The Scagliola table

 
                                                    
Some years ago this item appeared in the Peterborough column of the Daily Telegraph

"Wages of Sin"

At the Callaly castle sale in
Northumberland tomorrow ,
Christies expects an early 18th
century Scagliola table with a
macabre history to fetch
between £30,000 and £40,000.
It's flat black top depicts the
aftermath of a card game. Four
hands of cards can be identified.
They lie scattered, some of
them torn, together with a
fob watch and a signet ring.
There is a tradition in the
family of the owner of Callaly,
Major Simon Browne, that the
table represents the last game
played by a member of the
D'Aeth family, during which he
staked his entire estate on a
single hand.
His own hand consists of the
ace of diamonds, ace of clubs,
six and seven of clubs. But the
hand of the banker at the head
of the table caps it: ace of
spades, ace of hearts, king of
clubs and six of diamonds.
The ruined gambler it is said,
tore two of his cards in half,
threw down his fob and signet
ring, went upstairs and shot
himself."
(DT 21/09/86)


Comment:
The game was clearly Primero which was played in England from about 1532 up until the 1740s.
The most striking detail is the losing hand. Under Italian rules as described by Cardano (1565), the seven six and ace of clubs would have made a special 3 card flush called "Gobbo" worth 55 points ( 21+18 +16), beaten only by Four of a kind called a "Chorus". Yet we are told in no uncertain terms that this player lost ! (he went upstairs and shot himself).

The hand must therefore have been played under the alternate Spanish rules for Primero which were also popular in England at the time and were described by Joseph Strutt in his 18th century compendium on games "Sports and Pastimes of the English People".

Under the alternate Spanish rules for Primero, an ace counts for only 15 points not 16, and a six is worth only 16 points not 18, which reduces the loser's hand of seven six ace of clubs to an ordinary 3 card flush or "Point" of 52 (21+16+15) . The Spanish game also counted the jack of hearts as a "Quinola" or joker which can duplicate or assume the value of any card. (All other court cards were nulls)

What is so special about the winning hand - ace of spades ace of hearts king of clubs and six of diamonds ? The answer is that the four cards are of four different suits, which makes it a "Prime" which beats any ordinary 3 card flush . In this instance the Prime is worth only 46 points (15+15+0+16), but it beats the 3 card Point of 52.

One could speculate that the unlucky loser only bet so high (his whole estate) because he was confused as to which rules, Spanish or Italian, were in use at the table. One can only imagine the recriminations that ensued when he discovered everyone else was following Spanish rules.

The two cards torn in half were most likely the seven and six of clubs. Had these been any value of Hearts or Spades respectively , then the hand would have been a Prime; had they been the other two aces, he would have won with four aces. Both players had originally bet and drawn to a pair of aces .

Footnote -
Scagliogla tables of this type were highly sought after by young English Gentlemen on 'Grand Tours' of of the Continent  from the late 17th century onwards and there are numerous examples of them in various collections. Tuscany in Italy was a major centre of manufacture. The Scagliola table pictured at the top of the post  is of a different design from the one referred to in the text. It dates from around 1680 and is  attributed to the craftsman Laurentius Bonuccelli and shows  the cards from a game of Piquet rather than Primero. (You can tell from the presence of  8, 9 & 10 spot cards which don't exist in the 40 card Primero pack.)

Post and Pair

Post & Pair

Post & Pair was a three card gambling game that gave the expression "Pipped at the Post" to the English language. It was first mentioned in 1528, and became fashionable at court in the late Elizabethan period.

Charles Cotton wrote in 1674, "Post and Pair is a game on the cards very much played in the West of England". Some writers on rural life claim the game survived there until the early 19th century. Post & Pair also travelled to America. George Washington is said to have played Post & Pair, and his accounts for March 1772 show a loss of £39 11s 3d in only 12 games.

Post & Pair is related to two earlier French card games called "Le Flux" and "Gé ". A French game called Gilet which was popular in the 17th century is said to have been similar to Post & Pair, and it is useful to read Cotton's account of Post & Pair in tandem with French descriptions of these related games.

Post & Pair was often associated with two other gambling games called "One & thirty" and "Bone-Ace", collectively known as "The Fool's Game", partly on account of their association with the Saturnalian revels of the Lord of Misrule at Christmastide. A colourful example can be found in the "Masque of Christmas" by Ben Jonson (1616) where one of the daughters of Christmas is called "Mis-Rule" and one of the sons is portrayed as:
"POST AND PAIRE.
With a paire-Royall of Aces in his Hat; his Garment all done over with Payres, and Purrs; his Squier carrying a Box, Cards, and Counters."

Outline
Post and Pair is a vying game with a couple of unusual twists. It was played with a trump suit, a show-down was optional, and in the absence of a Pair-royal, the vyes were won by the holder of the best card.

Playing Rules

Players - Any number from 2 to 10 (or more)

Deck - 52 card French standard

Points - Court Cards counted 10 points.
Aces counted 1 point.
All other cards counted their pip value.

Equipment - Two small dishes (optional)
Counters - each player had a prise of a dozen counters

Deal & staking
Each player placed a counter in each of the two dishes in the centre of the table, one for "Pair", the other for "Post" and received two cards face down. They now placed a third counter in front of them called the "Seat", and received a third card face down. All cards were taken into hand. This completed the deal. ( A player could abandon his hand after the first two cards and decline to stake at the Seat.)


Vying
Eldest hand alone had the option to say "Pass" first time round and subsequently re-enter the betting. All other players had one chance to Vye or else drop out from the deal. If all the Elder players passed, then the dealer could Vye with only the Eldest hand entitled to re-enter the betting. If the dealer passed as well, then the stakes were left on the table and doubled when the players dealt and staked again. If one player vyed, and another player re-vyed (raised the bet) then other players had to match or fold.

