Switzerland

Switzerland holds a pivotal place in the history of European playing cards, with evidence of their presence in Basel as early as 1377. This date marks the creation of the first known written account of playing cards in Europe, authored by the Swiss Dominican friar John of Rheinfelden (Dummett, Game, pp. 10–11). Over the centuries, the Swiss cantons became a crossroads for card design, absorbing influences from France, Italy, and Germany while developing a unique national identity. This evolution gave rise to the distinct Swiss suit system—comprising shields, acorns, hawk-bells, and roses—which remains in use today for the popular game of Jass (Mann, Collecting, pp. 109–111).

In the realm of Tarot, Switzerland was a key producer of the Tarot de Besançon, a pattern famous for replacing the controversial Pope and Popess cards with the deities Jupiter and Juno to appease religious sensibilities. The Swiss manufacturing tradition has been upheld by historic makers such as Bernard Schaer of Mümliswil, the Gassmann family of Geneva, and most notably A.G. Müller of Schaffhausen, a company that dominated the Swiss market into the modern era (Keller (ed.), Catalogue, ii, pp. 106–112).

Introduction

Switzerland was one of the earliest territories in Europe to manufacture playing cards, with their availability confirmed in Basel by 1377. Due to its strategic location, the country’s card culture developed as a synthesis of French, Italian, and German fashions. While French suits eventually became common, a distinct Swiss suit system emerged in the fifteenth century, featuring shields, acorns, hawk-bells, and roses. These traditional cards are still widely used today, particularly for Jass, the national card game of Switzerland.

History

The first confirmed references to playing cards in Europe appear in 1377 across four different cities, with Basel being one of the primary locations. Historical records indicate that the practice of card playing spread rapidly through the Swiss cantons: it reached St. Gallen and Bern by 1379 and Zurich by 1389. These dates are derived from local ordinances and laws introduced to ban card playing or the gambling associated with it, providing clear evidence of the game’s established presence (Dummett, Game, pp. 10–11).

The year 1377 also marks the creation of the first written treatise on playing cards in Europe. A Dominican friar in Basel, John of Rheinfelden, wrote Tractatus de Moribus et Disciplina Humane Conversationes (A Treatise on the Morality and Discipline of Human Conversation). In this text, he described a 52-card deck containing ten pip-cards and three court-cards per suit. While he offered a detailed structural analysis, he unfortunately did not specify the suit symbols used at the time (Dummett, Game, p. 11; Hargrave, History, p. 257).

Artistic Mastery: The Ambraser Hofjagdspiel

One of the most significant early decks in European history was produced in Switzerland around 1440–1445. Known as the Ambraser Hofjagdspiel (Court Hunting Pack of Ambras), it is attributed to the workshop of the renowned painter Konrad Witz in Basel. Of the original 56 cards, 54 survive. The deck is thematically unified around the hunt, utilizing suits of Hunting Dogs, Falcons, Herons, and Lures. The artistic quality of these cards highlights the high status playing cards had achieved in the region by the mid-fifteenth century (Borchert, ‘Konrad Witz’).

A Crossroads of Influence

The development of playing cards in Switzerland was profoundly shaped by its political structure and geography. In the fifteenth century, the Swiss cantons existed as a loose confederacy of independent towns. As new cities joined the confederation, they brought with them distinct cultural influences from neighboring France, Italy, and Germany. For example, Italian-suited cards were introduced from northern Italy, gaining popularity in the southern Swiss regions (Mann, Collecting, pp. 109–110).

French influence became particularly dominant in the late sixteenth century due to economic shifts in France. A royal edict in 1583 imposed heavy taxes on French card-makers, prompting many artisans from Lyon—a major centre of production—to emigrate to the Swiss cantons. These immigrant craftsmen popularized French suit signs (Hearts, Diamonds, Spades, Clubs) and manufacturing techniques. The French legacy persisted for centuries; even as late as the 1770s, it was common for Swiss card-makers to include the French fleur-de-lis on specific pip-cards as a nod to this heritage (Hargrave, History, pp. 262–263).

The Swiss Suit System and Jass

Despite foreign influences, a distinct Swiss suit system evolved during the fifteenth century. This system consists of Shields (Schilten), Acorns (Eichel), Hawk-bells (Schellen), and Roses (Rosen). Unlike the standard German system, which uses Leaves and Hearts, the Swiss system utilizes Shields and Roses, creating a unique regional identity (Mann, Collecting, pp. 109–111; Dummett, Game, p. 4).

