wine) Assorted wine corks Most wines are sold in glass bottles and sealed with corks (50% of which come from Portugal).[160] An increasing number of wine producers have been using alternative closures such as screwcaps and synthetic plastic "corks". Although alternative closures are less expensive and prevent cork taint, they have been blamed for such problems as excessive reduction.[161] Some wines are packaged in thick plastic bags within corrugated fiberboard boxes, and are called "box wines", or "cask wine". Tucked inside the package is a tap affixed to the bag in box, or bladder, that is later extended by the consumer for serving the contents. Box wine can stay acceptably fresh for up to a month after opening because the bladder collapses as wine is dispensed, limiting contact with air and, thus, slowing the rate of oxidation. In contrast, bottled wine oxidizes more rapidly after opening because of the increasing ratio of air to wine as the contents are dispensed; it can degrade considerably in a few days. Cans are one of the fastest-growing forms of alternative wine packaging on the market.[162] Environmental considerations of wine packaging reveal the benefits and drawbacks of both bottled and box wines. The glass used to make bottles is a nontoxic, naturally occurring substance that is completely recyclable, whereas the plastics used for box-wine containers are typically much less environmentally friendly. However, wine-bottle manufacturers have been cited for Clean Air Act violations. A New York Times editorial suggested that box wine, being lighter in package weight, has a reduced carbon footprint from its distribution; however, box-wine plastics, even though possibly recyclable, can be more labor-intensive (and therefore expensive) to process than glass bottles. In addition, while a wine box is recyclable, its plastic bladder most likely is not.[163] Some people are drawn to canned wine due to its portability and recyclable packaging.[162] Some wine is sold in stainless steel kegs and is referred to as wine on tap. Storage Main article: Storage of wine Oak wine barrels Wine cellars, or wine rooms, if they are above-ground, are places designed specifically for the storage and aging of wine. Fine restaurants and some private homes have wine cellars. In an active wine cellar, temperature and humidity are maintained by a climate-control system. Passive wine cellars are not climate-controlled, and so must be carefully located. Because wine is a natural, perishable food product, all types—including red, white, sparkling, and fortified—can spoil when exposed to heat, light, vibration or fluctuations in temperature and humidity. When properly stored, wines can maintain their quality and in some cases improve in aroma, flavor, and complexity as they age. Some wine experts contend that the optimal temperature for aging wine is 13 °C (55 °F),[164] others 15 °C (59 °F).[165] Wine refrigerators offer a smaller alternative to wine cellars and are available in capacities ranging from small, 16-bottle units to furniture-quality pieces that can contain 500 bottles. Wine refrigerators are not ideal for aging, but rather serve to chill wine to the proper temperature for drinking. These refrigerators keep the humidity low (usually under 50%), below the optimal humidity of 50% to 70%. Lower humidity levels can dry out corks over time, allowing oxygen to enter the bottle, which reduces the wine's quality through oxidation.[166] While some types of alcohol are sometimes stored in the freezer, such as vodka, it is not possible to safely freeze wine in the bottle, as there is insufficient room for it to expand as it freezes and the bottle will usually crack. Certain shapes of bottle may allow the cork to be pushed out by the ice, but if the bottle is frozen on its side, the wine in the narrower neck will invariably freeze first, preventing this. Professions There are a large number of occupations and professions that are part of the wine industry, ranging from the individuals who grow the grapes, prepare the wine, bottle it, sell it, assess it, market it and finally make recommendations to clients and serve the wine. Related professions Name     Description Cellar master     A person in charge of a wine cellar Cooper     A craftsperson of wooden barrels and casks. A cooperage is a facility that produces such casks Négociant     A wine merchant who purchases the product of smaller growers or wine-makers to sell them under its own name Oenologist     A wine scientist or wine chemist; a student of oenology. In the 2000s, B.Sc. degrees in oenology and viticulture are available. A wine-maker may be trained as an oenologist, but often hires one as a consultant Sommelier     Also called a "wine steward", this is a specialist wine expert in charge of developing a restaurant's wine list, educating the staff about wine, and assisting customers with their selections (especially food–wine pairings) Vintner, Winemaker     A wine producer; a person who makes wine Viticulturist     A specialist in the science of grapevines; a manager of vineyard pruning, irrigation, and pest control Wine critic     A wine expert and journalist who tastes and reviews wines for books and magazines Wine taster     A wine expert who tastes wines to ascertain their quality and flavour Wine waiter     A restaurant or wine bar server with a basic- to mid-level knowledge of wine and food–wine pairings" (wikipedia.org) "Spades ♠ form one of the four suits of playing cards in the standard French deck. It is a black heart turned upside down with a stalk at its base and symbolises the pike or halberd, two medieval weapons. In French the suit of Spades is known as the Pique and in German as the Pik. It corresponds to the suit of Leaves Bay gras.svg (Laub, Grün, Schippen or, in Bavaria, Gras) in the German suited playing cards. In Switzerland, the suit is known as Schuufle ("shovel") and in many German regions, e.g. the Rhineland as Schüppe/Schippe ("shovel"). In Bridge, Spades rank as the highest suit. In Skat and similar games, it is the second-highest suit. ... Name The French name for this suit, pique ("pike"), meant, in the 14th century, a weapon formed by an iron spike placed at the end of a pike.