(GAME). ~ Grand Jeu du BÉBÉ JUMEAU. Paris. Amsterdam: Lith. Amand [for Jumeau], 1889.
Large colour lithograph print (680 ×460 mm). Lightly browned, formerly folded (one vertical and seven transverse folds), slight loss along folds, expertly restored on verso. A very good example of a fragile piece.
A striking ‘game of goose’ celebrating Franco-American friendship, the 1889 Paris Exposition universelle and the newly-built Eiffel tower. It was issued as an advertisement for the doll manufacturer Jumeau, who made luxury ceramic dolls under the ‘Bébé Jumeau’ trademark. The tower has 63 game positions, with the goose positions occupied by Jumeau dolls, the negative positions occupied by German dolls - a piece of anti-German propaganda and a dig at the cheap German-manufactured dolls which competed with Jumeau’s premium products. One German doll falls down a well, another off a bridge, one is stuck in jail, while a broken doll is the ‘death’ square, 58. On either side of the tower are Franco-American dolls holding their respective national flags. The Statue of Liberty is seen in the distance beyond the Paris Exposition grounds.
A caption at the foot requests that the game be mounted on card and kept as a souvenir. This example is as issued, and though minimally restored at the folds is a rather remarkable survival. Seville, 56. The Royal Game of the Goose four hundred Years of printed Board Games. Catalogue of an Exhibition at the Grolier Club, February 23 - May 14, 2016.