Accession No
5861
Brief Description
19-inch terrestrial globe with 12 game cards in cardboard box, French, early 20th Century
Origin
France
Maker
Class
cartography; games
Earliest Date
1902
Latest Date
1911
Inscription Date
Material
metal; wood; paper (card)
Dimensions
circumference; 1000mm (approx), height 650mm
Special Collection
Provenance
Purchased from Trevor Philips and Sons Ltd, 75a Jermyn Street, London, SW1Y 6NP on 20/12/2001.
Inscription
The box lid has a title which reads;
11.OCÉANIE
(Partie Occidentale)
Each of the individual cards has a title as follows;
1.EUROPE
(Partie Occidentale)
2.EUROPE
(Partie Orientale)
3.ASIE
(Partie Orientale)
4.ASIE
(Partie Occident le)
5.AFRIQUE
(Partie Septentrion le)
6. AFRIQUE
(Partie Mérdionale)
7. AMÉRIQUE DU NORD
(1ere Partie)
8. AMÉRIQUE DU NORD
(2me Partie)
9. AMÉRIQUE DU SUD
(1ere Partie)
10. Amérique DU SUD
(2eme Partie)
11. OCÉANIE
(Partie Occidentale)
12. OCÉANIE
(Partie Orientale)
Description Notes
19-inch terrestrial globe with 12 ‘lotto’ game cards in cardboard box, French, c. 1900. Globe has a plaster sphere with printed paper gores.
Globe is marked with numbers to correspond with numbers on the cards. The globe revolves freely and has a decorative stand.
The box lid (not original box?) has a picture of Australia and other surrounding countries around the continent with the numbers 11, 92, 77, 33, 93, 90, 55, and 94 in designated areas (is a scanned replica of one of the cards in the pack). The cards are individually packaged in plastic covers. Each card has an area of the world in map form with 8 slots in which square pieces of card marked with numbers are situated. Underneath each square piece of card is a black and white drawing of an animal. Other things are also drawn on the map such as flags, people, greenery and landscapes.
Each card has a title and are numbered from 1 to 12. The writing is French. None of the pieces are missing.
References
Katie Taylor; 'A geographical lottery game'; Explore Whipple Collections online article; Whipple Museum of the History of Science; University of Cambridge; 2009: https://www.whipplemuseum.cam.ac.uk/explore-whipple-collections/globes/geographical-lottery-game
Events
Description
No instruction manual survives for this globe, but the markings on the sphere and the accompanying cards suggest that the set was used for a kind of geographical lottery game. Most likely it was an expensive toy for the child of a wealthy family or perhaps for a schoolroom. A deck of cards accompanies the globe, which depicts native flora and fauna and the habits of local people for individual geographic regions. The globe itself is covered with a range of images such as isotherms and regional seasonal winds and man-made features such as prominent buildings, and is divided by numbered squares. To play the game, it is believed that the game leader spins the globe, stops it with her finger and calls out the number from the square on the globe. The players then remove the corresponding card or tile in their pile. The first player to remove all their cards is the winner.
14/01/2014
Created by: Allison Ksiazkiewicz on 14/01/2014
FM:46283
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