[1] For playing cards, the term may have been coined by analogy with the Latin symbol from which it is derived, the sword. In other languages, the term is usually derived from pique: German: Pik, Spanish: picas, Romanian: pică, Russian: пики, Czech: piky, Italian: picche etc. Sometimes it is an adaptation of "sword", hence the English name, Spades, and the Portuguese espadas. Characteristics The spade symbol is a very stylized spearhead shape, pointing upwards, the bottom widening into two arcs of a circle and sweeping towards the centre to then form a sort of foot. Generally, spades are black. They form one of the two major suits in Bridge (with Hearts). In the official Skat tournament deck, spades are green, assuming the color of their German-deck equivalent. The following gallery shows the spades in a 52-card deck of French playing cards. Not shown is the Knight of Spades used in Tarot card games:     Ace     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9     10     Jack     Queen     King Four-colour packs The four aces of a four-colour pack; here, Spades are black. Four-colour packs are sometimes used in tournaments or online.[2] In four-colour packs Spades may be:     black ♠ in English Bridge and Poker packs and French and Swiss four-colour packs,[3]     green ♠ in German Skat tournament packs[4] or     blue ♠ in some American Poker decks. Coding The symbol ♠ is already in the computer code set CP437 and therefore also part of Windows WGL4. In Unicode a black ♠ and a white ♤ Spade are defined: Symbol     Unicode     Entity in HTML ♠     U+2660 BLACK SPADE SUIT     ♠ or ♠ ♤     U+2664 WHITE SPADE SUIT     ♤" (wikipedia.org) "Clubs ♣ is one of the four suits of playing cards in the standard French deck. It corresponds to the suit of Acorns in a German deck Bay eichel.svg.[1] Its original French name is Trèfle which means "clover" and the card symbol depicts a three-leafed clover leaf. The Italian name is Fiori ("flower"). The English name "Clubs" is derived from the suit of Bastoni (batons) in Italian-Spanish suited cards. In Germany, this suit is known as Kreuz ("cross"), especially in the International Skat Regulations. In Austria, by contrast, it is almost exclusively called Treff, a reference to the French name, especially in the game of Bridge, where French names generally predominate, for example Cœur is used instead of Herz. In Skat and Doppelkopf, Clubs are the highest-ranked suit (whereas Diamonds/Bells are the trump suit in Doppelkopf). In Bridge, Clubs are the lowest suit. ... Characteristics Four Aces of a Four-colour deck ; here, the Clubs are green. The symbol for the suit of Clubs depicts a very stylised three-leaf clover with its stalk oriented downwards. Generally the suit of Clubs is black in colour. However, the suit may also be green, for example as sometimes used in Bridge (where it is one of the two minor suits, along with Diamonds). The gallery below shows a suit of Clubs from a French suited deck of 52 cards. Not shown is the Knight of Clubs used in tarot card games:     Ace     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9     10     Jack     Queen     King Four-colour packs The four aces of a four-colour deck; here, Clubs are green. Four-colour packs are sometimes used in tournaments or online.[2] In four-colour packs, clubs may be:     green ♣ in American Bridge and Poker,[3] English Poker, French and Swiss four-colour decks,[4]     black ♣ in German Skat packs,[4]     blue ♣ in English Bridge and some American packs or     pink ♣ in some other four-colour packs. Coding The symbol ♣ is already in the CP437 and thus also part of Windows WGL4. In Unicode a black ♣ and a white ♧ Club symbol are defined: Symbol     Unicode     Entity in HTML ♣     U+2663 BLACK CLUB SUIT     ♣ or ♣ ♧     U+2667 WHITE CLUB SUIT     ♧" (wikipedia.org) "Diamonds ♦ is one of the four suits of playing cards in the standard French deck. It is the only French suit to not have been adapted from the German deck, taking the place of the suit of Bells Bay schellen.svg. The original French name of the suit is Carreau; in German it is known as Karo. In older German-language accounts of card games, Diamonds are frequently referred to as Eckstein ("cornerstone"). In Switzerland, the suit is still called Egge (=Ecke i.e. "corner") today. The term "Karo" went into the German language in the 18th century from the French carreau, which goes back to the Latin word, quadrum, meaning "square" or "rectangle".... Characteristics The diamond typically has a lozenge shape, a parallelogram with four equal sides, placed on one of its points. The sides are sometimes slightly rounded and the four vertices placed in a square, making the sign look like an astroid. Normally diamonds are red in colour. They can however be depicted in blue,[2][3] which is the case for example in bridge (where it is one of the two minor suits along with Clubs). In the official Skat tournament deck, diamonds are yellow or orange, assuming the color of their German-deck equivalent, which are usually golden. The following gallery shows the diamonds from a 52-card deck of French playing cards. Not shown is the Knight of Diamonds used in the tarot card games:     Ace     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9     10     Jack     Queen     King Four-colour packs The four aces of a four-colour deck; here, Diamonds are blue. Four-colour packs are sometimes used in tournaments or online.[4] In such packs Diamonds may be:     orange ♦ in English and German packs     yellow ♦ in American decks and German Skat tournament packs[5] or     blue ♦ in English and American Poker decks,[6] French and Swiss four-colour packs.[5] Coding The symbol ♦ is already in the CP437 and therefore also part of Windows WGL4. In Unicode a black ♦ and a white ♢ diamond have been defined: Symbol     Unicode     Entity in HTML ♦     U+2666 BLACK DIAMOND SUIT     ♦ or ♦ ♢     U+2662 WHITE DIAMOND SUIT     ♢" (wikipedia.org) "Hearts (French: Cœur, German: Herz) is one of the four suits in playing cards of both the French deck and the German deck. However, the symbol is slightly different: Symbol: Herz in a French deck and Symbol: Herz in a German-suited deck. In Bridge, for which in Germany the French deck is common, it is called by its French name, Cœur. In games using German-suited cards the suit of Hearts is often called "Red" (Rot). In the game of Watten, the King of Hearts is the highest Trump. This suit was invented in 15th century Germany and is a survivor from a large pool of experimental suit signs created to replace the Latin suits.... Name The origin of the term "heart" to describe the symbol, which only very marginally resembles a true heart, is not known.[2] In general, equivalents in other languages also mean "heart".     