Vogelspiel
Vogelspiel (game of "Bird") or Hexenspiel (game of "Witch") was an historical German and Austrian card game for a variable number of players and played with special cards. The game is named after the bird or the witch, respectively, that appeared on one or other of the cards.
History
The game was descended from Cuccù, an 18th-century Italian game that, as Malcontenta, in turn was derived from the French game of Mécontent, a gambling and children's game that goes back to the early 16th century.[1][a] Cards for Vogelspiel or Hexenspiel were produced until the late 19th century and one pack was made by Piatnik in the 1930s.[2]
Cards
The pack comprises 32 cards with 12 numeral cards and 10 pairs of non-identical picture cards ranking from highest to lowest as follows:[2]
- Bird (Pfeiff)
- Guard (Werda, a guard or sentinel)
- Cat (Miau)
- Horse (Hott)
- Tavern (Einkerth, a tavern, pub or inn)
- Roman numerals I to XII
- Plate (Deller)
- Sausages (Wurst)
- Glass (Glas)
- Fool (Narr, a fool or jester)
- Witch (Hex)
Footnotes
References
Bibliography
- Endebrock, Peter (2018). "One of a Kind: Hexenspiel or Vogelspiel" in The Playing-Card, Vol. 47, No. 2 (Oct–Dec 2918), pp. 78–80.
- Smith, A. G. (1991). "The 'Cambio' Packs and the Games Played with Them. I. Hexenspiel and Quittli" in The Playing-Card, Vol. XIX, No. 3 (February 1991), pp. 93ff.