MOTHER GOOSE'S ATTIC - Vintage Card Games

Jack of all Trades
by KUM-BAK Sports Toys & Games Manufacturing Co., Ltd

The game of Jack of all Trades was produced by Kum-Bak games around 1930.
A quarter of the cards are designed to represent various Craftsmen, and the remainder represent the Tools and Implements used by these Craftsmen in following their employment.

The object of the game is for each player to collect a complete set of cards representing a Craftsman and his tools. As soon as one player has succeeded in collecting a complete set of cards, consisting of a Craftsman and his Tools, he discards the extra card and calls ' 'Jack of all Trades," thus being the winner of the game.

This game can also be played as a form of Happy Families. If a player has not got a card of the set required when asked , he must reply, "On strike".

Jig Star
by Murphy Games

This 1935 game by Murphy Games is an unusual twist on a jigsaw. The 48 cards make up 6 different film stars from the 1930s.

The stars depicted are:

Ginger Rogers; Fred Astaire; Freddie Bartholomew; Shirley Temple; Charlie Chaplin and Charles Laughton.

Jolly Game of Old Maid

Each card includes an illustration of a person with their name printed at the bottom of the card which are quite clever plays on words. Some of the "characters" in addition to the "old maid" are: Miss Flirtina Fairytoe, the gypsy dancer; The fisherman, Mr. Piscator Catchnought who has hooked a cat, the Nurse Patience, Mrs. Dr Anna Tomey with a skull and a Doctor of Anatomy; Mr. Sam Hercules Amstrong, the stongman with the strong arm; Mr. Styon Driland who prefers to stay on dry land; Professor Fisticuff Smack the Boxer and Madame Dulcet Melodia Screech the singer among others.

There is one Old Maid card and 2 each of the other characters.

The list of characters are:

There are 4 other cards in the pack which unfortunately are mising from my version. I know one of the characters is called Nurse Patience but I don't know the name of the other character. I have seen a photo of the card but the name was indecipherable, it was of a man holding a flower in a pot over a watering can, so presume it was something to do with gardeners.

Jovial Families
by A Collier London

This game of Happy Families by A Collier of London was produced around the turn of the 20th century, 1890-1910. (The firm itself was established in 1863 ) and is remenicent of the "grotesque" Hhappy families produced by Jaques Ltd.

There are 40 cards in total, 10 "families" with 4 people to each. The names of the families are:

The Jungle Book
by Pepys (Castell Brothers)

This game was produced by Pepys under license from Disney who had recently produced an animated version of Rudyard Kiplings famous children book of the same name in 1968. The previous generation had thrilled to the adventures of Mowgli in a live action film which was directed by Zoltan Korda in 1942 and featured the boy star Sabu. Baden Powell had taken his inspiration from this same series of Kipling stories, when creating his "Wolf Cubs" or "Cub Scouts" groups, which was a form of scouting for younger boys aged 8 - 11 years old.

Jungle Jinks
by Thomas De La Rue & Co Ltd

The colourful game of Jungle Jinks was produced by Thomas De La Rue around about 1900. The 48 pictorial cards (16 sets of 3) are illustrative of the Adventures and Games of the boys of Dr Lion's Jungle School and are taken from Constance Stannard Chapman's original designs.

Jungle Thrills
by Pepys (Castell Brothers)

This Pepys game was produced in 1955 and features pictures by Racey Helps who also illustrated the "Woodland", "Farmyard" and "Pets" series of games.

There are 44 cards 7 animal groups of 6 (2 each of 3 different cards). The number of animals shown on each card indicts the number of points the card is worth,eg.
2x cards showing 1 Lion (this equals 1 point each)
2x cards showing 2 Lions (this equals 2 points each)
2x cards showing 3 Lions (this equals 3 points each)

The animal groups are: Tigers; Lions; Zebras; Monkey; Elephants; Giraffes and Hippo's. There are also 2 Hunter cards.

The object of the game is to "bag" (collect) the animals. Each player adds up the number of points (see above) and the one with the most points wins.

Famous illustrator Racey Helps 1913-1971 expressed his love of nature and enthusiasm for excitement and adventure  with the lovable characters he created for this game and others in the Pepys series.

Just William
by Pepys (Castell Brothers)

This Pepys game featuring Richmal Cromptons mischievous school boy "William" was produced in 1952. There are 44 cards to the pack with 10 sets of 4 cards and 2 of William and 2 of Violet Elizabeth.
The 10 sets are taken from 10 different "William" books. Each card has a circle (of a different colour for each set) in the top left hand corner with the initals of the book.

The books and initals are:

The object of the cards is to collect 2 sets of cards. The winner is the first player to lay down both his sets and calls "I declare".