1817. Small folio, together with partial set of original bone counters; Text: pp. 52; with engraved ‘Table of General Questions’ facing p. 23, and 14 engraved double-page maps mounted on stubs, (several designed by Gaultier’s pupil Wauthier) either fully hand-coloured or coloured in outline, comprised of seven ‘plain’ outline maps, 6 accompanying duplicate annotated maps, a final annotated map of the World showing Western and Eastern Hemisphere; paper a little browned throughout due to paper quality, with some further light foxing and soiling and some sporadic ink staining to outer margins, lower margins of pp. 7-14 with taped repairs to tears, with several of the plates also with taped repairs at both head and tail on blank verso, though sometimes a little crude (plate 1), with plate 4 and 14 with repairs along inner gutter of plate itself, which whilst not ideal, are less obtrusive than they could be; together with 66 (of 389?) of the original bone counters each with printed label giving question number and the answer, some soiling but otherwise very good; bound in half red roan contemporary grey boards, with oval engraved label on upper cover, spine in compartments ruled in gilt, label soiled with some ink staining, covers darkened and scuffed, extremities bumped and rubbed, and corners worn; with ownership signature of ‘Miss Hyder’ and ‘Sarah Hyder’ on front free endpaper both dated 1820; counters housed within the original marbled paper lidded box, with printed label ‘Descriptive Counters for the Geographical Game of Europe’, boxed quite dust-soiled and stained with wear to corners, but holding firm; a bright copy of a work that was no doubt subject to frequent rough handling and use. A bright copy of this new edition of Gaultier’s popular geographical question and answer game for children, first published in 1792, and offered together with an extremely rare and contemporary partial set of counters. This is the first copy we have handled to be accompanied by any counters, and indeed we have so far been unable to locate any other existing set. Contained within a box labelled ‘Descriptive Counters for the Geographical Game of Europe’, some 66 of the presumed 389 counters have survived, which as the note on the title-page notes have marked upon them, ‘the names of Kingdoms, Provinces, Islands, Seas, Rivers, etc.... that Pupils may themselves explain and point out their situation on the map’. A separate box of plain counters was to be used for rewards and forfeits. These descriptive counters related to Part I ‘The Game of Simple Geography’ (pp. 7-18), comprised of twenty-nine lessons and 389 questions, and were to be put into a bag by the instructor. The player to his right would then draw one out ‘and then to point out on the plain map, the place named... (If the pupil points it right, he gets a [plain] counter: if wrong, he forfeits one to the Instructor, who makes him perceive his faults clearly by means of the written map). The Instructor is then to put to his pupil the question which in the Game corresponds with the number’. (p. 6) The earliest numbered counter is 3, with the latest being 381, and whilst most do correspond with the numbered text question, there are a few variations in the questions, and numbers not quite matching up, suggesting that they may relate to a variant edition. Nevertheless, they are extremely scarce. An advertisement at the end of Harris’s Geographical Recreation of 1809 lists the game being offered at £1.1s., or with counters £1.11s. 6d’.
The work is dedicated to the Right Honourable Lady Amelia Spencer, youngest daughter of His Grace the Duke of Marlborough’ and is printed in French and English. A list of Harris’s ‘Valuable Works of Instruction’ is printed on the verso of the title-page. As was the case with a copy of the 1813 edition previously handled, the penultimate ‘Plain map of Asia, Africa, America’ (1792) is not accompanied by an annotated duplicate. Having cover each continent already, it was no doubt intended as the final test of memory. The final annotated map is ‘A new map of the World’ (1799) and showing the Western and Eastern Hemispheres. The previous twelve maps represent the British Isles (1797 and 1799); Europe (1797 and 1799); Central Europe (undated and 1799); Asia (1797 and 1799); Africa (1802 and 1799) and America (1797 and 1799).
The Abbé Gaultier (Aloisius Edouard Camille, 1746?-1818) was an influential French educator who fled to England during the French Revolution. He established a school for children and published books of games designed to teach a variety of subjects including geography. He believed that games could make learning amusing and keep children interested in a subject. He further encouraged children to think for themselves and to exercise their own judgement.
Gaultier’s methods found a ready market in England where map publishers in particular were quick to utilise
the many maps they published to produce a variety of games. This method of learning was very different from
the rote method of recitation of countries and cities, and map games quickly extended to both card games and jigsaws as well.
This new edition was first published in 1815, and Jehoshaphat Aspin re-issued the work (redrawing the maps and with a set of 348 counters) in 1821. The work continued to be republished over the next twenty years and remained an extremely successful instructional game for teaching geography. Indeed the Edinburgh Review of 1829 notes: ‘the numerous editions which have been published of this work, and the extensive favour with which it is still received, as well in private families as in schools, constitute no mean proof of its superior utility’ (p. 556).
As noted by Whitehouse, though not strictly speaking a board game, ‘each map in it does in fact constitute a game’ and thus he deemed it worthy for inclusion in his survey of Georgian and Victorian table games. The somewhat complicated rules of the game are on found on p. 6, opening with: ‘The Instructor, while he teaches, must lay aside all magisterial authority, menaces, and reprimands, as incompatible with the very idea of the Game; let him rather become the friend and companion of his pupils, and cheerfully associating with them.’ Despite this plea to make the game a cheerful one, it would nevertheless have been quite an intensive playing experience!