Cups (suit)

Playing card suit

For the suit of tarot cards, see Suit of cups.

Cups

Symbol from Trentine pattern

Native names|

* English: Cups
* Italian: Coppe
* Japanese: コツ
* Portuguese: Copas
* Spanish: Copas

Decks|

* Spanish-suited playing cards
* Italian-suited playing cards
* Portuguese-suited playing cards

Invented| 15th century
The suit of cups from an 18th-century Venetian pack

The suit of cups is one of the four card suits used in Latin-suited playing cards alongside coins, swords and batons. These suits are used in Spanish, Italian and some tarot card packs.

Symbol on Italian pattern cards:    Symbol on Spanish pattern cards:  Symbol on French Aluette Spanish pattern cards:

## Characteristics

[edit]

The suit of cups is believed to have derived from Chinese money-suited cards' Myriads of Strings of cash coins suit. When the cards came into contact with the Islamic world, the Muslims adopted and renamed the suit of myriads as cups. This may have been due to the simplified Chinese character for "myriad" (万) being seen as upside-down. Mahjong maintains the myriad suit by using the traditional form of the character (萬).

In Spain, the suit of cups is known as copas and the court cards are known as the rey (king), caballo (knight or cavalier) and sota (knave or valet). The Spanish play with packs of 40 or 48 cards. There are no tens and, in the shorter pack, the nines and eights are also dropped. Thus the suit of cups ranks: R C S (9 8) 7 6 5 4 3 2 1. In Italy the suit is known as coppe and the corresponding court cards are the re, cavallo and fante. Either 40 or 52-card packs are used. In the shorter packs, the tens, nines and eights are removed. Card ranking is thus: R C F (10 9 8) 7 6 5 4 3 2 1.[1]

In 1588, at the request of publisher Leonhardt Heussler in Nuremberg, Germany, the Swiss-German artist Jost Amman created a deck of cards where two of the four suits are cups. One set of cups are straight/cylindrical, more akin to drinking vessels. The other set of cups are round/spherical, more akin to pots. Like other early German decks, the 10 rank is represented by a Banner, and the court cards are the Unter, Ober, and King. Many of the cards feature fanciful illustrations demonstrating the artist's skill (a trend started by the Italian tarot).[2][3]

Portuguese-suited playing cards were traded to Japan in the mid-16th century which influenced the development of Karuta where the 48-card Komatsufuda and 75-card Unsun Karuta decks still maintain this suit.

## Gallery

[edit]

### Spanish pattern

[edit]

The gallery below shows a suit of cups from a Spanish-suited deck of 48 cards. The pack is of the Castilian pattern:

* Ace

* 2

* 3

* 4

* 5

* 6

* 7

* 8

* 9

* Sota

* Caballo

* Rey

### Italian pattern

[edit]

The gallery below shows a suit of cups from an Italian-suited deck of 52 cards. The pack is of the Bresciane pattern:

* Ace

* 2

* 3

* 4

* 5

* 6

* 7

* 8

* 9

* 10

* Fante

* Cavallo

* Re

### Komatsufuda pattern

[edit]

The image below shows a suit of cups from a Komatsufuda deck of 48 cards:

Ace, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, Knave, Knight, King

### Unsun karuta pattern

[edit]

The image below shows a suit of cups from an Unsun karuta deck of 75 cards:

Ace, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, Knight, King, Female Knave, Sun, Un, Dragon

## Individual cards

[edit]

* Seven of cups. In the game scopa, the seven of cups, along with the other suit sevens, is the highest-scoring card in the bonus of primiera.

The suit of goblets, also known as cups, is one of several suits of many tarot card packs used in tarot card readings and cartomancy.

## See also

[edit]

* Spanish playing cards
* Italian playing cards
* Suit of goblets or cups – suit used in divinatory tarot cards

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Parlett 2008, p. xv.
2. ^ Pollet, Andrea. "THE DECK BY JOST AMMAN". Andy's Playing Cards. Retrieved August 25, 2024.
3. ^ Wintle, Simon (July 3, 1996). "The Book of Trades by Jost Amman, 1588". The World of Playing Cards. Retrieved August 25, 2024.

## Literature

[edit]

* Parlett, David (2008). The Penguin book of card games. London: Penguin. ISBN 978-0-14-103787-5. OCLC 229463734.

## External links

[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cups (playing cards).

