ca. 1930.]. Vertical folding chromolithograph card playing board, 520 x 220mm folding into four 130 x 220mm, together with accompanying printed rule sheet 210 x 135m, light wear to folding joints of playing board, with some minor scuffing and soiling, text leaf lightly browned with a couple of minor nicks and evidence of previous folds; as often, now without the original box, set of coloured ‘tiddlywink’ counters, & wooden bowl; still an appealing example. A vibrantly coloured ‘grand jeu de la puce’ or game of ‘tiddlywinks’, with accompanying rules, celebrating the first East to West aeronautic crossing of the Atlantic undertaken by Dieudonné Costes and Maurice Bellonte flying the ‘Point d’Interrogation’, a Brequet Super Bidon long-ranged aircraft designed specifically for the attempt. The crossing took 37 hours in total, leaving from Le Bourget on September 1st 1930 and arriving at Curtiss Field in New York.
A game for 2, 4 or 6 players, the board is marked with 12 destinations: Toulouse, Casablanca, Dakar, the Ocean, ‘Açores’, ‘Bermudes’, ‘Terre-Neuve’, Halifax, Boston, Washington and New York (numbered 1, 3, 6, 10, 14, 15 and 16). Following a hopscotch style progression, players must land their counter on the chosen destination. Once at Dakar, there is a choice of two routes: one via Newfoundland and Boston, the other via Bermuda and Washington. Any player whose chip lands in the ocean is out of the race. Maximum points could be achieved by taking a direct flight from Paris to New York.
The game was originally presented in a decorative box, and would have come with counters, and a wooden shaker - to be placed in the New York square - the players having to get the counter into the bowl.