[MR] Calling cards -- Turning the Corner

[wetsheep1]

Actually, there are **quite** elaborate rules for calling cards, from their sizes (different for men and women) to what all that corner-turning means!  As I am hardly the pinnacle of propriety, I consulted Miss Manners and here's what she has to say about it:

First off, start with the sizes.  For women, cards should be about 3-1/8 x 2-1/2 inches, give or take an eighth of an inch; and for men, about 3-1/4 x 1-5/8 inches.  The only thing the card should contain is names and social titles; everything else is left off.  Callers leaving cards can either send a signal that one would like to get to know the recipient better or acknowledge a level of intimacy between the parties by crossing out one's title -- in ink -- when the card is used.  

About the corners: there are, according to Miss Manners, four distinct statements one can make by bending the corners on calling cards.  They are, with their French names:
*  visite, meaning one has appeared with one's card in person (made by turning the upper left corner of the card)
*  felicitation (with an accent aigu over the first e, sorry, my KB's not set up for French), sending congratulations to the recipient (turn the upper right corner)
*  conge (accent aigu over the last e), which means the sender is leaving town (turn the lower left corner)
*  condolence, which is an expression of sympathy (made by turning the lower right corner).

As she despairs of being the last living soul to know the code of card turning, she continues by saying she will allow us, should we choose to revive this custom, to get "funny" with it, "by, say, turning both bottom corners for, 'Too bad, I'm leaving you,' or both right corners for 'Congratulations on your loss.'" (p. 509)

(For further details, please see Miss Manners' "Guide to Excrutiatingly Correct Behavior," pp. 222-223 and 508-509.)

Regrettably, Miss Manners does not go into detail regarding the history of calling cards.  While we do know that calling really began in earnest in the eighteenth century in Europe, I do wonder how the custom, which seems to have originated in the East, came to the attention of the French court in the first place.

-- Magpie