Jeu de la Grande Roue de Paris

Paris: Simonin Cuny, 1900. Striking table game published on the occasion of the Universal Exposition of 1900, the world’s fair held in Paris to celebrate progress in science, industry, and the arts. The game board features the fair’s engineering marvel, the Grande Roue de Paris, the largest Ferris wheel ever constructed. Based on the classic “jeu de l’oie,” or game of the goose, this game replaces the traditional sixty-three landing squares with spaces corresponding to the forty carriages of the Grande Roue. The spaces depict monuments, including the Louvre and Eiffel Tower; scientific achievements like the train and automobile; scenes of sports and amusements; (truncated) and fates to avoid: death, prison, the dentist’s chair! Five additional spaces are located outside the wheel, for a total of 45 landing squares. Printer Simonin Cuny specialized in children’s games, puzzles, and toys, often drawing inspiration from current events. In 1904, the firm joined four other printers of amusements to form Les Jeux et Jouets Français. A delightful souvenir of the newly constructed Grande Roue de Paris, whose height would not be surpassed for almost a century, in near-fine condition. Game board, measuring 14 x 10.75 inches. Chromolithographed sheet heightened in gold, divided in half vertically, mounted to two red boards joined by a cloth spine, folding to 10.75 x 7 inches. Rules of play printed at base of image, publisher’s imprint lower right. Trivial offsetting from glue at center fold, occasional stray mark, trace of old label to upper righthand corner. (Inventory #: 1003711)