Cavendish on Whist, 14th Edition

I chose a book from my home library for this week’s homework.  The title page has a unique frame which is very colorful, illustrating the suits in a deck of cards (i.e. hearts, diamonds, spades and clubs). The text within the frame consists of red and black lettering all in uppercase with various types of fonts in various sizes.  I would need to take up several pages to analyze all the varieties ones.  The actual words themselves are as follows.

THE

LAWS AND PRINCIPLES

OF

WHIST

STATED AND EXPLAINED

AND ITS

PRACTICE ILLUSTRATED

ON AN ORIGINAL SYSTEM

BY MEANS OF HANDS PLATED COMPLETELY THROUGH

BY

“CAVENDISH.”

FOURTEENTH EDITION

LONDON:

THOS. DE LA RUE & CO.

1884

ALL RIGHTS                         RESERVED

This ‘how to’ book provides the reader with practical information on the card game whist.  The book is printed throughout in two colors red and black with red text used for section headings within the chapters.  The chapter “The Laws of Whist” is a numerical list with footnotes added by the author.  Subsequent chapters provide information on how to play the first through fourth hands, followed by a chapter on “Trumps” and concluding with fully illustrated hands demonstrating how to take the best advantage of your hand of cards that you were dealt.

The typography in the book continues with the different sizes and types.  The main text is a ‘Serif’ typescript (in black) with a ‘Sans Serif’ type for the section headings (in red).  While you could read this book in a linear fashion, I suspect that it is a dip in and out of type reading it radially.  With the fully illustrated card hands, the book is constructivist in style as you will visualize the hands in the written text at the beginning of the book and will consider your previous experiences of playing games of whist. 

The end of the book provides five pages advertising the many other books offered by the publisher.

 

Diane Culpin

6 October 2016