The heart in German suited cards     The heart in French suited cards Characteristics The heart typically has a form of cardioid, the lower part of which ends in a point. The symbol is drawn with its tip down, the two lobes of the cardioid pointing upwards. Generally, the hearts are coloured red. French pattern The following gallery shows the hearts of a 52-card deck of French playing cards. Not shown is the Knight of Hearts, used in tarot card games:     Ace     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9     10     Jack     Queen     King German pattern The gallery below shows a suit of Hearts from a German suited deck of 32 cards. The pack is of the Saxonian pattern:     7     8     9     10     Unter     Ober     King     Deuce Coding The symbol ♥ is already in the CP437 and therefore also in the WGL4. In Unicode, a black heart ♥ and a white ♡ heart are defined: Symbol     Unicode     Entity in HTML ♥     U+2665 BLACK HEART SUIT     ♥ or ♥ ♡     U+2661 WHITE HEART SUIT     ♡ Example from Dingbats for one of the other forms of heart: ❤     U+2764 HEAVY BLACK HEART     ❤" (wikipedia.org) "French-suited playing cards or French-suited cards are cards that use the French suits of trèfles (clovers or clubs ♣), carreaux (tiles or diamonds ♦), cœurs (hearts ♥), and piques (pikes or spades ♠). Each suit contains three face cards: the valet (knave or jack), the dame (lady or queen), and the roi (king). Aside from these aspects, decks can include a wide variety of regional and national patterns, which often have different deck sizes. In comparison to Spanish, Italian, German, and Swiss playing cards, French cards are the most widespread due to the geopolitical, commercial, and cultural influence of France, the United Kingdom, and the United States in the 19th and 20th centuries. Other reasons for their popularity were the simplicity of the suit insignia, which simplifies mass production, and the popularity of whist and contract bridge. The English pattern of French-suited cards is so widespread that it is often also known as the International or Anglo-American pattern.... History Playing cards arrived in Europe from Mamluk Egypt around 1370 and were already reported in France in 1377. The French suit insignia was derived from German suits around 1480. Between the transition from the suit of bells to tiles there was a suit of crescents.[1] One of the most distinguishing features of the French cards is the queen. Mamluk cards and their derivatives, the Latin-suited and German-suited cards, all have three male face cards. Queens began appearing in Italian tarot decks in the mid-15th century and some German decks replaced two kings with queens. While other decks abandoned the queen in non-tarot decks, the French kept them and dropped the knight as the middle face card. Face card design was heavily influenced by Spanish cards that used to circulate in France. One of the most obvious traits inherited from Spain are the standing kings; kings from Italian, Portuguese, or Germanic cards are seated. Spanish-suited cards are still used in France, mostly in Northern Catalonia, and Brittany and the Vendée with the latter two using the archaic Aluette cards. In the 19th century, corner indices and rounded corners were added and cards became reversible, relieving players from having to flip face cards right side up. The index for aces and face cards usually follow the local language but many decks of the Paris pattern use the numeral "1" for aces. German     Hearts[a] Bay herz.svg     Bells[b] Bay schellen.svg     Acorns[c] Bay eichel.svg     Leaves[d] Bay gras.svg French     Hearts SuitHearts.svg     Tiles (Diamonds) SuitDiamonds.svg     Clover (Clubs)[e] SuitClubs.svg     Pikes (Spades)[f] SuitSpades.svg Index/Rank     English     French [g]     German [h]     Polish [i]     Dutch [j]     Swedish [k]     Russian [l] Ace     A     1     A     A     A     E     Т King     K     R     K     K     H     K     К Queen     Q     D     D     D     V     D     Д Jack     J     V     B     W     B     Kn     В     Deck celebrating the union of Brittany and France with Spanish suits but has queens instead of knights (Antoine de Logiriera of Toulouse, c.1500).     A transitional deck with suits of hearts and crescents (François Clerc of Lyon, late 15th century).     French Rouen pattern on the left, Spanish Toledo pattern on the right.     King of coins from Aluette, a Spanish-suited deck still in use in France. It is related to the Toledo pattern. Current standard patterns The French suited deck has spawned many regional variations known as standard patterns based on their artwork and deck size. The Paris pattern was heavily exported throughout continental Europe which is why most French-suited patterns share a similar appearance. The English pattern, based on the extinct Rouennais pattern, is the most well known pattern in the world. It is also called the International or Anglo-American pattern. Note that patterns do not factor in Jokers as they are a very recent addition which leads to every manufacturer making their own trademarked depiction of this card. Almost all 52-card packs produced in the present will contain at least two jokers unless otherwise noted. Paris pattern Charles, King of Hearts in the portrait officiel The Paris pattern came to dominate in France around 1780 and became known as the portrait officiel. From the 19th century to 1945, the appearance of the cards used for domestic consumption was regulated by the French government. All cards were produced on watermarked paper made by the state to show payment of the stamp tax.[2] The most common deck sold in France is the 32-card deck with the 2 to 6 removed and 1s as the index for aces. 52-card decks are also popular. The French have a unique habit of associating their face cards with historic or mythical personages which survives only in the portrait officiel.[3] Rank/Suit     Spades     Hearts     Diamonds     Clubs King     David     Charles[4]     Cesar     Alexandre Queen     Pallas     Judith     Rachel[5]     Argine[6] Jack     Hogier[7]     La Hire[8]     Hector     Lancelot[9] Belgian-Genoese and Piedmontese patterns Belgian pattern The Belgian-Genoese pattern is very similar to its Parisian parent and is basically an export version not subject to France's domestic stamp tax.[10][11] The jack of clubs has a triangular shield bearing the coat of arms of the former Spanish Netherlands, face cards are unnamed, and blue is usually replaced with green in the portraits. The diagonal dividing line also lacks the beads. When the Ottoman Empire relaxed the ban against playing cards, Belgian type cards flooded their territory and is now found throughout the Balkans, North Africa, and the Middle East. They are also commonly found in France's former colonies. Within Belgium, the Francophone Walloons are the primary users of this pattern, the Flemish prefer the Dutch pattern. This is the second most common pattern in the world after the English pattern. Belgian decks come in either 32 or 52 cards like in France. Genoese type cards are identical to Belgian ones and often lack corner indices. They come in 36 (no 2s to 5s), 40 (no 8s to 10s), or 52 card decks. The Piedmontese pattern is similar to the Genoese packs but its face cards have a horizontal instead of diagonal dividing line and the aces are found in a decorative garland.