Capucins de Cartes

What you can do with a simple slit

Nowadays, most recreational paperfolders eschew cuts, but, historically, folding and cutting have often gone hand in hand. The Capucin de Carte (or Playing Card Monk) is a fine example of what can be achieved using two folds and one simple cut. It is a shame that it is now seldom seen.

The design first appears in the historical record in this watercolour by Louis Carrogis de Carmontelle, which is titled 'Le Petit de Chevilly et Sa Soeur' and can be dated to between 1740 and 1760. It shows two children playing with Capucins de Cartes. Several finished Capucins stand on the table. The child on the left is holding scissors and preparing to make another. I am nor sure whether the girl on the right is admiring his dexterity or preparing to steal the scissors at the first opportunity and make her own.

Capucins are very easy to make. You simply fold a playing card in half lengthwise, then cut a diagonal slit in the fold (in the way shown below). Once the cut is made the top part of the card is swivelled around to create the Capucin’s pointed hood. You can either swivel the hood inwards or outwards. This drawing shows the hood swivelled outwards …

… and this painting, by François Hubert Droais (1727–1775) shows a Capucin whose hood has been swivelled inwards. Swivelling inwards is more common, and, to me, produces a more satisfying result.

If you have been following the last few posts you will hardly be surprised to learn that Capucins de Cartes were frequently used for the game of card toppling. In fact there is much more evidence for the use of Capucins in this way than there is for the use of uncut cards.

Toppling Capucins was such a well known game in France during the 18th century that falling over ‘commes des Capucins de Cartes’ became a cliché in French literature. A search on Gallica (the online library of the Biblioteque National de France) for "capucins" located at a maximum distance of 2 word(s) from "cartes" gives 80 pages of results, the majority of which are instances of this cliché being used. The earliest instance is a stage direction (Ils tombent comme des Capucins de cartes) in the play 'Les Gémeaux, parodie de Castor et Pollux' by Pierre Thomas Gondot, which was published in Paris in 1777.

By 1797 the phrase was already acknowledged as proverbial. 'Le nouveau Paris. Volume 3' by Louis-Sébastien Mercier (1740-1814, which was published in Paris in 1797, contains the sentence, 'Ils tombèrent ( pour me servir d'une expression proverbiale) comme des capucins de cartes' (They fell (to use a proverbial expression) like capucins de cartes).

Now that you know this, if you look again at the painting of 'Le Petit de Chevilly et Sa Soeur' at the top of this page, you will see that the Capucins in this picture are (it seems to me) being set out in order to play the toppling game. Perhaps the girl on the right is not looking for an opportunity to steal the scissors, but simply waiting until all the Capucins have been set out, in order to enjoy knocking them down. Quickly, before her brother does …