Number of players: 2 to 8
Type of game: Cards
Period: 1611

Bone Ace is a simple gambling game and an early ancestor of modern Blackjack. Each player gets three cards, one of them face up, and every hand is played in two parts: first the highest face up card wins the Bone, then the hand closest to 31 without going over wins.

History of Bone Ace

• Earliest Mention: John Florio mentions Bone Ace in his Italian and English dictionary, The World of Wordes, as early as 1611.

• Family: It is related to One and Thirty and Vingt-et-un, and is one of the ancestors of modern Blackjack.

• The Name: The game is named after its highest card, the Ace of Diamonds, called the Bone Ace.

• Rules Source: These rules are adapted from the card games booklet published by MacGregor Historic Games (historicgames.com).

Number of players: 4 to 8
Type of game: Cards (vying)
Period: 1674

Bragg is the oldest British member of the Poker family. Every hand is played for three stakes: one for the highest face up card, one for the best pair (the Bragg itself, where players bet against each other), and one for the hand closest to 31. The Jack of Clubs is wild, which makes the betting all the more interesting.

Number of players: 4 to 6
Type of game: Cards (trick-taking)
Period: 1659

17th Century French Tarot is one of the earliest Tarot card games whose rules survive. It is a straightforward trick-taking game: players follow suit, trumps beat suit cards, and at the end of the hand everyone scores for the tricks they took and the valuable cards inside them. The highest score takes the wagers. It is a good first Tarot game for anyone who has played a modern trick-taking game such as Whist or Hearts.

Number of players: 4 to 6
Type of game: Cards (trick-taking)
Period: 1659

17th Century French Tarot, Version 2 is played exactly like Version 1 when it comes to playing and winning tricks, but it is scored differently. Instead of a single hand for the pot, players play a series of hands, gaining or losing points depending on how many cards they win, and the first player to reach 50 points wins the game.

Number of players: 2 to 10 (4 or 5 best)
Type of game: Cards (trick-taking)
Period: 16th Century

Maw is a five card trick-taking game for a pot. To win you need three of the five tricks, and if nobody manages it the hand is spoilt and the pot carries over. Its most unusual feature is its trumps: the Five of trumps is the highest card in the game, followed by the Jack of trumps and the Ace of Hearts, whatever suit is trumps.

Number of players: 2
Type of game: Cards (cribbage)
Period: 16th Century

Noddy is the ancestor of modern Cribbage, and can be thought of as “small Cribbage” without the crib. Each player holds just three cards. Hands are scored for pairs, runs, fifteens and flushes before play begins, then more points are scored in play, and the first player to 31 points wins.

“By plaieing to much at primeroe and noddy he lost Time and his monie to(o).”
J. Day, Peregrinatio Scholastica, 1610

Number of players: 4 to 10
Type of game: Cards (stops)
Period: 1674

Queen Nazareen is a lively stops game. Players lay cards in suit sequence, and the first to get rid of all their cards wins. Two special cards, the Queen Nazareen (Queen of Diamonds) and the Knave Knocker (Jack of Clubs), earn extra coins from every other player when played.

History of Queen Nazareen

• Source: The game is described in Charles Cotton’s The Compleat Gamester of 1674.

• Family: It is a “stops” game, related to Pope Joan and Newmarket, and to modern games such as Michigan Rummy, Tripoly and Rummy Royale.

• Extra-Curricular Attractions: As David Parlett puts it, the game had “extra-curricular attractions”. When played in mixed company, it was the custom for the player with the Knave Knocker to kiss the player with the Queen Nazareen.

• Rules Source: These rules are adapted from the card games booklet published by MacGregor Historic Games (historicgames.com).

Number of players: 2+
Type of game: Cards
Period: 15th Century

One and Thirty (also written 31 or Trente-et-un) is one of the oldest card games we know of. Each player holds three cards and swaps them one at a time, trying to build a hand of one suit worth as close to 31 as possible. It is one of the many ancestors of modern Blackjack.

History of One and Thirty

• Earliest Mention: One and Thirty is among the games condemned by Bernardine of Siena in an anti-gambling sermon of 1440.

• Family: It is one of the many ancestors of modern Blackjack, alongside Bone Ace and the third stake of Bragg.

• Later History: The game was still popular in Spain and Ireland in the 18th century, and it developed into Twenty-one.

• Rules Source: These rules are adapted from the card games booklet published by MacGregor Historic Games (historicgames.com).

Number of players: 4(2 teams of 2)
Type of game: Cards Period: 1426+

Karnöffel is one of the oldest known European card games still recorded today, dating back to the 15th century. Its odd rules, power-reversing trumps, and colourful names made it wildly popular in medieval German-speaking lands. It is the ancestor of many European trick-taking games.

History of Karnöffel

• First Recorded: 1426, in Nördlingen, Germany.

• Origins: Played during church festivals and town games, especially Shrovetide and Fastnacht celebrations.

• Name Meaning: Likely from the Middle High German karnöffeln, meaning “to beat or thrash”, possibly referencing the beating of one’s opponents—or festive chaos.

• Surviving Relatives: Though Karnöffel itself is rare today, it inspired many trick-taking card games, such as Watten, Bauernfangen, and even the Swiss game Kaiserspiel.