[12][13] They also come in the same number of cards as Genoese ones. The Piedmontese pattern was once used in neighboring Savoy as both were previously united until France annexed the latter in 1860. A 78 card tarot version of the Piedmontese pattern, complete with knights, the fool, a suit of trumps depicting flowers, and corner indices, was printed in 1902 for Savoyard players. It was discontinued some time after 1910 but reproductions have been in print since 1984. The Chambéry rules that come with the deck are similar to Piedmontese tarot games but the ace ranked between the jack and the 10 like in Triomphe.[14][15][16] It should not be confused with the Italian-suited Piedmontese tarot. Bavarian derivatives A Parisian variant appeared in Bavaria in the mid-18th century where the king of diamonds wore a turban. This originates from the German-suited Old Bavarian pattern. The king of spades, who used to represent David, no longer holds a harp. This group is closely associated with animal tarots. Russian pattern Russian pattern The Russian pattern created during the early 19th-century is based on a Baltic version of a Bavarian derivative.[17][18][19] The current appearance was finalized by Adolf Charlemagne. It usually contains 52 or 36 cards, the latter lacking ranks 2 to 5. The stripped deck is used to play Durak.[20] They can be found in many countries that were once part of the Russian Empire or Soviet Union. Adler Cego Main article: Adler Cego Adler-Cego is the last remaining animal tarot and is used in Germany's Black Forest to play Cego. The courts are based on a Frankfurt version of a Bavarian derivative.[21] It is sold with 54 cards; the 5 to 10 of the red suits and the 1 to 6 of the black suits are removed. Real and fictional animals are displayed on the trump suit but despite its name, eagles do not appear. Trumps have a pink panel in each end with an Arabic numeral to show its rank. Industrie und Glück Main article: Industrie und Glück The Industrie und Glück ("Diligence and Fortune") tarock deck of Central Europe uses Roman numerals for the trumps. It is organized in the same manner as the Adler-Cego decks. Its trumps abandoned the traditional allegorical motifs found in Italian tarocchi decks in favor of new, more whimsical scenes like depictions of rural life.[22] The turban wearing king is now in the suit of spades. Hamburg derivatives French-suited cards are popular in Central Europe and compete very well against local German playing cards. Hamburg was once a major card-producing hub where makers began revising the Paris pattern. The patterns in this family have the king of spades keeping David's harp. North-German pattern: the Kings The North-German pattern was created in Stralsund from a Hamburg derivative. It is familiarly known as the Berlin pattern, although this name arose from a misunderstanding about the origin of the cards which were formerly labelled as Berliner Spielkarten based on a finishing process used by that company.[23] The crownless queens' hairstyles reflect the Biedermeier fashions of the day.[24] They are usually in decks of 32 cards with the twos to sixes missing since skat, Germany's most popular card game, does not require a full deck.[25] Decks of 36 cards (with the sixes) are for jass and tapp, a game played in Baden-Württemberg. Decks of 52 cards usually include three jokers but Zwickern decks have six jokers. The French-Swiss pattern shares the same descent from the North-German pattern's Hamburg parent but their most distinguishing characteristic is that instead of having corner indices, white Arabic numerals are found within the pips closest to the corner.[26][27][28] French-Swiss cards comes only in decks of 36 with no ranks from two to five. The Modern Portuguese pattern is a Parisian derivative from Germany. When it arrived in Portugal, the kings and jacks in hearts and diamonds swapped suits.[29][30] The composition consists of 52 cards or until recently 40 cards. The latter had an unusual ranking (ace, king, jack, queen, eight, six–two). The jack ranking higher than the queen comes from the older Portuguese games where a female knave was outranked by the knight.[31] They also use French-language indices. The Dutch pattern originates from Germany and shares the same parent as the Modern Portuguese pattern but with different queens. It was not produced in the Netherlands until the 1970s. Their most distinguishing feature are scenic aces.[32][33] Also found in Flanders, they come in decks of 32 (no twos to sixes) or 52 cards. The Trente et Quarante pattern is named after the game it is associated with.[34][35][36] Unlike other patterns, it is usually found only in casinos. Although of German origin, this pattern is now produced only in Italy. They consist of 52 cards and no indices. Dondorf Rhineland pattern Dondorf Rhineland pattern Around 1870, Dondorf of Frankfurt produced the Rhineland pattern. The kings have very thick beards. They have fallen out of popularity in Germany but are very common in Poland, Austria, the Netherlands, Denmark, and the Baltic states. They come in decks of 24 (no 2s to 8s), 32 (no 2s to 6s), or 52 cards, the latter of which may have up to three jokers in some countries.[37][38] Tarot Nouveau Main article: Tarot Nouveau The Tarot Nouveau or Bourgeois Tarot was designed by C.L. Wüst of Frankfurt in the mid-19th century. It is popular in Francophone Europe and Quebec and is also used in Denmark to play tarot games that require the full 78-card deck. Like the Industrie und Glück, the trumps depict genre scenes but modern editions use Arabic numerals instead of Roman ones.[39] Modern Swedish pattern Swedes used to use Bavarian derived patterns. In the early 20th-century, the firm Öberg & Son invented a new pattern unrelated to the old ones.[40][41][42][43][44] This pattern has spread to neighboring Finland. The clothing for the figures in the court cards are color coordinated; green for spades, red for hearts, purple for clubs, and blue for diamonds. They are used in the standard 52-card format. English pattern Evolution of the King of Hearts from the Rouennais to English pattern Card makers from Rouen began exporting to England around 1480.[45] Since Latin-suited cards were already circulating in England[citation needed], the English renamed French suits to the Latin ones with which they were familiar. Hence the clovers were called clubs and pikes were named after the swords (spade). The English did not start producing their own cards until a century later. In 1628, the importation of foreign playing cards was banned to protect local manufacturers. English cardmakers produced lower quality cards than their continental counterparts leading to the loss of detail from the Rouennais pattern. Today's pattern is the result of Charles Goodall and Son's reworking of the old Rouen pattern during the 19th century.