Table game
Harvey Darton and Co.
Category
Sports equipment, games and pastimes
Date
20 May 1822
Materials
Mahogany, card,paper and metal
Measurements
Box - 255 mm (width); 302 mm (height); 87 mm (depth), Book - 105 mm (width); 175 mm (height), Stand - 208 mm (length), Each card (min) - 25 mm (length); 270 mm (width); 225 mm (height), Each card (max) - 273 mm (length); 270 mm (width); 225 mm (height)
Place of origin
Gracechurch Street, 55
Collection
Sudbury Hall Museum of Childhood, Derbyshire
NT 670726
Summary
A table game (The Geographical Panorama) in a mahogany box with a sliding lid. Pasted onto the lid box is a paper cover with the title of the game inscribed in black ink on a globe. Around the globe are colour illustrations of flowers. The publisher and date is at the bottom. Part of this is missing because the box lid is worn. The inscription in the globe reads as follows 'A Geographical Panorama Exhibiting characteristic representations of the Scenery and Inhabitants of various Regions'. The box contains the following items: two mahogany stands with metal ends; an instruction book with a cardboard cover and twenty three pages; three pieces of card, one of which can be folded out; nine cardboard scenes of around the world. These consist of a cardboard background with cut-out inserts in front of them. They are as follows (and described in the book): an Arabian desert with a camel, travellers and an Egyptian temple; a scene in Hindostan (sic) with a temple, a tiger, some people with a horse, tree and cheetah. One of the leaves of the trees has become detached; a stormy sky; a ship passing an iceberg; explorers climbing the alps; China; rivers; fishermen and a priest with a paper umbrella; a calm sea background, a canoe, a polar bear and sea-horses (walruses) being shot; view of the Society Islands in the South Pacific Islands, two men playing drums and a woman dancing, Sweden, a lake, a girl blowing a horn, Laplanders in front of their huts; the Acropolis in Athens, Turkish women watering the plants of a tomb, a governor. The last scene shows a snow scene with people in sledges. All the above scenes act as a type of theatre, the scenes placed into the grooves on the underside of the box lid. The wooden stands help support the scenes. The booklet gives details of how the Panorama works. Printed on the title page of the book is 'Description Of The Geographical Panorama. London, Printed By Harvey, Darton And Co, 55, Gracechurch-Street. 1822'. Total number of items is 39.
Marks and inscriptions
On the bottom of the box lid: 'London, Published by Ha[rvey Dar]ton, 55, Gracechurch St, May 20th 1822'
Makers and roles
Harvey Darton and Co., maker