Hoping someone can put me out of my misery and shed some light on this question as it’s been bugging me and I’ve been unable to find anything.

In the more modern Anglo/ Germanic playing cards, why does the King of Hearts sometimes appear to be holding a keyboard?

Is it actually a keyboard of some sort or am I just mis reading the pattern? Or is it a symptom of bad copying in the same way it is theorised that the ‘suicide king’ came to be a thing?

I have been working on a playing card design project for a while and researching the history of the cards as I go and this one has just stumped me. Hoping someone here with more knowledge of the history can help?

Name or your nickname or Stage name. Which ever you would like us to address you as
No stagename... just Jamie, or jezzurp or whatever (I get called a lot worse)

Where you are from. Because members of the forums come from all over so we would love to know if we have fellow countrymen/women in the house!
I'm from Southsea which is in the island city of Portsmouth on southcoast of England.

Are you a Cardist? Magician? Collector? a combination of the 3?
I am an artist, work in video game industry and I always loved cool decks of cards. Recently started working on a custom deck initially for use in a video game I was making as a personal project but then started really getting into researching the history of the pips and stuff, and the cultures I was using as visual ref the project ballooned a bit. When friends and colleagues saw them and started asking me to get some printed so they can have some I realised I should probably look into getting physical versions made!

What got you into the arts?
I guess answered above. Not sure I qualify as being into 'the arts' as in performance and such but I am a visual artist and work in video games. Predominantly have been UI/UX artist and web developer for most of career but also done a lot of photography and painting and also always been a nerd for pixel art.

How you found out about the forums. We are always secretly curious
Actually googling for info about best suppliers. Was hoping to find a forum where I could ask people who really know their stuff about the print suppliers and pros and cons. Even from lurking I think I have learned a fair bit but wanted to ask some questions etc too and I guess just interact with other people who are nerdy in a similar way to me. I was actually trying to register for a little while but was stuck in a loop until I messaged Don and he helped me out.

Say hello!