JUCKER & THE JOKER
Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2018 12:27 am
There is some erroneous and misleading stuff about the Joker and the word Jucker. It is true that David Parlett, an English card historian, published that the origin of "Euchre - Eucre" (1990 & 1991 books) came from an Alsatian game called Juckerspiel (French providence with a German culture - our Jack was called a 'Bauer' we changed it to Bower as we know it today). Every card game comes from some 'parent' game, historically. That may not be true today, but was true almost without exception pre-1900. The parent game of Euchre and Juckerspiel appears to be a very old game called Triomphe, also called French Ruff (I won't give the details of this game in this forum.)
There never has been published how the game call Juckerspiel was played. So the game was introduced by Hessian soldiers (prisoners) who had some of these Alsatians among their ranks. Over 5000 of the Hessian soldiers, as prisoners, deserters, etc. never went back to Europe at the end of the Revolutionary War. The Americans took the game, Jucker sounds like how we would pronounce Euchre. But the first spelling was without the "H", spelled Eucre. I have documentation of the early spelling.
As our game moved on variations of the standard game were introduced. The "Joker" card, originally just a "blank card" without any chacter notations printed and it was called the Imperial card/bower (and other names as well), as the Best Bower with rank over the Right Bower and Left Bower. One of the first, if not the first to develop the Joker card was Samuel Hart, in 1862. Later card manufacturers renamed the blank card, i.e. Imperial bower and settled on calling it the Joker card. Before it was called the Joker card, Cornish miners, mainly from the copper mines of the U.P. (Michigan), took the game back to Cornwall. They called it the card the "Benny" because a name had not been settled on to call it the Joker card.
There are several postings on the Internet, that have now said that the work "Joker" came from the word "Jucker". This is false, a myth! So why do do I state this. 1) The origin of Euchre being traced to Juckerspiel did not occur until 1990 by D. Parlett. 2) You or anyone, past or present researchers, has never found the word Jucker in books or journals. There were many discussions in the late 1800s and early 1900s trying to find the origin of Euchre and derivation of the word without success. Thus if the word Jucker as it relates to Euchre was not known until 1990, it follows that the word "Joker" could not have been come from the word "Jucker."
(to be continued)
Irishwolf (I am a Euchre Historian)
There never has been published how the game call Juckerspiel was played. So the game was introduced by Hessian soldiers (prisoners) who had some of these Alsatians among their ranks. Over 5000 of the Hessian soldiers, as prisoners, deserters, etc. never went back to Europe at the end of the Revolutionary War. The Americans took the game, Jucker sounds like how we would pronounce Euchre. But the first spelling was without the "H", spelled Eucre. I have documentation of the early spelling.
As our game moved on variations of the standard game were introduced. The "Joker" card, originally just a "blank card" without any chacter notations printed and it was called the Imperial card/bower (and other names as well), as the Best Bower with rank over the Right Bower and Left Bower. One of the first, if not the first to develop the Joker card was Samuel Hart, in 1862. Later card manufacturers renamed the blank card, i.e. Imperial bower and settled on calling it the Joker card. Before it was called the Joker card, Cornish miners, mainly from the copper mines of the U.P. (Michigan), took the game back to Cornwall. They called it the card the "Benny" because a name had not been settled on to call it the Joker card.
There are several postings on the Internet, that have now said that the work "Joker" came from the word "Jucker". This is false, a myth! So why do do I state this. 1) The origin of Euchre being traced to Juckerspiel did not occur until 1990 by D. Parlett. 2) You or anyone, past or present researchers, has never found the word Jucker in books or journals. There were many discussions in the late 1800s and early 1900s trying to find the origin of Euchre and derivation of the word without success. Thus if the word Jucker as it relates to Euchre was not known until 1990, it follows that the word "Joker" could not have been come from the word "Jucker."
(to be continued)
Irishwolf (I am a Euchre Historian)