Valentine's Day of the Dead (Part II) (Completed 6/16/26)

A rosy Ace of Spades playing card with a 3 pence royal duty stamp - c. 1868 (?) -
possibly designed by artist and architect Owen Jones; printed and distributed by Thomas De La Rue & Co., London.

"With this in mind, I had an epiphany. I envisioned a white rose opening in the center of the spade symbol... so clearly that I was sure I had seen it before. And, it began to haunt me the way the Rose Pentacle haunted me in the early days."

- Quoting myself from Part I of this series in which I intuited a symbol representing the weird synergy presented by Friday the 13th, normally an ominous day, transitioning into Valentine's Day, the official day of love and friendship; a rare occurrence and an odd conjunction... the spade as an inverted heart, and vice versa.

Of course, my first inclination at the time was to interpret it in a darkly romantic way... a deathless (or clandestine) love kind of way. And, while I wasn't exactly wrong, I found clues to inform me that, relative to our Kafkaesque times, I was missing the greater picture. I was overlooking the shadows.

In any case, I did eventually find an image of a white rose in the center of an Ace of Spades. (See  above). This occurred in the midst of a constellation of synchronicities, a few of which I discuss on PMB in the post Hidden Synchronicities (of the Memetic Kind).

The image wasn't quite what I envisioned - the rose was much too large and clearly it's context was strictly an official one. But, it was intriguing nonetheless... a rosy spade surrounded by thistles and clover. Only later did I find that this trinity of plants is a reference to the British Flower badge, a heraldic device which symbolizes the union of England (Tudor rose), Ireland (shamrock) and Scotland (thistle). Sometimes Wales is also represented... by a leek, or a daffodil. Inset left is the Badge of the Yeoman of the Guard.

But, there's more. Because I found the coveted white rose/Ace of Spades symbol quite unexpectedly... in the Wiki entry for a 19th century British card maker, Richard Harding, in spite of the fact that the image was first printed by Thomas de la Rue long after Harding's death. That beng said, it was within the tale of Richard Harding that I found The Shadow.

Harding's was a rather strange, gothic story. It began in eighteenth century England with a tax levied on playing cards.

"Initially duty was paid and a random card in the pack was hand stamped to show it had been paid, but in 1765 the Ace of Spades was given a special design and designated as the card on which duty would be shown as paid.

The Ace of Spades was stamped using a metal plate and designed to be hard to copy – hence it’s detailed features."

But, apparently it was not too hard to copy... and Richard Harding got away with it for quite awhile.

He rented some space in a building owned by a certain Mr. Skeleton in order to carry out his "nefarious business." And, really, if this were a spooky movie, you might consider yourself forewarned.

While Mr. Skeleton did initially claim ignorance of Harding's forgery operation, "this, however, was cast into doubt when 2,000 aces of spades were found in his home." 

Harding also had a daughter. More cards were found at the bottom of her laundry basket... "money laundering" ? Anyway, this is all we know about Ms. Harding... and ditto for Mr Skelton. It's a very short story.

Suffice to say, Harding was tried and found guilty of a capital offense at London's Old Bailey, and on November 13, 1805, he - “a genteel looking man, powdered and dressed in black” - was executed by hanging, very possibly at the notorious Newgate Prison. He was 35 years old.

"His remains were at St George Hanover Square Burial Ground in Bayswater until 12 March 1969, when he - and others - were removed to Lambeth and cremated."

The upshot being that less than 30 years later (1832) the Forgery, Abolition of Punishment of Death Act was enacted, abolishing the death penalty for all offences of forgery, except for forging wills and certain powers of attorney.

This, however, did not remove the stain from the Ace of Spades, and to this day it maintains a sinister reputation.

•

Source material for this section was also found in Death by Hanging, and the BBC's The man hanged for printing his own ace of spades.

Inset left: A tarot card depicting the Hanged Man (Le Pendu), the 12th key of the Major Arcana from the "Gringonneur" deck.

(This post continues below the break...)

The card back of the rosy Ace of Spades introducing this post. Printed and distributed by Thomas De La Rue & Co., London.
(Note the name BIRO in the bottom right-hand corner.)

"If card-players will not be enlightened,why should card-makers fret themselves thereat? Messrs. De la Rue are said to have spent much capital, and much time and ingenuity, in producing more graceful figures than those now seen on our court-cards; they have employed talented artists, and have produced many novelties; but people will not give up the old deformities, and therefore deformities are still made to please the people."

- From an article written by Charles Dickens and published in his two-penny weekly magazine Household Words, December 18, 1852.

***

(June 13, 2026)

But, of course, my investigation of the Thomas de la Rue rosy Ace of Spades design would be incomplete without my knowing a bit more about Thomas de la Rue (24 March 1793–7 June 1866). As it happens, in England he is known as the "father of playing cards," and with good reason.

