The New and Fashionable Game of the Jew
- Author
- WALLIS, Edward
- Title
- The New and Fashionable Game of the Jew
- Publisher
- Wallis, Dunnet and Wallis, Published
- Publication place
- London,
- Publication date
- May 27th, 1807.
- Dimensions
- 480 by 410mm. (19 by 16.25 inches).
- Price
- £5,000
- Reference
- 1436
Description
Original hand-coloured engraved game, dissected and mounted on linen, housed in original slipcase with publisher's label, together with original totem.
Notes
"The centre of the game shows a Jew sitting at a table with his money bags, the figure "7" being marked on one of them. Around the central panel are nine compartments marked respectively 2, 5, 11, 6, 10, 8, 9, 3, 4. The rules are at the top of the sheet. The game is played either with a pair of dice or with a totum marked on its 12 sides 1-12: whoever throws the first must put down as many counters as the number thrown and on the number they must be placed - until someone throws "twelve", who clears the board" (Whitehouse)
Stephen Sondheim, who as a games collector owns a copy, commented famously and laconically: "It taught kids to be anti-semitic".
Bibliography
F.R.B. Whitehouse, 'The Games in Georgian and Victorian Days, 1971, p.62; P.H. Muir, 'Children's Games of Yesterday', 1946, No. 963; see M. Moon, 'John Harris's Books for Youth', No. 1035, for a later issue; OCLC locates copies in Princeton and Harvard.