Settlement
If one player made a bet that no-one was prepared to match, then he won all the stakes unseen.
Players were not compelled to have a final show down. If all the players left in agreed to do so, then they could simply divide all the stakes and share them evenly between themselves without exposing their cards. But if one or more players refused to "Part stakes" and insisted on "showing best card for it ", the cards were shown down as follows:

The stakes were settled in sequence, first for Pairs and then for Post, and finally for the Seat and vyes.

Pair-royal
If one player held a Pair-royal then the divison ended there. The holder of a Pair-royal swept all the money on the table, Post Pair Seat and Vyes. The highest possible Pair-Royal was three Aces which was unbeatable. If more than one player held a Pair-Royal other than Aces, then the pip value of the cards was counted (court cards 10) and the elder hand won if there was a point tie. This meant that 3 Queens beat 3 Kings if the Queens were elder.

Pair
If no-one held a Pair-royal then the counters in the Pair dish were taken by the player with the best two card Pair. A pair of Aces was highest, other pairs were counted on their pips (Court cards 10) . Once again point ties were split in favour of the elderhand, so 2 Jacks would beat 2 Kings if the Jacks were elder.

If no-one held a pair, then the counters in the Pair dish were taken by the best trump card (see below).

Post Pool
The players now turned to the Post stake. A Post was a 2 or 3 card flush of 21 points or less. The highest 3 card Post was normally two 10 point cards plus the Ace of the same suit e.g K.J.A of Spades. If a player held a 3 card flush with a pip value greater than 21, then the Post value was that of the two highest cards (some circles counted it as 20.5). Any three card Post beat any two card Post.  A two card flush  of T.A could be counted as 21.

Trump Suit
The highest pointed Post won the Post stakes.  In some cases, the suit of the best Post produced at show-down became the 'Triumph' or Trump suit. But the usual rule was to count the pip values of all the cards originally dealt with Coats =10 and A = 11, and the highest pointed suit across all the hands, (including those that folded) became the Trump suit. The holder of the best card in this suit won Seat and Vyes unless they had folded their hands, in which case the holder of the next best card that stayed in for the show took the money. If none of the players who stayed in held a card of the dominant suit, then the suit of the best Post at show became the Trump suit instead. - Counting the pips of all the cards originally dealt to establish the Triumph suit is the method followed in the related French games Brelan and Bouillote.

Seat & Vyes
The Seat and Vyes were taken by the player in the show with the best single card in hand. This would be the highest Trump card on the table. The Trump suit was often that of the best Post shown down . The Ace of Trumps was the highest card followed by King down to Two.

Odd counters
If players decided to to split the stakes without a show and divided the stakes evenly , any odd counters left over were "given to the box" which meant they were donated to the butler, or whoever had provided the cards and counters.


Strategy
A substantial part of the strategy of Post and Pair lay in trying to win the money on the table without showing your cards; either by making a bet no one wished to match, or by persuading those who did match bets to share the stakes evenly without a show.
Players would seek to bet on pairs or flushes that were anchored to a strong potential trump card. An Ace pair was a particularly valuable holding. Not only would it be likely to win the Pair pool, but quite often it might win the Seat and Vyes as well if the Ace of the best Post suit happened to be in your hand rather than that of the Post winner.
Being "pipped at the Post" meant that not only did you fail to win the Post pool, but another suit might become Trumps, so you probably lost the Seat and Vyes as well.


Sources
There is only one period description of the rules of Post and Pair . This appears in the "Complete Gamester" by Charles Cotton (1674). Other descriptions by Randle Holme "Academy of Armory" (1688) and Richard Seymour "Complete Gamester" (1734) are copied verbatim from Cotton.

"Wittes Pilgrimage" by John Davies of Hereford (1610) contains an 18 verse poem called "Mortall Life compared to Post and Pare" which is an allegory that includes numerous allusions as to how the game was played.

Passing notes on the rules of Post and Pair can be found in the "Volume of Plaies" by Francis Willughby (1665), and the "French Dictionary" by Randle Cotgrave (1611).

Richard Jefferies (1848-1887) a writer on rural life who was born at Chiseldon near Swindon, mentions Post and Pair as still being played by tenant farmers in the West Country in his posthumously published work 'Toilers In The Field' (1892) -  "Whist and Post and Pair are the staple indoor amusements".

Other literary references include :

"Rede me and be nott wrothe" - Jerome Barlow and and William Roye (1528).
"in carde playinge he is a goode Greke and can skyll of Post and Glyeke"


"Interlude of Youth" - anon (1554).
"the old foolish game Christmas game of Post"

"Controversy with Harding" - Bishop Jewel (1563)
"He cometh in only with jolly brags and great vaunts as if he were playing Post
and should win all by vying"

"A Woman killed with Kindness" -Thomas Heywood (1598)
"she and I will take you at Post and Paire"

"The Alchemist" - Ben Jonson (1610)
"The which, together with your Christmas vails
At post-and-pair,  your letting out of counters" (i.i)

"Epigrams" Sir John Harrington (1615)
"The second game was Post until with posting, they paid so fast, 'twas time to leave their boasting".

"Microcosmographie" John Earle (1628)
"An old colledge butler - His faculties extraordinary is the warming of a paire of cards, and telling out a doozen counters for
Post and Paire, and no man is more methodicall in these buisnesses"

"Hesperides" Robert Herrick (1648)
"at Post and Paire, or Slam, Tom Tuck would play this Christmass, but his want wherewith sayes nay"

" Miscellanies" John Aubrey (d.1697)
John Aubrey in his life of the philospher Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), recounts how as a student at Oxford he snared
pigeons using pack-thread and "the leaden counters used in the old christmas game of Post and Pair".