Paper Game. Nieuw Stoombootspel. Rotterdam, T.J. Wijnhoven Hendriksen [c1835]. Woodcut broadside (41x33cm). A horizontal fold, an outstanding copy. Au$750
Racing games like this often celebrate the new, the noteworthy, the latest craze. The steamboat might have been around for a few years but it hadn't lost its gloss judging by the games that re-appeared through the 1830s. This game, signed P. Emans, seems to have been printed at least four or five times through the twenties and thirties judging by the various colophons. All but one I've found are Hendriksen's; the exception is a Delft printing dated 1832 which, if this printing is from around 1835 as the experts say, indicates that the block was lent or rented.
Buijnsters and Buijnsters-Smets (Papertoys p272-3 - illustrating this copy) suggest this boat may be the 'Dutchman', built in 1823.
Paper Game. Het Vermakelijk Harlekijnspel. Amsterdam, J. Viegler [188-?]. 57x43cm colour litho game on paper. A rather good copy. Au$75
Monkey Game. Het Apenspel. n.p. [188-?]. 61x46cm colour litho game on paper. Edges a bit ragged and some repaired clean tears. Au$150
A Dutch racing game for devotees of monkeys - and who isn't? It seems counter intuitive these days but the object is to get into the zoo.
Boer War paper game. SCHLETTE, E.G. Boer-en Rooinekspel. Amsterdam, Koster [190-?]. 56x79cm colour lithograph. Creasing and a couple of short tears repaired in the margin. Au$150
A bright and cheery racing game.
Aviation Game. Helder's Vlieg-Spel. Zwolle, Helder's Biscuits [1909?]. 44x64cm colour litho game on paper. Folded and a touch rumpled; rather good. With a list of the biscuit range down the right side. Au$450
A splendid race game featuring plenty of bumps, crashes and engine failures and the earliest forms of the monoplane. Did the monoplane in the centre panel exist?
1909 was the big year for air shows and game makers weren't slow so 1909 is a sensible date to put on this. I can find only one record of another copy of this - in the Seville collection - and this, he said humbly, is a much better copy.
Paper toys. A gathering of eleven Taisho period cheap and flimsy paper games and booklets. n.p. 1910s to 20s. Sizes range from 8x5cm to 17x11cm closed. Obviously never used. Au$400
These look very much like they were gifts that accompanied something else or were rewards for coupons or suchlike. Five, including the origami-like soldier, fold out to be 'board' games with playing pieces inside; two are cinema like thrillers on accordian leaves and the two smallest are puzzling envelopes containing blank sheets and what looks like talcum; finally are the two booklets, smaller illustrated in black and white, larger in colour, telling the story of the Tongue Cut Sparrow.
Aviation paper game. Paris - Madagascar [Les Deux Raids Magnifique de l'Avion "Alsa" on the back]. n.p. Alsa [c1931]. Colour lithograph 36x27cm. text on the back in red and blue. Old folds, pretty good. Au$150
Two heroic record breaking flights - Paris-Tokyo and back and Paris-Madagascar and back, both in 1931 - were made to honour Alsa biscuits, cakes and baking powder.
Paper Toy. John Sands, Sydney. The Spanish Galleon. Sydney, John Sands [194-?]. Colour printed perforated card sheets in a ragged but essentially complete colour printed envelope (27x40cm); with 16pp octavo leaflet including instructions. Au$125
War time production by the look of it. Designed and produced by Sands for lovers of things piratic and pretty complicated - 97 pieces according to the instructions. I can't find any record of another copy.
: Medical Card for Sexual Design [Igaku Kado : Sei no Dezain hen]. Tokyo, Sansheisha Shobo 1965. 19x13cm, glossy card wallet case with 64 glossy cards. Fifty two cards printed both sides with photo illustrations of a young woman in black bodysuit on the front, one with sketches of hairstyles and the rest with diagrams and tables of reproductive organs and menstruation cycles; text and/or illustrations on the back of all. The last card is a diy rhythm calculator. All in excellent shape. Au$150
Even after deciphering the rules I'm still be baffled by this triumph of sixties sexual revolution kitsch. The first sixteen cards are blue, the rest pink; the 52 playing cards have a king's or queen's crown and one or two suit symbols - clubs, hearts &c - most have two but one has an A. The rules tell us there is only one ace but not what it's good for. Is the odd card out, the hairstyles, the joker? So the loser at Old Maid would, instead of having sex, get a new hairstyle? The gender symbols are graphic hints and must have been fun for the designer; the text on both sides is poetry; and hygiene is important. The point of the game and the rhythm calculator seems to be to give women some control in the new era of liberation; not something often evident, east or west.
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