PENNSYLVANIA GAME WHEEL WITH STRIKING GRAPHICS & GREAT COLORS

COLORFUL PAINTED SHEET METAL GAME WHEEL ON A SHAPED WOODEN FRAME WITH A NICKLE-PLATED SPINNER, circa 1890-1910 Red, black, white, and green game whee...

“Visit To Camp,” an extraordinarily rare card game by mclaughlin brothers of new york, circa 1871. This extremely rare card game, designed with Civil War context, was made by McLoughlin Brothers in New York City. The set includes 12 (complete) chromolithographed, character playing cards, and 68 (out of 72) object cards, with various accoutrements. All of the above are housed in a wooden storage box with a slide lid and a chromolithographed, paper label. Played in an ad-lib, story-telling format, the characters include the Colonel, the Captain, the Zouave soldier with red pantaloons, the Rifleman, the Artilleryman, the Riding Master, the Musician, the Ferrier, the Surgeon, the Sapper (engineer), the Sutler (cook), and the Vi Vandeer (a woman who takes care of the troops). Each character was originally linked to 6 objects, which were to be produced by players on demand during a spoken reading of the game’s convoluted story-line. There are actually 69 cards included here, one of which is an object card for “the Chinaman.” Since the card matches the style exactly in printing, shape, and scale, and since there was no Chinaman in this game, I presume that the card must have once accompanied another McLaughlin ad-lib deck. The instructions (reproduced, in scale) list 13 possible players, with the 13th acting as narrator. I could locate only 3 other copies of this extremely rare game, all of which included 12 cards. McLoughlin Brothers is said to have pioneered the systematic use of color printing technologies in children’s books. The publishing firm opened in 1820 and was active until 1920, when it was sold to Milton Bradley. During the early years, the product line included toys in addition to books, among which were games, blocks, and paper dolls. Artwork from famous illustrators such as Thomas Nast, William Momberger, Ida Waugh” (Laura Wasowicz), Justin Howard, and Palmer Cox...

Rare 18th century Italian gaming board "Nobilissimo Giuoco Della Mea" Or "The Nobel Game of Chance" in original paint and decoupage, (lacca povera) depicting a game which appears to be a board version of "Put and Take" with different characters representing either plus or minus points. Four corners with scalloped carved coin wells, the centre slightly dished for either a top or ball to roll within. Characters include: Scimmia/Monkey - put 6, Re/King - take 1, Vople/Wolf take 3 , Pascia/Lord - take two and so on. Other characters include, Cinese/Chinese, Colombo/Pidgeon, Crepascolo/Twilight, Armigero/Knight?, Gezelia/Gazelle, Adone/Adonis, Gonhiere/Gondolier, Araba Fenice/Arab Phoenix?, Vecchio/Old Man, Leone/Lion. A very similar game board is in the collection of the Medici Villa...

Utterly charming and graphically strong, this depiction of Old King Cole with his three fiddlers is an original linoleum panel produced by the Armstrong company in Lancaster, Pennsyl...