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The New Game of Human Life.
London: John Wallis and Elizabeth Newbery, 1790. Board game, 18.5 x 26.5 inches,
16 hand-colored engraved sheets mounted on linen. Housed in a custom slipcase.
$5000.
First edition of this lively English board game, designed to awaken the moral
sense of its players. The board depicts eighty-four representative characters,
beginning with the Infant, proceeding through the Rebellious Youth, the Lover,
the Patriot, the Philosopher, the Drunkard, and the Hypochondriac, and ending
with the Immortal Man. The rules of play reflect the game’s educational mission:
the Studious Boy jumps forward to become the Orator, while the Negligent Boy
is stuck in place; the Prodigal is sent back to the place of the Careless Boy; and
the Tragic Author ascends to the place of the Immortal Man to “win the Game
by succeeding him.” Players are advised to use a six-sided totum, a spinning top
marked with a number on each side, in order “to avoid introducing a Dice Box
into private Families.” A diverting example of Enlightenment moral philosophy
in action.
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Mrs. Beecroft. Introduction to Botany.
Lowestoft, 1823. Quarto manuscript, 8 x 6.5 inches, contemporary red sheep gilt
over marbled boards. 115 pages, featuring 27 full-page botanical illustrations in pencil
and watercolor. $3500.
Delightful botanical sketchbook, the work of one “E. Beecroft,” identified
in a pencil note as “Mrs. Beecroft.” The text opens with a guide to Linnaean
taxonomy, describing the study of botany as “a Science, which at all times and
seasons affords a pleasing source of agreable and varied amusement; as well as
much useful information. . . . The mind is insensibly led from the reflection of
the harmony and consistency everywhere displayed to contemplate through
Nature, the greatness and benificence of Nature’s God.” The sketchbook features
an annotated series of hand-colored illustrations of local leaves, stems, roots,
and flowers, sometimes pictured in isolation, other times grouped in stylized
bouquets. Beecroft concludes with a list of over one thousand plants, identified
by their Latin and (when possible) English names. A vivid artifact of Regency
domestic life, of interest to both social and natural historians.