Fun & Games

The Little Folk’s Farmyard

Ernest Nister (1841–1906) was a publisher and printer of movable books for children. He developed some of the techniques used in the design of ‘magic windows’, ‘dissolving picture’, and pop-up books, publishing them from his firm based in Nuremberg, a toy-making centre in the nineteenth century. In addition to the German books, an English version was produced for Nister’s London office and an American version, working with Edward Payson Dutton, for Dutton Publishing, his American publisher. This set of eighteen stand-up characters in a farmyard provides an idealised vision of the countryside at a time of increasing urbanisation.

Warri-board

Elaborately carved from wood in the shape of a boat resting upon a pedestal, this Warri-board is probably from West Africa.

Each player has an area to hold their captured counters at either end, and the playing spaces comprise two rows of six circular cavities. The pedestal has a small drawer containing two fabric bags of seed counters.

To play the game, players take turns dropping their counters into the holes, moving them in one direction, seeking to capture as many of their opponent’s counters as possible.

Pocket silk globe

The earliest historical reference to a map drawn on silk dates back to 227 BCE. This Japanese inflatable globe from 1930 is printed on Habutai silk (from the Japanese habutae, ‘feather-two-layer’), one of the most basic plain silk fabrics traditionally woven in Japan, which is quite easy to dye. It is normally a lining silk but can also be used for lampshades, clothing or, in this case, an inflatable globe. During the 1930s Japan was successfully exporting low-cost items, especially those made of fabric, and the United Kingdom was an important trading partner, which would explain why the globe was printed in English.

Le petit bonhomme vit encore

This game is beautifully preserved in its original box. Its title, ‘Le petit bonhomme vit encore’ means ‘the little man lives on’. Players had to keep the man alive, guiding him through pitfalls including broken bridges, a precipice and a guardhouse, on the way to safety in the Temple of Fortune.

The game’s title refers to a traditional game played with a lit match or candle, but it was also a phrase which referred to a person surviving many hardships, and it had political and poetical resonances. The game pieces consist of thirty colour lithograph cards and a figure on a mahogany stand, complete with printed instructions, two bone dice and a shaker cup.

Merry-go-round

These series of boxes contain some self-assembled cut-out figures and a card merry-go-round. The oldest existing carousel had been made in 1780 in Germany, and by the end of the nineteenth century, merry-go-rounds commonly featured in illustrations for children. During the First World War, imports from Germany were banned and the British government encouraged industry at home to make the toys that the Germans no longer supplied. Towards the end of the war, Edinburgh publishers Gall & Inglis produced a series of ‘cut, fold and build’ paper toys, which included this ‘carousel of victory’. The toy books were received by the Library through the Copyright Act.

The counties of England

This popular card game first appeared in the 1860s and was so successful that it was published in four series and in several editions well into the twentieth century. The game had rules similar to Happy Families, where one has to complete the highest number of sets in order to win. The engravings reflect the industrial revolution, with descriptions of then flourishing industries: calico printing in Stockport, cotton-spinning in Preston, or broadcloth and large iron-works in Leeds. The texts were revised over the years and the factual information updated. The cards were made by printing wood engravings onto a large sheet of paper, which was then pasted onto card and cut.

The game of England

This board game consists of a map of England and Wales printed on a linen cloth. It was played with a teetotum, a form of spinning top known across Europe from Roman times. The game is a testimony to the development of tourism in England: the word tourist had first appeared in 1772 and was defined as ‘one who makes a journey for pleasure, stopping here and there’ (originally especially a travel writer). The section about Cambridge in the printed rules reads: ‘Cambridge: famous for its University; the tourist must stop here three turns and view the Halls and Colleges’.

Wooden toy theatre

This wooden toy theatre, decorated with printed papers and a working red curtain, was probably made in Continental Europe at the end of the nineteenth century. Names of Italian cities (Verona and Milan) were written on the back at a later date. It belonged to Charles Woods (1894–1982) whose collection of theatrical memorabilia, including over 3500 items, was presented to Cambridge University Library by his wife.

Dissected tables

These hand-coloured engraved portraits of thirty-two rulers of Rome, from Romulus to Augustus Caesar, are mounted on mahogany and dissected to form a jigsaw puzzle, kept in a mahogany box. The earliest surviving jigsaws, produced in London in the second part of the eighteenth century, were called ‘dissected tables’: they had to be cut by hand and as a consequence had much larger and straighter pieces that the jigsaw puzzles we see today. The term ‘jigsaw’ itself refers to the mechanical tool used to cut the puzzle, which was only invented in the nineteenth century. This ‘dissected table’, like others of its time, was designed as an educational tool, rather than a toy.

Henry, Fanny and Lauretta

Some of the earliest paper toys books for children were produced from about 1810 onwards by the publishers S. and J. Fuller at the ‘Temple of Fancy’ in Soho. The Fullers were first and foremost toy manufacturers, but also invented successful paper doll books, which followed children in a series of moral adventures. The series included detached (and interchangeable) paper heads and several sets of clothes to which the head could be attached.

Mogg’s dissected globe

Mogg’s dissected globes were intended ‘For the instruction of Youth’, with children learning about astronomy or geography through constructing and playing with the models. The terrestrial dissected globe was originally published in 1812, with a celestial sphere published the following year. The globe is made of cardboard and was issued in a slipcase with printed instructions for its assembly, sadly lacking in the Library's copy.

Ganjifa

Playing cards and card games from India, Iran and some Arab countries are known as ganjifa. Introduced into India by the Mughals, a full set of such cards consists of eight or twelve suits. Each suit, which has its own characteristic design, has ten number cards and two court cards, the shah (king) and the wazir (minister). Many suits appear to have a symbolism relating to tarot cards. The game is a trick-taking game played with no trumps. It was popular with all social classes in India from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries. This set, made of tortoiseshell and finely decorated, must have belonged to a wealthy patron.