[46] The majority of decks sold in this pattern is the 52 card deck. One deck invented in the United States but more commonly found in Australia and New Zealand contains 11s, 12s, and red 13s to play the six-handed version of the Euchre variant 500.[47] In the late nineteenth century, they were also used for variants of draw poker and royal cassino.[48][49] Decks marketed for Canasta often have card point values printed on the cards. Vienna pattern Vienna pattern Lyon was a major card exporter to German speaking countries from the late 16th through the 18th centuries.[50][51] While the Lyonnais pattern died out in most places, it survived in Austria and the Czech Republic and its modern incarnation is the Vienna pattern.[52][53][54] They come in decks of 24 (no 2s to 8s), 32 (no 2s to 6s), or 52 cards, the latter with corner indices and three jokers. Lombard pattern The Lombard or Milanese pattern come in 40 card decks that is missing the 8s, 9s, and 10s and lack corner indices. The Lombard decks exported to Swiss Italian regions contain corner indices and also labels the ranks of the face cards.[55] It is probably derived from the Lyonnais pattern and its offshoot, the extinct Provence pattern.[56][57] Tuscan pattern The Tuscan or Florentine pattern, dating from the mid-19th century, is the only French suited deck that is not reversible in the present.[58][59] Cards measure 58 × 88 mm but the Toscane Grandi by Modiano are 67 × 101 mm large. It has the same composition of cards as the Lombard pattern. There was another pattern called "Tuscan" but it has ceased printing since the 1980s.[60][61] Baronesse pattern Baronesse pattern Dondorf of Frankfurt produced this pattern around 1900 and now it is used in Patience decks by many companies worldwide. The court cards are dressed in rococo period costumes." (wikipedia.org) "In the field of optics, transparency (also called pellucidity or diaphaneity) is the physical property of allowing light to pass through the material without appreciable scattering of light. On a macroscopic scale (one in which the dimensions are much larger than the wavelengths of the photons in question), the photons can be said to follow Snell's Law. Translucency (also called translucence or translucidity) allows light to pass through, but does not necessarily (again, on the macroscopic scale) follow Snell's law; the photons can be scattered at either of the two interfaces, or internally, where there is a change in index of refraction. In other words, a translucent material is made up of components with different indices of refraction. A transparent material is made up of components with a uniform index of refraction.[1] Transparent materials appear clear, with the overall appearance of one color, or any combination leading up to a brilliant spectrum of every color. The opposite property of translucency is opacity. When light encounters a material, it can interact with it in several different ways. These interactions depend on the wavelength of the light and the nature of the material. Photons interact with an object by some combination of reflection, absorption and transmission. Some materials, such as plate glass and clean water, transmit much of the light that falls on them and reflect little of it; such materials are called optically transparent. Many liquids and aqueous solutions are highly transparent. Absence of structural defects (voids, cracks, etc.) and molecular structure of most liquids are mostly responsible for excellent optical transmission. Materials which do not transmit light are called opaque. Many such substances have a chemical composition which includes what are referred to as absorption centers. Many substances are selective in their absorption of white light frequencies. They absorb certain portions of the visible spectrum while reflecting others. The frequencies of the spectrum which are not absorbed are either reflected or transmitted for our physical observation. This is what gives rise to color. The attenuation of light of all frequencies and wavelengths is due to the combined mechanisms of absorption and scattering.[2] Transparency can provide almost perfect camouflage for animals able to achieve it. This is easier in dimly-lit or turbid seawater than in good illumination. Many marine animals such as jellyfish are highly transparent. ... Etymology     late Middle English: from Old French, from medieval Latin transparent- ‘shining through’, from Latin transparere, from trans- ‘through’ + parere ‘be visible’.[citation needed]     late 16th century (in the Latin sense): from Latin translucent- ‘shining through’, from the verb translucere, from trans- ‘through’ + lucere ‘to shine’.[citation needed]     late Middle English opake, from Latin opacus ‘darkened’. The current spelling (rare before the 19th century) has been influenced by the French form.[citation needed] Introduction     This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) With regard to the absorption of light, primary material considerations include:     At the electronic level, absorption in the ultraviolet and visible (UV-Vis) portions of the spectrum depends on whether the electron orbitals are spaced (or "quantized") such that they can absorb a quantum of light (or photon) of a specific frequency, and does not violate selection rules. For example, in most glasses, electrons have no available energy levels above them in range of that associated with visible light, or if they do, they violate selection rules, meaning there is no appreciable absorption in pure (undoped) glasses, making them ideal transparent materials for windows in buildings.     At the atomic or molecular level, physical absorption in the infrared portion of the spectrum depends on the frequencies of atomic or molecular vibrations or chemical bonds, and on selection rules. Nitrogen and oxygen are not greenhouse gases because there is no molecular dipole moment. With regard to the scattering of light, the most critical factor is the length scale of any or all of these structural features relative to the wavelength of the light being scattered. Primary material considerations include:     Crystalline structure: whether the atoms or molecules exhibit the 'long-range order' evidenced in crystalline solids.     Glassy structure: scattering centers include fluctuations in density or composition.     