The Henry Hart Puzzle

The Court minutes of the Worshipful Company of Makers of Playing Cards record that John Hart became a Court Assistant of the Company in 1728 and that he was Master for the year commencing November 1733. In 1749 he was joined on the Court by John Hart Jr, and in 1761 by Henry Hart. Henry Hart was Master of the Company for the year commencing November 1763.

A search of the London birth and baptism records retrieves many entries for both “John Hart” and “Henry Hart”, but only one pair shows the same parents, John and Anne. We infer that these are the correct records, in which case Henry Hart was born in 1716 and John in 1722.

In 1763, Henry is listed in London’s ‘Universal Directory (Mortimer)’ for the first time, having premises at Lambs Conduit Street (Red Lion Square) in London. It is likely that the business had in fact been going for some time previously. In 1765, the first English “tax aces” were introduced. From this year on, every ace of spades was printed by the Stamp Office and carried the name of the card maker. The maker had to buy these aces by the sheet from the Stamp Office, thereby paying the tax. Hart was one of six card makers who registered in 1765 to have these aces made. The Stamp Office also offered exportation versions of the aces. These were similar in appearance, but no duty was payable on cards exported. Hart was one of five card makers registered for exportation aces.

In 1776 the duty increased and the ace of spades was re-designed to show the additional 6d duty paid. The same year, two card makers were bankrupt (possibly as a result of the increased duty). Hart registered in 1776 for the new ace. In 1789 the duty increased again and we have an example of Hart’s ace showing this later duty – additional 6d duty twice over. Hart was bankrupt in 1797. It is likely that he died in 1801, the only potential match in the burial records. He would then have been 85.

An appearance in America?

The standard reference book for American cards is The Hochman Encyclopedia of American Playing-cards by Tom and Judy Dawson. In the section on Early Makers (in the printed version of 2000) we find:

“Henry Hart produced cards in the latter portion of the 18th century in England and his cards, with exportation Ace, have been found in the United States. The wrapper listed as U39 and shown left indicates he also produced cards in America or were there two Henry Hart’s? Or did someone import Henry Hart decks and put them in American wrappers, perhaps with an American Ace of Spades? Another mystery to be solved!”

For the wrapper illustrated (Left), The Hochman Encyclopedia gives a date c1810.

This cannot be Henry Hart, unless the date of death is wrong and he lived well into his nineties. If this business is related to Henry’s, perhaps it is a younger relative with the same name? We have been unable to find a direct descendant in the records. This American mystery is part of a more general puzzle surrounding Hart: the known sets of cards by Hart vary greatly and somewhat suspiciously in appearance.

Appearance of the Cards

There is little in the history to suggest anything unusual – Hart is never suggested as one of the makers who may have indulged in illegal printing of home-made forged tax aces, for example. Yet the cards show considerable and puzzling variation in the ace of spades and in the appearance of the court cards generally.

The cards illustrated below, we believe, are standard cards made by Hart in London. The Codes (A25 etc) are references that can be seen on plainbacks.com.

Cards showing more variation:

The temptation to forge tax aces was considerable. The tax was worth more than the cards, so printing the ace of spades ‘in-house’ more than doubled the value to the seller. The official aces were printed from metal plates, while the card makers used wooden blocks, which cannot capture fine detail. The ace for ‘A16’ looks strange in comparison to the others and the ace of ‘A28’ is the only one named ‘Henry Hart’ not plain ‘Hart’. Makers did not normally give forenames, adding initials if there were other makers with the same name (usually from the same family).

However - all known forgeries are forgeries of the taxable ace. After all, why would anyone forge an exportation ace, on which no duty was payable anyway? We will return to this later.

Court cards naturally differ between makers to some extent, but always within the context of the generally understood ‘standard’. Here some of the Hart cards use designs and colours that are not typical of English cards of this period. ‘A16’ has no blue colouring, for example, and the style is qualitatively more like later American cards. The delineation of faces of ‘A28’ is much clearer than the known English cards, and the eyes have no outline which is highly unusual. ‘A29’ could certainly be English, but its design would fit better with cards of the next decade or so.

Measurements

We recorded the dimensions of a number of card sets in the period 1765-1800. The thickness is represented by gsm – grammes per square metre. The gsm value is the weight of the whole set divided by its area in square metres (the area of one card times the number of cards present). One pack with 357 gsm was excluded from the reference group. Cards of this period were made with three layers of paper glued together. This lighter pack had de-laminated – i.e come apart - and it was repaired recently. It is possible that cards in this set had lost a layer before their repair.

