[KANGAROO]. British and foreign animals : a new game, moral, instructive and amusing. Designed to allure the minds of youth to an acquaintance with the wonders of nature.

London : William Darton, [1820]. Board game, engraved sheet (495 x 405), hand-coloured, dissected and laid on linen (some offsetting), publisher’s advertisement label, in original publisher’s card slipcase, marbled paper (edges worn), publisher’s label and large illustrated title label with images of the animals; without the printed rule book.

ONE OF THE EARLIEST CHILDREN’S GAMES TO DEPICT AUSTRALIAN ANIMALS.

British and foreign animals is a variation on the Game of the Goose. The 37 tiles have representations of animals with different perceived moral qualities, the majestic Lion – the king of beasts – being the final central image. The penultimate tile is the Kangaroo, the image taken from the famous depiction by George Stubbs (1772), which was frequently reused by engravers across the following decades.

The game wold have been played with a teetotum, and was originally issued with a printed rule book with descriptions of the animals, which (like the Morgan Library copy) is lacking in this example.

Collections :

• V&A (a facsimile of which was published in 1994)
• Free Library Philadelphia
• Hampshire Museums and Archives
• Morgan Library
• Princeton University

No examples are recorded in Australian collections.

Reference:

Whitehouse, F. R .B. Table games of Georgian and Victorian days. Royston : Priory Press, 1971, p. 94.

Bayfield, Juliana. Games of virtue and learning : early table games of Australian interest, contained in The La Trobe Journal, No 60 Spring 1997, p. 153

Shefrin, Jill. The Dartons : publishers of educational aids, pastimes & juvenile ephemera, 1787-1876 : a bibliographical checklist. Los Angeles : Cotsen Occasional Press, 2009, H 1791