Microstructure: scattering centers include internal surfaces such as grain boundaries, crystallographic defects and microscopic pores.     Organic materials: scattering centers include fiber and cell structures and boundaries. Main article: Light scattering General mechanism of diffuse reflection Diffuse reflection - Generally, when light strikes the surface of a (non-metallic and non-glassy) solid material, it bounces off in all directions due to multiple reflections by the microscopic irregularities inside the material (e.g., the grain boundaries of a polycrystalline material, or the cell or fiber boundaries of an organic material), and by its surface, if it is rough. Diffuse reflection is typically characterized by omni-directional reflection angles. Most of the objects visible to the naked eye are identified via diffuse reflection. Another term commonly used for this type of reflection is "light scattering". Light scattering from the surfaces of objects is our primary mechanism of physical observation.[3][4] Light scattering in liquids and solids depends on the wavelength of the light being scattered. Limits to spatial scales of visibility (using white light) therefore arise, depending on the frequency of the light wave and the physical dimension (or spatial scale) of the scattering center. Visible light has a wavelength scale on the order of a half a micrometer. Scattering centers (or particles) as small as one micrometer have been observed directly in the light microscope (e.g., Brownian motion).[5][6] Transparent ceramics Optical transparency in polycrystalline materials is limited by the amount of light which is scattered by their microstructural features. Light scattering depends on the wavelength of the light. Limits to spatial scales of visibility (using white light) therefore arise, depending on the frequency of the light wave and the physical dimension of the scattering center. For example, since visible light has a wavelength scale on the order of a micrometer, scattering centers will have dimensions on a similar spatial scale. Primary scattering centers in polycrystalline materials include microstructural defects such as pores and grain boundaries. In addition to pores, most of the interfaces in a typical metal or ceramic object are in the form of grain boundaries which separate tiny regions of crystalline order. When the size of the scattering center (or grain boundary) is reduced below the size of the wavelength of the light being scattered, the scattering no longer occurs to any significant extent. In the formation of polycrystalline materials (metals and ceramics) the size of the crystalline grains is determined largely by the size of the crystalline particles present in the raw material during formation (or pressing) of the object. Moreover, the size of the grain boundaries scales directly with particle size. Thus a reduction of the original particle size well below the wavelength of visible light (about 1/15 of the light wavelength or roughly 600/15 = 40 nanometers) eliminates much of light scattering, resulting in a translucent or even transparent material. Computer modeling of light transmission through translucent ceramic alumina has shown that microscopic pores trapped near grain boundaries act as primary scattering centers. The volume fraction of porosity had to be reduced below 1% for high-quality optical transmission (99.99 percent of theoretical density). This goal has been readily accomplished and amply demonstrated in laboratories and research facilities worldwide using the emerging chemical processing methods encompassed by the methods of sol-gel chemistry and nanotechnology.[7] Translucency of a material being used to highlight the structure of a photographic subject Transparent ceramics have created interest in their applications for high energy lasers, transparent armor windows, nose cones for heat seeking missiles, radiation detectors for non-destructive testing, high energy physics, space exploration, security and medical imaging applications. Large laser elements made from transparent ceramics can be produced at a relatively low cost. These components are free of internal stress or intrinsic birefringence, and allow relatively large doping levels or optimized custom-designed doping profiles. This makes ceramic laser elements particularly important for high-energy lasers. The development of transparent panel products will have other potential advanced applications including high strength, impact-resistant materials that can be used for domestic windows and skylights. Perhaps more important is that walls and other applications will have improved overall strength, especially for high-shear conditions found in high seismic and wind exposures. If the expected improvements in mechanical properties bear out, the traditional limits seen on glazing areas in today's building codes could quickly become outdated if the window area actually contributes to the shear resistance of the wall. Currently available infrared transparent materials typically exhibit a trade-off between optical performance, mechanical strength and price. For example, sapphire (crystalline alumina) is very strong, but it is expensive and lacks full transparency throughout the 3–5 micrometer mid-infrared range. Yttria is fully transparent from 3–5 micrometers, but lacks sufficient strength, hardness, and thermal shock resistance for high-performance aerospace applications. Not surprisingly, a combination of these two materials in the form of the yttrium aluminium garnet (YAG) is one of the top performers in the field. Absorption of light in solids     This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) When light strikes an object, it usually has not just a single frequency (or wavelength) but many. Objects have a tendency to selectively absorb, reflect or transmit light of certain frequencies. That is, one object might reflect green light while absorbing all other frequencies of visible light. Another object might selectively transmit blue light while absorbing all other frequencies of visible light. The manner in which visible light interacts with an object is dependent upon the frequency of the light, the nature of the atoms in the object, and often the nature of the electrons in the atoms of the object. Some materials allow much of the light that falls on them to be transmitted through the material without being reflected. Materials that allow the transmission of light waves through them are called optically transparent. Chemically pure (undoped) window glass and clean river or spring water are prime examples of this. Materials which do not allow the transmission of any light wave frequencies are called opaque. Such substances may have a chemical composition which includes what are referred to as absorption centers. Most materials are composed of materials which are selective in their absorption of light frequencies. Thus they absorb only certain portions of the visible spectrum. The frequencies of the spectrum which are not absorbed are either reflected back or transmitted for our physical observation. In the visible portion of the spectrum, this is what gives rise to color.