Loto Artistique - Géographique - Histoire

Paris: Jullien, 1870. Hardcover. Blindstamped, gilt-stamped. Brass clasp. Fine. One of the most beautiful and elaborate of lotto game sets, here complete, with all thirty lotto cards, each a veritable collage of chromolithographic images -- a map, several cameo portraits, a human genre scene, landmarks and other miscellany crammed onto lotto card. Attesting to the luxuriousness of the production is the heavy faux book box containing the game -- gilt lettering and ornamentation were heavily employed on the box, and the lotto cards are bordered by gilt as well. While the gilt on the box has specks of a crusty residue of some sort and a modest amount of other soiling, we think the box and the all the components of the game are in as nice condition as one could find. The box is 36 by 30 cm, and 6 cm deep. The cards are oblong, 13 by 21 cm. Within the box the rules are on a sheet mounted to the inside front cover. On the right are four wells, the larger one, housing the cards, the two others, for three kinds of game pieces. There are also two small sacks in which game pieces are kept together. When we say the game is complete, we must qualify that we don't know how many game pieces there were originally, but certainly our set has close to all, if not all, and since it is the cards and box that will matter to virtually any collector, we are comfortable characterizing the game as complete, with this one minor hedge.