Five-suit bridge is a late 1930s variation of

contract bridge Contract bridge, or simply bridge, is a trick-taking card game using a standard 52-card deck. In its basic format, it is played by four players in two competing partnerships, with partners sitting opposite each other around a table. Millions o ...

played with a deck of 65

playing card 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 fi ...

s divided into five suits.

History

In the summer of 1937 in Vienna, Walter W. Marseille, with the help of

Paul Stern Paul Stern (4 April 1892 – 12 June 1948) was an Austrian international bridge player and lawyer, who fled to London in 1938. He was a bidding theorist and administrator who contributed to the early growth of the game. He founded the Austrian Br ...

, published rules for five-suit bridge which included a fifth suit of green

Leaves A leaf (plural, : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant plant stem, stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", wh ...

, taken from German-suited William Tell cards. Printed by the local firm

Piatnik Wiener Spielkartenfabrik Ferd. Piatnik & Söhne, commonly referred to as Piatnik, is an Austrian playing card and board game manufacturing company based in Vienna. History The company was founded in 1824 by the card manufacturer Anton Moser (178 ...

, the

court cards In a deck of playing cards, the term face card (US) or court card (British and US), and sometimes Royalty, is generally used to describe a card that depicts a person as opposed to the pip cards. They are also known as picture cards, or until the e ...

were adapted from the diamond suit of the Vienna pattern. This set off a fad for five-suited decks which would last until the middle of 1938.

De La Rue De La Rue plc (, ) is a British company headquartered in Basingstoke, England, that designs and produces banknotes, secure polymer substrate and banknote security features (including security holograms, security threads and security printe ...

of London published packs called ''Five-Suit Bridge Playing Cards''. This deck contained cards using blue crowns called Royals as a fifth suit. In the new suit, the court cards used the

Paris pattern French-suited playing cards or French-suited cards are cards that use the French suits of (clovers or clubs ), (tiles or diamonds ), (hearts ), and (pikes or spades ). Each suit contains three or four face/court cards. I ...

's heart suit designs.

Waddingtons Waddingtons was a British manufacturer of card and board games. The company was founded by John Waddington of Leeds, England and the manager, actor and playwright Wilson Barrett, under the name ''Waddingtons Limited''. The name was changed in ...

' print was like De La Rue's with the exception of more detailed Royal crown pips. They also published several decks that used green crowns but the face cards for that suit were a duplicate of other English pattern suits. Due to unpopularity, they were withdrawn in 1939. The decks became available at

Selfridges Selfridges, also known as Selfridges & Co., is a chain of high-end department stores in the United Kingdom that is operated by Selfridges Retail Limited, part of the Selfridges Group of department stores. It was founded by Harry Gordon Selfridge ...

department stores on 21 February 1938. Three days later, the purchase of a pair of decks by King

George VI George VI (Albert Frederick Arthur George; 14 December 1895 – 6 February 1952) was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until Death and state funeral of George VI, his death in 1952. ...

and Queen Elizabeth at the

British Industries Fair The British Industries Fair was an exhibition centre in Birmingham, England. The large complex of buildings was built in 1920 and was situated between Castle Bromwich Aerodrome and the railway line. For two weeks every year it was the most visite ...

(ran from 21 February to 4 March) elevated the profile of this game. These packs arrived in the US on 7 March 1938. American manufacturers responded with a green Eagle as the fifth suit to avoid paying royalties as the Royals were copyrighted. The deck published by

United States Playing Card Company The United States Playing Card Company (USPC, though also commonly known as USPCC) is a large American producer and distributor of playing cards. It was established in 1867 as Russell, Morgan & Co. and founded in its current incarnation in 1885. ...

(USPCC) had a green Eagle and the pips in the corner index were inside green circles. A second deck was by Russell Playing Cards (owned by the USPCC) used the same Eagle but in a darker shade and the pips in the corner index were devoid of the circle. These two decks reused the club courts for the new suit. A third deck was made by Arrco which had a different Eagle and reused the spade courts. At least six bridge books were subsequently published to support playing bridge with rules for this fifth suit by authors such as

Oswald Jacoby Oswald "Ozzie", "Jake" Jacoby (December 8, 1902 – June 27, 1984) was an American contract bridge player and author, considered one of the greatest bridge players of all time and a key innovator in the game, having helped popularize widely used bi ...

P. Hal Sims Philip Hal Sims (November 8, 1886 – February 26, 1949) was an American bridge player. In 1932 he was ranked by Shepard Barclay, bridge commentator of the ''New York Herald Tribune'', the second best player in the US during the preceding year.&nbs ...

and

Howard Schenken Howard Schenken (September 28, 1903 – February 20, 1979) was an American bridge player, writer, and long-time syndicated bridge columnist. He was from New York City. He won three Bermuda Bowl titles, and set several North American records. Most r ...

. It is more than likely the book that Arrco published was for their own deck. The title of a 1952 science-fiction novel by

James Blish James Benjamin Blish () was an American science fiction and fantasy writer. He is best known for his ''Cities in Flight'' novels and his series of ''Star Trek'' novelizations written with his wife, J. A. Lawrence. His novel ''A Case of Conscienc ...

, ''Jack of Eagles'', refers to the psychic protagonist's uniqueness. Also in 1938,

Parker Brothers Parker Brothers (known by Parker outside of North America) was an American toy and game manufacturer which in 1991 became a brand of Hasbro. More than 1,800 games were published under the Parker Brothers name since 1883. Among its products wer ...

created a five-suit bridge deck called ''Castle Bridge'', in which the fifth suit of Castles looked like a

Rook Rook (''Corvus frugilegus'') is a bird of the corvid family. Rook or rooks may also refer to: Games *Rook (chess), a piece in chess *Rook (card game), a trick-taking card game Military * Sukhoi Su-25 or Rook, a close air support aircraft * USS ...

chess piece and was colored green. This pack reused the diamond courts for the new suit. The manual that came with this deck did not use Marseille's rules but Ammiel F. Decker's 1933 rules. Ultimately, the complexity of adding a new suit to the game led to it falling out of popularity by the summer of 1938.

Rules

The rules are similar to regular contract bridge but the new fifth suit is ranked higher than spades but lower than no trump in bidding. Decks usually came with one joker but this is discarded before play as it is not used. The original Piatnik deck did not have a joker but a manufacturer's name card. Sixteen cards are dealt to each player with the remaining 65th card (the ''widow'' or ''kitty'') being dealt face up on the middle of the table. This card would go to whoever made the highest bid, who would then discard a card that must be exposed.

References

{{WPCBIndex Contract bridge Card games introduced in the 1930s History of card decks