Photograph

Almost as ancient as playing cards, dominoes are among the oldest tools for play. Although related to playing cards themselves--and indeed dominoes were often constructed of the same cardstock paper--dominoes are meant to represent all possible rolls of a common pair of dice. Their form, however, allows for multiple types of games as well as for the familiar domino-effect constructions.

A late-nineteenth century carte de visite style photograph, undoubtedly staged in a photographer's studio, shows a little girl playing with a stack of dominoes. Although the photographer probably used the set as a prop for many children's photos, this image seems quite unusual.