Reference set: measurements of 16 packs from the same era by other makers.

	width mm	height mm	Gsm
Avg. of 16 packs, 1765-1800	63.2	93.0	458
Std. Deviation of same	0.9	1.5	18

Measurements for the Hart cards

Model	Width (mm)	Height (mm)	GSM
Hart A28	63	89.5	355
Hart A29	63	93.5	379
Hart A16	63.5	91	393
Hart A2	64	93	459
Hart A25	63.5	95	460
Hart A30	63.5	94	467
Hart A20	64	94	469

The Hart cards are presented in order of increasing ‘gsm’ values. The first three are a long way outside the range of the reference group.

Combining our measurements with our observations, it appears that: A2, A25, A30 and A20 are genuine cards made by Hart in London. A28 and A16 are light in weight and do not look typical of English cards. A29 is also light and looks ‘different’ or at least later than the 1790s.

The New York tax wrapper and the appearance of one particular set of court cards suggest that we should also make a comparison with American cards.

Reference set: measurements of 14 packs by early American makers

	Width mm	Height mm	Gsm
Avg. of 14 American packs made before 1840	63.6	91.4	344
Std. Deviation of same	0.5	1.4	27

The lightness of three Hart packs is consistent with American production. We tested the cards with much more accurate scales. If the ace of spades was a Hart original added to an otherwise American pack, we might expect it to be heavier than the other cards. None of the Hart examples suggests this mixing. The ‘feel’ of the aces matches the other cards, and in the case of the set with a pattern on the back, the ace has the same pattern as the remaining cards.

More on Appearances

Comparing Hart A16 with cards by Jazaniah Ford circa 1815:

The similarity between the Queens is unmistakeable. The Kings differ a little in style, but note the arrows on the ‘ermine’ lapels of the kings’ gowns, for example. While the maker may not be Ford, the style is definitely American not English.

However: in this era the majority of American cards have pip cards with an arrangement not seen in English cards of the period. For example this six of spades from Ford:

Note the perfect up-down symmetry! While the court cards are still full figures that can only be viewed one way, the pip cards look the same if they are turned upside-down. None of the Hart cards has reversed pips.

The set Hart A28 has a pattern on the back, unlike any of the 16 English sets we have seen in the same period. We can compare this with some American examples (right). The Hart with a pattern is very compatible with these American examples. However, American cards of this era are occasionally plain, and European cards quite often have simple patterns like the American ones shown.

The last factor is the paper type. The English cards are made from laid paper, having fine and closely spaced lines where wires were used in the manufacture. The American cards are typically, but not always, wove. This creates a smooth surface. Of all the Hart examples, only A28 – the pack with the printed back - has a wove paper finish.

Let us summarise our analysis of the “Hart” sets:

	A2 Hart	A16 Hart	A20 Hart	A25 Hart	A28 Hart	A29 Hart	A30 Hart
AS	ok	??	ok	ok	??	Ok	ok
Courts	English	American	English	English	American	English/ later	English
gsm	English	US	English	English	US	US	English
Back	plain	Pattern American	plain	plain	plain	plain	plain
Paper	Laid	Wove	Laid	Laid	Laid	Laid	Laid
Pips	English	English	English	English	English	English	English

Thus: A2, A20, A25 and A30 give us little concern and appear to be typical cards that we would expect from an English maker in this era. A16 and A28 seem very likely to have been made in America. For now, A29 seems more likely to be English with a lighter weight and a later pattern than the other examples by Hart. It is possible that when his business was wound up, his stock of pre-paid tax aces was bought by another maker and used up.

Why then copy the ‘Exportation’ aces – upon which there was never any tax? Presumably the American manufacturers made these aces simply because that’s what their customers were used to. Additionally, if the early American manufacturing industry did not have any official recognition, the use of this ace would have been a safe face to hide behind.

In conclusion, then, Henry Hart’s business looks honest and several sets of cards seem correctly attributable to him. It is possible that one pack is by another maker with a genuine Hart ace. Two packs are very probably early American manufacture, using the Hart name as a reassurance to their customers.

The author thanks Judy Dawson for permission to reproduce the item on Henry Hart from The Hochman Encyclopedia of American Playing-cards (print edition 2000).