MOTHER GOOSE'S ATTIC - Vintage Card Games

Baccardo

This card game for 4 or more players, from the 1930s/40s is based on, betting on a horse race. One of the players is chosen to be the" bookie" while the others are all "punters" . There are 50 cards in this pack.

Find the Rules to the game here..............

Beat Your Neighbours
by Various Manufacturers

There seems to be a few versions of this game mostly produced by Tower Press or Clifford Toys in the 1950s/60s. The complete pack has 36 cards. This is a quartet type game with illustrations on different themes.

Find the Rules to the game here..............

Beatrix Potter's Rummy
by Pepys (Gibson Games)

This game has 44 cards, divided into 14 sets of 3 identical cards, illustrating different Beatrix Potter characters and 2 signpost cards, which are jokers.The object of the game is to collect 2 sets of 3 matching cards.

Beaver
by J.WADDINGTONS LTD

This 1920's game was designed by G E Studdy for John Waddington Ltd. Although there is a picture of Studdy's most famous creation "Bonzo" on the outer box that is the only one of his famous character and he does not appear on the cards themselves.

There are 52 card in this game (13 sets of 4) and a points card.

The 4 characters portrayed are: Beaver, Baldface, Back and Moustachios and the 13 sets are:

Beaver

King, Sailor, Kiltie, Soldier, Golf, Copper, Nut, Yankee, Doctor, Burglar, Waiter, Actor

Belisha
by Pepys (Castell Brothers Ltd)

This 1940 Pepys game was named after Leslie Hore-Belisha, the Minister for Transport, who introduced yellow flashing lights on black & white striped poles (Belisha Beacons) at "Zebra Crossings", so called because these pedestrian road crossings in the UK were also striped. The game consists of 52 cards & joker, 13 sets of 4. Played like Rummy.

The game was designed to make young children more aware of road safety.

Find the Rules to the game here..............

Biggles
by Pepys (Castell Brothers)

This game consisting of 44 cards was inspired by the famous Biggles stories of Captain W E Johns and drawn by Leslie Stead, who illustrated the books.
There are 22 Blue backed cards which consists of:
14 cards with Black numbers made up of 2 identical sets of 7 cards (numbered 1 - 7 ).
They illustrate incidents which helped Biggles in his JUNGLE adventures
1 card with a portrait of Biggles (not numbered)
7 cards with Red numbers (numbered 1 - 7 ). These illustrate setbacks which befell Biggles in his DESERT adventures.
The 22 Red backed cards consist of:
14 cards with Black numbers made up of 2 identical sets of 7 cards (numbered 1 - 7 ).
They illustrate incidents which helped Biggles in his DESERT adventures
1 card with a portrait of Biggles (not numbered)
7 cards with Red numbers (numbered 1 - 7 ). These illustrate setbacks which befell Biggles in his JUNGLE adventures.
The object of the game is to build up a set of the black numbered (good) cards and play the Biggles card before your opponent. The red numbered cards (bad) are used to hold up your opponent.

Find the Rules to the game here..............

Black - Out
by Kardonia Ltd.

This World War 2 topical card game was actually copyrighted in October 1939 within a month of the start of the war. The game is for 2 - 3 players and consists of 45 cards divided into 6 sets and numbered. The sets are as follows:
9 Silhouette cards
8 Fashions cards
8 Searchlight cards
8 Views cards
8 Your Lights are Showing cards
4 Blackout cards.

The game is played similar to whist. When a player clears his hand, the numbers on the pile in front of him is added up and the first player to score 200 is declared the winner.

Find the Rules to the game here..............

Bobs Yr Uncle
by John Waddington Ltd.

This pack was specially designed by Frank H. Simpson for John Waddington Ltd. in 1935.

There are 54 cards in the pack:

48 Nursery Rhymes (8 sets, 6 cards to a set, each with a line of the rhyme), the Rhymes are:

Humpty Dumpty
Little Miss Muffet
Jack & Jill
Little Bo-Peep
Old King Cole~Little Jack Horner
Hey-Diddle-Diddle
Old Mother Hubbard.

