A four-color deck is identical to the standard French deck except for the color of the suits. In a typical four-color deck, hearts are red and spades are black as usual, but clubs are green and diamonds are blue. However, other color combinations have been used over the centuries.
In 1819, J.Y. Humphreys created the "Seminole Wars Deck" which had four colored suits of blue spades, green clubs, red hearts and yellow diamonds. In 1876, for the American Centennial, Victor Mauger issued a deck that contained black spades, red hearts, yellow diamonds and blue clubs.
Famous quotes containing the words four-color and/or deck:
“Personally, I can’t see why it would be any less romantic to find a husband in a nice four-color catalogue than in the average downtown bar at happy hour.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich (b. 1941)
“O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won,
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.”
—Walt Whitman (1819–1892)