These suits are inextricably partial to the game of Jass, which is widely considered the national game of Switzerland. Interestingly, Jass itself is likely of Dutch origin, brought to the Swiss cantons in the eighteenth century by Protestant mercenaries, yet it has become the defining feature of Swiss card culture (Parlett, Guide, pp. 8–9, 292–293).

The “Jass” decks used today are typically found in 36-card formats. Historically, the Swiss also produced 48-card decks. A unique feature of these decks is the omission of the Aces; instead, the pack retains three court cards and the pip cards 2 through 10 (Dummett, Game, p. 24). When 36-card decks became the standard for Jass, the 3, 4, and 5 of each suit were removed, but the Deuce (2) was retained as a high-ranking card (Dummett, Game, p. 28).

Tarot in Switzerland

Switzerland played a crucial role in the survival and evolution of the Tarot. While the Tarot de Besançon is named after a town in eastern France, evidence suggests the pattern may have originated in the Swiss cantons or was at least heavily popularized there.

A defining characteristic of the Tarot de Besançon is the replacement of the Popess (High Priestess) and Pope cards with the Roman deities Juno and Jupiter. This change was likely driven by religious sensitivities in the Protestant areas of Switzerland and eastern France, where depictions of the Pope were controversial (Dummett, Game, pp. 217–218).

In the 1830s, Johann Georg Rauch, a predecessor to the A.G. Müller company, produced a modernized version of this deck. Now known as the Swiss 1JJ Tarot, it retains the Juno and Jupiter cards and remains one of the most recognizable Tarot patterns in the world (Kaplan, Encyclopedia, ii, pp. 365–366). Additionally, distinct Swiss variants of the Tarot de Marseille existed in the eighteenth century, featuring unique iconographic details such as the Hanged Man depicted in profile (Dummett, Game, p. 204).

Manufacturers and Industry

For a relatively small country, Switzerland sustained a vibrant manufacturing industry. Important historical makers include successive generations of the Schaer family in Mümliswil (18th–19th centuries) and the Gassmann family in Geneva.

However, the industry eventually consolidated around A.G. Müller. The company’s lineage dates back to the establishment of a workshop in Diessenhofen in 1828, which was later acquired by Johann Georg Rauch. Under the leadership of the Müller family, the business moved to Schaffhausen and became the preeminent Swiss card manufacturer of the modern era (Kaplan, Encyclopedia, ii, pp. 225–228; Hargrave, History, p. 266; O’Donoghue (ed.), Catalogue, pp. 140–145; Keller (ed.), Catalogue, ii, pp. 106–112).

In the twentieth century, Müller & Cie continued to innovate, notably producing the “Blue” variant of the famous Crowley-Harris Thoth Tarot in 1986 (Kaplan, Encyclopedia, iii, pp. 152, 156). The company was eventually acquired by the global playing card giant Cartamundi in 1999, marking the end of an era for independent Swiss industrial production (Cartamundi, History).

Sources (References)

• Borchert, Till-Holger. ‘Konrad Witz’. The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 153 (July, 2011), pp. 497–499.
• Cartamundi. ‘History of Cartamundi, 1970–Present’ [Web Resource]. Accessed via: https://www.cartamundi.com/us/en/cartamundi-history/history/
• Dummett, Michael. The Game of Tarot: From Ferrara to Salt Lake City. London: Gerald Duckworth & Co. Ltd, 1980.
• Hargrave, Catherine Perry. A History of Playing Cards and a Bibliography of Cards and Gaming. New York: Dover Publications, 1966.
• Kaplan, Stuart R. The Encyclopedia of Tarot. 4 volumes. Stamford, Connecticut: U.S. Games Systems, Inc., 1978–2005.
• Keller, William B. (ed.). A Catalogue of the Cary Collection of Playing Cards in the Yale University Library. 2 volumes. New Haven: The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, 1981.
• Mann, Sylvia. Collecting Playing Cards. New York: Bell Publishing Company, 1966.
• O’Donoghue, Freeman M. (ed.). Catalogue of the Collection of Playing Cards Bequeathed to the Trustees of the British Museum by the Late Lady Charlotte Schreiber. London: Longmans & Co., 1901.
• Parlett, David. The Oxford Guide to Card Games. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990.

</markdown>