[8][9] Absorption centers are largely responsible for the appearance of specific wavelengths of visible light all around us. Moving from longer (0.7 micrometer) to shorter (0.4 micrometer) wavelengths: red, orange, yellow, green and blue (ROYGB) can all be identified by our senses in the appearance of color by the selective absorption of specific light wave frequencies (or wavelengths). Mechanisms of selective light wave absorption include:     Electronic: Transitions in electron energy levels within the atom (e.g., pigments). These transitions are typically in the ultraviolet (UV) and/or visible portions of the spectrum.     Vibrational: Resonance in atomic/molecular vibrational modes. These transitions are typically in the infrared portion of the spectrum. UV-Vis: Electronic transitions In electronic absorption, the frequency of the incoming light wave is at or near the energy levels of the electrons within the atoms which compose the substance. In this case, the electrons will absorb the energy of the light wave and increase their energy state, often moving outward from the nucleus of the atom into an outer shell or orbital. The atoms that bind together to make the molecules of any particular substance contain a number of electrons (given by the atomic number Z in the periodic chart). Recall that all light waves are electromagnetic in origin. Thus they are affected strongly when coming into contact with negatively charged electrons in matter. When photons (individual packets of light energy) come in contact with the valence electrons of atom, one of several things can and will occur:     A molecule absorbs the photon, some of the energy may be lost via luminescence, fluorescence and phosphorescence.     A molecule absorbs the photon which results in reflection or scattering.     A molecule cannot absorb the energy of the photon and the photon continues on its path. This results in transmission (provided no other absorption mechanisms are active). Most of the time, it is a combination of the above that happens to the light that hits an object. The states in different materials vary in the range of energy that they can absorb. Most glasses, for example, block ultraviolet (UV) light. What happens is the electrons in the glass absorb the energy of the photons in the UV range while ignoring the weaker energy of photons in the visible light spectrum. But there are also existing special glass types, like special types of borosilicate glass or quartz that are UV-permeable and thus allow a high transmission of ultra violet light. Thus, when a material is illuminated, individual photons of light can make the valence electrons of an atom transition to a higher electronic energy level. The photon is destroyed in the process and the absorbed radiant energy is transformed to electric potential energy. Several things can happen then to the absorbed energy: it may be re-emitted by the electron as radiant energy (in this case the overall effect is in fact a scattering of light), dissipated to the rest of the material (i.e. transformed into heat), or the electron can be freed from the atom (as in the photoelectric and Compton effects). Infrared: Bond stretching Normal modes of vibration in a crystalline solid The primary physical mechanism for storing mechanical energy of motion in condensed matter is through heat, or thermal energy. Thermal energy manifests itself as energy of motion. Thus, heat is motion at the atomic and molecular levels. The primary mode of motion in crystalline substances is vibration. Any given atom will vibrate around some mean or average position within a crystalline structure, surrounded by its nearest neighbors. This vibration in two dimensions is equivalent to the oscillation of a clock’s pendulum. It swings back and forth symmetrically about some mean or average (vertical) position. Atomic and molecular vibrational frequencies may average on the order of 1012 cycles per second (Terahertz radiation). When a light wave of a given frequency strikes a material with particles having the same or (resonant) vibrational frequencies, then those particles will absorb the energy of the light wave and transform it into thermal energy of vibrational motion. Since different atoms and molecules have different natural frequencies of vibration, they will selectively absorb different frequencies (or portions of the spectrum) of infrared light. Reflection and transmission of light waves occur because the frequencies of the light waves do not match the natural resonant frequencies of vibration of the objects. When infrared light of these frequencies strikes an object, the energy is reflected or transmitted. If the object is transparent, then the light waves are passed on to neighboring atoms through the bulk of the material and re-emitted on the opposite side of the object. Such frequencies of light waves are said to be transmitted.[10][11] Transparency in insulators An object may be not transparent either because it reflects the incoming light or because it absorbs the incoming light. Almost all solids reflect a part and absorb a part of the incoming light. When light falls onto a block of metal, it encounters atoms that are tightly packed in a regular lattice and a "sea of electrons" moving randomly between the atoms.[12] In metals, most of these are non-bonding electrons (or free electrons) as opposed to the bonding electrons typically found in covalently bonded or ionically bonded non-metallic (insulating) solids. In a metallic bond, any potential bonding electrons can easily be lost by the atoms in a crystalline structure. The effect of this delocalization is simply to exaggerate the effect of the "sea of electrons". As a result of these electrons, most of the incoming light in metals is reflected back, which is why we see a shiny metal surface. Most insulators (or dielectric materials) are held together by ionic bonds. Thus, these materials do not have free conduction electrons, and the bonding electrons reflect only a small fraction of the incident wave. The remaining frequencies (or wavelengths) are free to propagate (or be transmitted). This class of materials includes all ceramics and glasses. If a dielectric material does not include light-absorbent additive molecules (pigments, dyes, colorants), it is usually transparent to the spectrum of visible light. Color centers (or dye molecules, or "dopants") in a dielectric absorb a portion of the incoming light. The remaining frequencies (or wavelengths) are free to be reflected or transmitted. This is how colored glass is produced. Most liquids and aqueous solutions are highly transparent. For example, water, cooking oil, rubbing alcohol, air, and natural gas are all clear. Absence of structural defects (voids, cracks, etc.) and molecular structure of most liquids are chiefly responsible for their excellent optical transmission. The ability of liquids to "heal" internal defects via viscous flow is one of the reasons why some fibrous materials (e.g., paper or fabric) increase their apparent transparency when wetted. The liquid fills up numerous voids making the material more structurally homogeneous.