He was a printer from Guernsey who founded De La Rue plc, a printing company which is now the world's largest commercial security printer and papermaker. In 1831, de la Rue was granted the right to print playing cards, making it the first company to do so; it printed its first pack the following year. He was also the first printer to print images on the backs of the cards, like the one above.

But, I must say, that my very first impression of de la Rue's rosy Ace was that it exuded an air of the esoteric. But, I found very little in de la Rue's personal life that would account for this, apart from one tidbit: in 1855 he was made a Chevalier (Knight) of France's Legion of Honour.

Alas, the Légion d'honneur is an order of merit and not of chivalry, nor is any religion implied. So, I doubt very much esoterica is involved. Well, that is, apart from the Legion's very pentagonal insignia (inset left); a Maltese Asterisk or Star badge which features the legendary Marianne in the center. It might symbolize either a nod to military force or the wisdom of diplomacy... but, it also implies excellency in the arts. In pentagonal theory, it's underlying meme would be the golden one and, in this case might symbolize the nation's overall health and well-being.*

Symbolically, the Maltese Star is, for all philosophical reasons, another variation of the Rose. But, unfortunately, this will not solve our problem. As it happens, the rosy Ace (the "post-frizzle" variation) - via the only documentation I could find - wasn't introduced until 1868. But, in 1858, Thomas retired from De La Rue, transferring the management of his business to his sons. The rosy Ace of Spades appeared after his death (1866).

Might it have been created as a silent memorial for the company's creator? In other words, was my intuited "air of the esoteric" really an aura of the funereal?

The only sensible artist who may have created the rosy spade is Owen Jones, an architect and an artisan very knowledgeable of the history of patterns and applied decorations from all over the world. He wrote the book!  At least, the possibility exists that he might have acquired some knowledge  of the symbolism behind a white, 5-petaled rose.

Interestingly, Wiki mentions Jones "looked towards the Islamic world for much of his inspiration, using his studies of Islamic decoration at the Alhambra to develop theories on flat patterning, geometry and abstraction in ornament."

Incidentally, De la Rue & Co. even published a special deck for Iran in 1937. But, no, it was not designed by Jones.

Coincidentally, Iran will be our next stop in our series of strange synchronicities. See Part III of Valentine's Day of the Dead.

For more about Owen Jones see my major source for all things De la Rue: The World of Playing Cards.

***

Portrait of Camille Claudel by Auguste Rodin
reposted from this Trans-D article.

“The moon is dead. Your soul went to the moon, to the preserver of souls. Thus the soul moved toward death. I went into the inner death and saw that outer dying is better than inner death. And I decided to die outside and to live within. For that reason I turned away and sought the place of the inner life.” - Carl Jung

"In existential thought, the symbolic aspect of death and the idea of what death means for life and for humankind is particularly important. Death... in life is... not only a phenomenon at the end of life, but also part of existence; therefore, it is actively “at work” throughout human life."

***

June 16, 2026

This post was designed to end with Owen Jones, but then something odd happened 2 days ago. I found the magenta-colored card back belonging to the Rosy Ace of Spades card featured. This exact card can be found on eBay as I write this.

On it, I noted the signature BIRO, and well, I was curious. Famous Last Words.

So, this was my search query (verbatim):

"graphic artist biro 1868."

I never found the right BIRO but I did note a few strange, unrelated links come up. The weirdest was this one: an abstract of Death and Dying in Camille Rosalie Claudel’s Life and Work: A Psychobiography by Claude-Hélène Mayer.

(?!)

Old-time readers of this blog are probably aware of my preoccupation with sculptress Camille Claudel in the past. We will assume AI is, too.

The abstract is long and full of profound speculation about the psychology of death - specifically related to Claudel's immensely tragic story but I only pulled Jung's strange quote - the first (found in the section Jung on Death, Ars Moriendi** and Camille Claudel’s Life), and the second, edited quote (from the section Existential Perspectives on Death in Camille Claudel’s Life).

Inset left is a detail of Claudel's Sakuntala (1905). For more of her work and her story, see the second half of this post.

I've not read the entire document, but one of its themes seems to be the concept of death- in-life. That is, to lose ones lovers, friends and family, hope, joy, autonomy, and everything in life that formed ones identity and, yet, to continue to physically live. This was Claudel's hellish fate. And, yet, she survived for decades in virtual isolation. The real questions are how? And, why?***

I have no answers. But, I include this here just for the record; one more strange and hidden synchronicity.

___________________________________________

* Albert Camus actually refused his award, but is still recorded as a member of the Legion. French President, Emmanuel Macron is currently its Grand Master.

** The "art of dying"... a topic I was saving for last!

*** There can be only one answer. Somehow, in spite of everything, she found love... a flame within... a ghost. Hold the thought.