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Playing cards

Standard
52-card deck|

| Playing card suits (French)|

* Spades
* Hearts
* Diamonds
* Clubs

|

Ranks|

* Ace
* Ace of spades
* Ace of hearts
* King
* Queen
* Queen of spades
* Jack
* Curse of Scotland
* Beer card

Specific decks|

* Ambraser Hofjagdspiel
* Archaeology awareness
* Charruan
* Flemish Hunting Deck
* Hamas most wanted
* Hofämterspiel
* Jerry's Nugget
* Most-wanted Iraqi
* Politicards
* Stuttgart pack
* Transformation

Other packs
and decks|

* As-Nas
* Chinese
* Four-colour pack
* Ganjifa
* ganjapa
* Karuta
* hanafuda
* Hyakunin Isshu
* kabufuda
* uta-garuta
* Kvitlech
* Polish
* Portuguese-suited
* Russian
* Tarot pack
* Tujeon
* Zi pai

Cards|

* Banner
* Blank
* Court card
* knight
* Ober
* Unter
* Pip card
* deuce
* Weli
* Joker
* Nicknames
* Stripped deck
* Talon
* Unicode

Other suits|

| German|

* Leaves

|

Swiss|

* Shields
* Roses

German and Swiss|

* Acorns
* Bells

Latin (Italian/Spanish/Portuguese)|

* Cups
* Coins
* Batons
* Swords
* Japanese
* Guru (circular whirls)

Chinese (Money)|

* Cash
* Strings of Cash
* Myriads of Strings
* Tens of Myriads

Manufacturers
and brands|

| Manufacturers|

* ASS Altenburger
* Cartamundi
* Copag
* Dal Negro
* Fournier
* France Cartes
* F.X. Schmid
* Gemaco
* J.O. Öberg & Son
* Modiano
* Nintendo
* Nürnberger-Spielkarten-Verlag
* Oishi Tengudo
* Piatnik
* Ravensburger
* Trefl
* U.S. Games Systems
* United States Playing Card Company

|

Brands|

* Bicycle
* Grimaud

Defunct|

* Aspioti-ELKA
* Bielefelder Spielkarten
* C.L. Wüst
* Charles Goodall
* Dondorf
* Lewis Cohen
* Waddingtons

Notable people|

* Lee Asher
* Hubert Auer
* Bryan Berg
* David Blaine
* Derren Brown
* Lewis Cohen
* Dan and Dave
* Thierry Depaulis
* S. W. Erdnase
* Lennart Green
* Richard Harding
* Johann Kaspar Hechtel
* Ricky Jay
* Sekiryo Kaneda
* René Lavand
* Ed Marlo
* Master of the Playing Cards
* John McLeod
* Anton Moser
* Samuel J. Murray
* David Parlett
* Ferdinand Piatnik
* Richard Valentine Pitchford
* Franco Pratesi
* Johann Georg Rauch
* Juan Tamariz
* Howard Thurston
* Charles Troedel
* Dai Vernon
* Fusajiro Yamauchi

Groups and
organisations|

| Skat|

* British Skat Association
* German Skat Association
* International Skat Court
* International Skat Players Association

|

* 52 Plus Joker
* Cary Collection of Playing Cards
* Fournier Museum of Playing Cards
* German Doppelkopf Association
* German Playing Card Museum
* International Playing-Card Society
* The Playing-Card
* Musée Français de la Carte à Jouer
* Saga Arashiyama Museum of Arts and Culture
* Worshipful Company of Makers of Playing Cards

Card manipulation
and cardistry|

| Tricks|

* The Acme of Control
* Ambitious Card
* Blackstone's Card Trick Without Cards
* The Circus Card Trick
* The Four Burglars
* Out of This World
* Rising Card
* Spelling Bee
* Twenty-One Card Trick

|

* Bottom dealing
* Card marking
* Card sharp
* Card throwing
* Cards in the hat
* Cardistry-Con
* Cutting
* Double lift
* The Expert at the Card Table
* Herrmann pass
* History of cardistry
* House of cards
* One-way deck
* Palms and grips
* gambler's
* magician's
* mechanic's
* Tenkai
* The Phantom of the Card Table
* Second dealing
* Shuffling
* faro
* Gilbreath
* Zarrow
* Si Stebbins stack
* Spoke card
* Three-card monte
* Trick decks

Art and media|

| Paintings|

* The Acrobats
* The Bezique Game
* The Card Players
* The Card Players II
* Card Players in a Rich Interior
* The Card Sharp with the Ace of Diamonds
* Cardplayers in a Sunlit Room
* The Cardsharps
* Dogs Playing Poker
* Still Life with a Poem
* Violin and Playing Cards on a Table

|

Film and television|

* Card Sharks
* Playing Cards (1896)
* Play Your Cards Right

Video games|

* Balatro

Literature|

* Alice's Adventures In Wonderland (1865)

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