[citation needed] Light scattering in an ideal defect-free crystalline (non-metallic) solid which provides no scattering centers for incoming light will be due primarily to any effects of anharmonicity within the ordered lattice. Light transmission will be highly directional due to the typical anisotropy of crystalline substances, which includes their symmetry group and Bravais lattice. For example, the seven different crystalline forms of quartz silica (silicon dioxide, SiO2) are all clear, transparent materials.[13] Optical waveguides Propagation of light through a multi-mode optical fiber A laser beam bouncing down an acrylic rod, illustrating the total internal reflection of light in a multimode optical fiber Optically transparent materials focus on the response of a material to incoming light waves of a range of wavelengths. Guided light wave transmission via frequency selective waveguides involves the emerging field of fiber optics and the ability of certain glassy compositions to act as a transmission medium for a range of frequencies simultaneously (multi-mode optical fiber) with little or no interference between competing wavelengths or frequencies. This resonant mode of energy and data transmission via electromagnetic (light) wave propagation is relatively lossless.[citation needed] An optical fiber is a cylindrical dielectric waveguide that transmits light along its axis by the process of total internal reflection. The fiber consists of a core surrounded by a cladding layer. To confine the optical signal in the core, the refractive index of the core must be greater than that of the cladding. The refractive index is the parameter reflecting the speed of light in a material. (Refractive index is the ratio of the speed of light in vacuum to the speed of light in a given medium. The refractive index of vacuum is therefore 1.) The larger the refractive index, the more slowly light travels in that medium. Typical values for core and cladding of an optical fiber are 1.48 and 1.46, respectively.[citation needed] When light traveling in a dense medium hits a boundary at a steep angle, the light will be completely reflected. This effect, called total internal reflection, is used in optical fibers to confine light in the core. Light travels along the fiber bouncing back and forth off of the boundary. Because the light must strike the boundary with an angle greater than the critical angle, only light that enters the fiber within a certain range of angles will be propagated. This range of angles is called the acceptance cone of the fiber. The size of this acceptance cone is a function of the refractive index difference between the fiber's core and cladding. Optical waveguides are used as components in integrated optical circuits (e.g. combined with lasers or light-emitting diodes, LEDs) or as the transmission medium in local and long haul optical communication systems.[citation needed] Mechanisms of attenuation See also: Light scattering Light attenuation by ZBLAN and silica fibers Attenuation in fiber optics, also known as transmission loss, is the reduction in intensity of the light beam (or signal) with respect to distance traveled through a transmission medium. Attenuation coefficients in fiber optics usually use units of dB/km through the medium due to the very high quality of transparency of modern optical transmission media. The medium is usually a fiber of silica glass that confines the incident light beam to the inside. Attenuation is an important factor limiting the transmission of a signal across large distances. In optical fibers the main attenuation source is scattering from molecular level irregularities (Rayleigh scattering)[14] due to structural disorder and compositional fluctuations of the glass structure. This same phenomenon is seen as one of the limiting factors in the transparency of infrared missile domes[citation needed]. Further attenuation is caused by light absorbed by residual materials, such as metals or water ions, within the fiber core and inner cladding. Light leakage due to bending, splices, connectors, or other outside forces are other factors resulting in attenuation.[15][16] As camouflage Many animals of the open sea, like this Aurelia labiata jellyfish, are largely transparent. Further information: List of camouflage methods Many marine animals that float near the surface are highly transparent, giving them almost perfect camouflage.[17] However, transparency is difficult for bodies made of materials that have different refractive indices from seawater. Some marine animals such as jellyfish have gelatinous bodies, composed mainly of water; their thick mesogloea is acellular and highly transparent. This conveniently makes them buoyant, but it also makes them large for their muscle mass, so they cannot swim fast, making this form of camouflage a costly trade-off with mobility.[17] Gelatinous planktonic animals are between 50 and 90 percent transparent. A transparency of 50 percent is enough to make an animal invisible to a predator such as cod at a depth of 650 metres (2,130 ft); better transparency is required for invisibility in shallower water, where the light is brighter and predators can see better. For example, a cod can see prey that are 98 percent transparent in optimal lighting in shallow water. Therefore, sufficient transparency for camouflage is more easily achieved in deeper waters.[17] For the same reason, transparency in air is even harder to achieve, but a partial example is found in the glass frogs of the South American rain forest, which have translucent skin and pale greenish limbs.[18] Several Central American species of clearwing (ithomiine) butterflies and many dragonflies and allied insects also have wings which are mostly transparent, a form of crypsis that provides some protection from predators." (wikipedia.org)
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