1. City Life - a card game "played with cards representing good and bad characters" - the object being to get as many good character cards as possible.
2. Christmas Stocking - a card game, the object of which was to get the "greatest number of presents."
3. Lost Heir - the cards "have the designs of the coats of arms of four large cities, and the titles of certain members of the Police Departments" plus two cards one for the "lost heir" and one for the "wrong boy." The police officers were supposed to find the heir and avoid taking the "wrong boy" card.
And here are some board games you might like:
1. The Errand Boy and the Messenger Boy - the two Boys progress through various jobs "until they become Presidents."
2. From Log Cabin to White House and The Road to Washington - two games in which the players race "from the beginning of a political career through various offices to the Presidential chair." The image above is of the playing board of The Road to Washington. The larger building at the bottom is the "Grand Central Depot" in New York (though there is no city shown on the board, just the Depot) - which is bigger than the house representing Washington at the top! The bigger version is here.
3. Bobb - a "game of skill" which tested "delicacy of motion with the hand that grasps a small mallet." It was like tiddly winks in that lead-weighted pieces were moved on a board by one's tapping the underside of the board. The object was to land the pieces into "bobbs" or holes on the board.
The 1895 Times article that I got all these gift ideas from also mentions the "amusing" trend of "donkey parties." This seems to be the same as Pin the Tail on the Donkey, and there was a premade kit for playing this that was new back then "so that enjoyment can be had without the bother of supplying cloth, strips and pins." It it strange to think that people were so enamored of Pin the Tail that they were organizing whole parties around it, but this is what it sounds like.
The games all sold for anywhere between a nickel and a dollar. More Christmas shopping in Victorian New York to come...
Source: "Fine New Games and Toys," New York Times, December 1, 1895, p. 29.
The picture of The Road to Washington game board is from the Library of Congress.
10 comments:
I'm a huge fan of board/card games! Christmas Stocking sounds perfect for this time of year!
Richard - It does, and I wish they had told us how it was played.
Fun! Wish I could play them today :)
Some of these older gifts are better than the new ones. Seems kids no days have so many battery operated gizmoes they just end up collecting dust after the novelty wears off. (( did I just sound like grampa there?? )) ... I think I did! LOL
I just did a gift post too ;-)
Amanda - Me too :)
Speedycat - I will go check that out :)
I like the sound of a Pin The Tail on The Donkey party-that whole getting dizzy and stumbling around with your hands out thing could be fun.
Descartes - I think you'd need some really good refreshments though, to keep things going ;)
I do love playing board games! Times have changed a bit since 1895. I was at Toys R Us in the games aisle yesterday, oy! Stacks and stacks and rows of fun games!
I'm a big fan of games with cards or tiles. A few of my favourites include Tantrix, Hive and Carcassonne.
I wonder how much strategy and replay value some of these early games had. A few are described in detail on boardgamegeek.com
Buggys - I used to love board games a lot more than I do now. When I was 9, in 1971, I spent a year in an "open classroom" playing Monopoly all day every day (I may write about that over on Doubletake sometime)- but I will still play it once in awhile!
I do adore games on the computer though ;)
John - Thanks, I will go check out that site. I do like tile games on the computer, actually - I love solitaire and Mah Jong and Alchemy.
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