3 Uncle cards: Uncle Bob, Uncle Joe & Uncle George. There are also 3 "Little **** Boy" cards, which use a racially offensive description.

There are various ways to play the game, the object of the game is to "declare". A player may "declare" if:

a) They has played ever card out of their hand.
b) They have collected all the Uncle cards.
c) They have collected all 3 "Boy" cards.

Find the Rules to the game here..............

The Bookie
by Central News Ltd

This game was published c1935 by The Central News Ltd, London and printed in Belgium.

The pack consists of 52 cards each with rules in blue pack. the game depicts Jockeys riding 6 famous named contemporary horses of the day, 42 cards bear the name of the horse and a number (6 sets of 7) with the remaining 4 cards depicting the racing terms Jockey falls,Whip, Spur; Little Brown Dog

"The first horse to reach a position in line with the first card marking the course is the winner. The next horse to arrive achieves a "place" and wins one-third the odds offered by the Bookie. Practice will quickly determine the possible odds to be laid. These will range between 6 to1 and 50 to 1, or possibly more."

Bourse
by "Benco" London

This game produced by "Benco" in 1935 has 56 cards and is for 3 -7 players. At the time it was publicised as the "Game of the Century". The game is based on currency trading throughout the world.

Find the Rules to the game here..............

Bread & Honey
by Thomas De la Rue Ltd

This game was produced by Thomas De La Rue Ltd c1900 and is based on the Nursery Rhyme "Sing a Song of Sixpence". The 53 cards feature the King, Queen and blackbirds amongst other characters from the rhyme.

Find the Rules to the game here..............

Brer Rabbit
by ?

Brer Rabbit, this pretty card game was published about 1910/20. The colourful designs and story of Brer Rabbit's adventures are on 39 cards (3 of each image). There is also a rules card and although it does not state in the rules how many cards there should be.

At the bottom of the rules card it states "By permission of the publisher of "Books for the Bairns" the illustrations in the book "Brer Rabbit" have been made use of in this game"

The first Book for the Bairns was published in England by W.T. Stead in March 1896, and they were issued at one per month, therefore Old Brer Rabbit which was number six would have first been published in August 1896. This series ran till about 1916, after which it was variously continued, revived and reprinted well into the middle of the '20s.

The Bride
by John Jaques & Son.

This 19th century game by John Jaques & Son must have been produced around 1863 because the title is "The new game of The Bride" and on top of the rules is the message " A WELCOME TO H.R.H. THE PRINCESS OF WALES".

The game is made up of 48 cards each bearing a picture of a wild flower, with the English and botanical name below and at the top is the month in which the flower is most generally found .

The last Prince of Wales to marry before Price Charles was Queen Victoria's son Prince Albert Edward (later Edward VII) who married Princess Alexandria of Denmark at St. George's Chapel, Windsor on the 10th March 1863.

British Birds
by Pepys (Castell Brothers Ltd)

This is a simple collecting Pepys card game from around 1960 with an original twist.

44 cards (8 sets of 5 ) & 4 Owl cards.
Each set has a different letter A - E in the top left hand corner and every card is individually numbered 1 - 5. All the pictures are of British Birds with sets A - D depicting Land Birds and sets E - H Water Birds.

Find the Rules to the game here..............

British Towns
by Pepys (Castell Brothers Ltd)

C. 1960s the coloured pictures are of places of beauty and interest around mainland Britain. There are 2 games that can be played with this pack of cards. The first game is for 3 - 6 people. The second game for 2 people.

The complete set has 44 cards:
The key card lists the 9 regions
(the number show how many
cards are needed for each region)
9 Region cards showing the names
of towns in the region.
34 Town cards with their Region number
& the other town cards (in red)in their region.

The First game is to collect the cards from the other players to make up a whole Region (a Region card & all the Town cards belonging to that Region).

The object of the Second game is to collect Regional sets of cards.

Find the Rules to the game here..............