House of cards

In the 1730s, Charden created a series of paintings on the theme "House of Cards"

Brian Berg at work

House of Cards - a structure built from playing cards by installing them in rows in a special way. The goal is to create the highest possible structure of cards, which would not have collapsed ^[1] . During the construction of house of cards, glue or any other auxiliary ingredients or devices should not be used, the shape of the cards can also not change.

The history of the idea of ​​house of cards is not known for certain. The earliest mention of them is found in the notes of the French court physician Jean Herouard, who reported that the little king Louis XIII in 1605-1613 liked to set cards on top of each other, while “observing the proportions” ^[2] . The construction of house of cards became quite popular among European philistine families in the 18th century: this was often occupied by children during various holidays, christenings or weddings, while adults had table discussions.

A number of games and competitions can be associated with the construction of house of cards: both a direct competition for two people, each of whom seeks to build a larger structure, and, for example, joint construction of a house "on the move" or an attempt to determine which card is already built the house can be pulled out so that it does not collapse. For the construction of house of cards there are special instructions ^[3] .

Already at the beginning of the 20th century, records for the height of the built house of cards were set and fixed: for example, in 1907, the Strand magazine published an article about the Englishwoman Rosie Faerner, who managed to build a “tower” of cards twenty “floors” high (that is, rows ) ^[4] . The modern record for building house of cards is Brian Berg, whose achievements have been included in the Guinness Book of Records since 1992 ^[5] , and since then he has repeatedly improved ^{[6] [7]} .