the front and back can be done either before or after the pasting
of the sheets into cardboard. One great improvement in the
manufacture has been the substitution of oil colour for paste or
size colour; and another, the substitution of printing for
stencilling. Messrs De la Rue have expended large sums of money
on these novelties; for many experiments had to be made, to
determine how best to employ oil colour so that the spots or pips
may be equal-tinted, the outline clear and sharp, the pigment
well adherent to the surface, and the drying such as to admit of
polishing without stickiness. The plates for printing are
engraved on copper or brass, or are produced by electrotype, or
are built up with small pieces of metal or interlaced wire. The
printing is done in the usual way of colour-printing, with as
many plates as there are colours (usually five), and one for the
outlines; it is executed on the sheets of paper, before being
pasted into cardboard. When the printing, drying, and pasting
are all completed, a careful polish is effected by means of
brush-wheels, pasteboard wheels, heated plates, and heated
rollers; in such a way that the polish on the back may differ
from that on the face--since it is found that too equally
polished surfaces do not slide quite so readily over each other.
Formerly, every pack of cards made in England for home use paid a
duty of one shilling, which duty was levied on the ace of spades.

The maker engraved a plate for twenty aces of spades; the
printing was done by the government at Somerset House, and L1 was
paid by the maker for every sheet of aces so printed. The law is
now altered. Card sellers pay an annual license of 2s. 6d., and
to each pack of cards is affixed a three-pence stamp, across
which the seller must write or stamp his name, under a penalty of