Antique Card Construction Educational Game
£120
It is rare to find any card or paper manufactured game or toy that survives a few decades let alone some 120 plus years as this one has. Everything is original and the box is complete with 149 cards a combination of alphabetical with corresponding animal images plus plain and two other groups of pictorial cards. It also has its original paper instructions. Manufactured approximately 1900 and marked J W S & S (this later becomes J W Spear). This is an early game, and not found very often, in addition the lack of it being play worn along with its rarity makes this a true collectable.
Each card has an approximate size of 100mm by 60mm.
48 blank cards and 101 cards with Chromolithograph printed images (the artwork is a treasure)
Condition: the cards are all in extraordinary condition considering their fragile construction, they do show their age with a slight yellowing of the paper (we have discussed the set with conservators and they have advised that the current honest state would allow for a revitalisation if one wanted - good to know ). There are only two cards with issues, one picture card has a slight crease - not major. One of the plain cards has a nibble to the corner. The original box has survived but is with faults there is one corner to the cover that has split and this is shown in the photographs. We have not resorted to restoration nor adding modern materials to secure the split, the extent the new owner wishes to go we leave in their hands, (we always try to ensure we offer as original as we can on all our items)
Historical Note:
The company was founded by Jacob Wolf Spier in Fürth, near Nuremberg, Germany in 1879 they evolved to producing solely games by the turn of the century (1900) They have a survivalist history having been taken over forcefully in WW2 and then their German factory bombed. They survived all that and went from strength to strength, they also acquired the rights outside North America to 'scrabble' , now no longer family owned or run and the archive of some 2000 games has moved to the German Games Archive in Nuremberg.