Victorian families spent much of their leisure time playing games and a new display in the Grable Visitor Center explores all types of amusements from the Frick family's collection at Clayton.
Checkers, chess, backgammon, and dominoes were universally popular, although not everyone could afford a monogrammed ivory set, like the Fricks.
Game boards were often disguised as books. The set in the visitor center folds into the form of a pair of gilt-tooled volumes titled History of England. Other sets in the collection, not on view, masquerade as two tall tomes labeled Evenings at Home, Volumes 1 and 2.
Card games were also a favorite in Gilded Age homes. Adults enjoyed games like whist and euchre while Old Maid was popular with children. The version of Old Maid in the Frick’s collection features pairs of Mother Goose nursery rhymes and “Old Dame Trot” (who, it must be said, looks decidedly non-old) as the dreaded odd card.
Henry Clay Frick and his wife, Adelaide, often hosted other couples for whist at Clayton. Whist is a classic trick-taking card game and a precursor of modern day bridge. The game requires skill and a shrewd attention to detail and can be difficult to learn.
In 1893, Mrs. Frick wrote to her son Childs at school, “Attie [her sister] and I are deep in whist, but every day we find it harder and harder to understand and I am afraid that at the end of twelve lessons we shall come out behind in knowledge of the game.” She must have kept at it, for the collection at Clayton is filled with numerous whist sets and her social calendars from the late 1890s frequently record card games with friends. The Woodwells, Holmeses, and Frews, neighbors and friends of the Fricks, were frequent card-playing partners.
Slightly less common amongst Gilded Age families were fortune-telling cards. The Frick Pittsburgh’s collection includes a set of cards titled Mademoiselle Lenormand’s l’Oracle. The fortune-telling set was printed by Dick & Fitzgerald of New York in the late nineteenth century.
Mlle. Lenormand was a professional fortune teller who rose to fame during the era of Napoleon. After her death, her name was used to market a number of cartomancy card sets in the nineteenth century, including the set published by Dick & Fitzgerald in the Frick’s collection. Each card contained a clue for divining one’s future and were often read in pairs or combinations. The rider portends news or a visitor, while the snake might indicate deception or betrayal (perhaps in the form of a woman).
The advent of chromolithography led to the mass production of board games. The new technology allowed for cheap mass production while the growing middle class provided a market for the new affordable games. Most games promoted virtuous, middle-class, Christian morals. Mansion of Happiness, introduced by W. & S. B. Ives in 1843, was one of the first commercially successful board games that remained popular throughout the nineteenth century.
The game was touted as “an instructive, moral, and entertaining amusement.” The goal is to reach the mansion of happiness without falling into ruin. Players advance when landing on spots signifying virtue, such as piety, honesty, and humility; they lose ground when landing on vice. The version in The Frick Pittsburgh’s collection was published in 1894 by Parker Brothers.
Stop by the Grable Visitor Center on your next visit and compare the Gilded Age games on view to your favorite pastimes.
Game boards were often disguised as books. The set in the visitor center folds into the form of a pair of gilt-tooled volumes titled History of England. Other sets in the collection, not on view, masquerade as two tall tomes labeled Evenings at Home, Volumes 1 and 2.
Card games were also a favorite in Gilded Age homes. Adults enjoyed games like whist and euchre while Old Maid was popular with children. The version of Old Maid in the Frick’s collection features pairs of Mother Goose nursery rhymes and “Old Dame Trot” (who, it must be said, looks decidedly non-old) as the dreaded odd card.
Henry Clay Frick and his wife, Adelaide, often hosted other couples for whist at Clayton. Whist is a classic trick-taking card game and a precursor of modern day bridge. The game requires skill and a shrewd attention to detail and can be difficult to learn.
In 1893, Mrs. Frick wrote to her son Childs at school, “Attie [her sister] and I are deep in whist, but every day we find it harder and harder to understand and I am afraid that at the end of twelve lessons we shall come out behind in knowledge of the game.” She must have kept at it, for the collection at Clayton is filled with numerous whist sets and her social calendars from the late 1890s frequently record card games with friends. The Woodwells, Holmeses, and Frews, neighbors and friends of the Fricks, were frequent card-playing partners.
Slightly less common amongst Gilded Age families were fortune-telling cards. The Frick Pittsburgh’s collection includes a set of cards titled Mademoiselle Lenormand’s l’Oracle. The fortune-telling set was printed by Dick & Fitzgerald of New York in the late nineteenth century.
Mlle. Lenormand was a professional fortune teller who rose to fame during the era of Napoleon. After her death, her name was used to market a number of cartomancy card sets in the nineteenth century, including the set published by Dick & Fitzgerald in the Frick’s collection. Each card contained a clue for divining one’s future and were often read in pairs or combinations. The rider portends news or a visitor, while the snake might indicate deception or betrayal (perhaps in the form of a woman).
The advent of chromolithography led to the mass production of board games. The new technology allowed for cheap mass production while the growing middle class provided a market for the new affordable games. Most games promoted virtuous, middle-class, Christian morals. Mansion of Happiness, introduced by W. & S. B. Ives in 1843, was one of the first commercially successful board games that remained popular throughout the nineteenth century.
The game was touted as “an instructive, moral, and entertaining amusement.” The goal is to reach the mansion of happiness without falling into ruin. Players advance when landing on spots signifying virtue, such as piety, honesty, and humility; they lose ground when landing on vice. The version in The Frick Pittsburgh’s collection was published in 1894 by Parker Brothers.
Stop by the Grable Visitor Center on your next visit and compare the Gilded Age games on view to your favorite pastimes.