hist-games: Queries about the Game of the Goose

[Michael and Susan McKay]

I have seen paper prints of "The Game of Goose".  This was a couple of years
ago, so I'm a bit hazy on the details, but I recall the print was c.1650.
It was in either the Victoria and Albert Museum, or the London Guild Hall
Library.  I'll dig up my photo album and see if I got a picture of it.  I've
been meaning to scan them into my website anyway.

While on the subject, there were a number of pictorial card decks that were
popular approx. from 1680 onwards (the heraldry decks, the Horrid Popish
Plot, etc.).  A few of these decks doubled as race games.  An uncut print,
which could be recreated by laying the cards in the proper location, would
form a circular chase circuit ala. The Game of Goose.  While too late for
SCA re-creation, I'd still love to see someone make a replica.  The London
Guild Hall Library has some copies in excellent condition (I remember a
print in uncut format).  The London Guild Hall had made a number of
pictorial replica decks, but so far not one of the race formats.

Michael McKay  (known in the SCA as Seaan McAy)
seaan at concentric.net

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-hist-games at rt.com [mailto:owner-hist-games at rt.com]On Behalf
Of Jane & Mark Waks
Sent: Monday, November 06, 2000 7:40 PM
To: Huette von Ahrens
Cc: hist-games at pbm.com
Subject: Re: hist-games: Queries about the Game of the Goose


Huette von Ahrens wrote:
> I have never seen a commercially available printed
> board of the Game of the Goose.  Who makes it?  Where
> could I get a copy?  I am from Los Angeles,
> California, and usually I can find almost anything
> somewhere in the Greater Los Angeles area, but this I
> haven't.  I suspect that it may be British or perhaps
> Australian?

Nope, although it isn't exactly Milton-Bradley. It's actually listed on
the Period Games homepage (under Vendors), though. Kadon Enterprises
makes most of the coolest boardgames currently being produced -- they
specialize in inventing imaginative and well-balanced abstract board
games, and I'm quite fond of their stuff. Along the way, they sell just
a few period games, including a rather pretty Goose board:

	http://www.gamepuzzles.com/histfun.htm

The board styling is more modern than Renaissance, but not so much so as
to look bad at an SCA event. Not cheap ($45 for the cloth board, $125
for the wooden one), but I've found the quality of the workmanship to be
consistently first-rate.

They also sell Merels, and Fox & Geese. And they're a fine company,
worth patronizing. (If you're looking for a great modern boardgame,
Octiles is probably my favorite invention of the past decade...)

				-- Justin
				   Who owns a number of Kadon's boards...

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