Some years ago (in about 2007) my wife stumbled on an antique game board on eBay and, surprisingly at the time, we were able to win the bid. It sat in its postage wrapping for many months before I had it mounted and framed. It’s been hanging on our dining room wall for the past three years or so, overseeing our frequent Sunday night (and infrequent other) gaming sessions.
Courtship and Marriage, 1909
Courtship and Marriage was first printed by Christopher George King under the name of the National Game Company , Victoria (suburban Melbourne) Australia in about 1909, although the National Library of Australia lists it as circa 1905.
There’s not much to the game itself – roll-and-move, jump ahead y spaces, move back x, etc. The visual artwork of the board is crowded and busy, but not unattractive. This, combined with the overt moral teachings implicit in the board game spaces, provide a marvelous little time capsule of western society in the first decade of the 20th century…
(A1 and A2 posters of Courtship and Marriage are available now from the online store.)
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A second antique – Around the Commonwealth by Aeroplane » The Art of Boardgames says:
March 3, 2011 at 9:32 am (UTC 10)
[...] is not an astonishing piece of artwork by any means, but it does have a certain appeal. And like Courtship and Marriage, it provides a little snapshot of early 20th century [...]
Digital restoration » The Art of Boardgames says:
March 16, 2011 at 7:17 am (UTC 10)
[...] first restoration (Courtship and Marriage) I had professionally done by a graphic artist. But when you’ve got several pieces to do, the [...]