Race Board Games. Race games are a large category of board games, in which the object is to be the first to move all one’s pieces to the end of a track. This is both the earliest type of board game known, with implements and representations dating back to at least the 3rd millennium BC in Egypt, Iraq, and Iran. Race games often use dice to decide game options and how far to move pieces. Reference: Wikipedia
Below are some examples and price guides of race board games including a rare Journey to Mecca and a McLoughlin Bros Automobile Race Game.
MECCA AND THE HAJJ Board game journey to Mecca. [Germany?, early 19th century] folding hand-coloured engraving (340 x 453mm.), dissected onto 9 sheets and backed on linen, comprising 73 numbered spaces 1-72 on 8 sheets with captions in German and French, central space 73 titled ‘Mecca’; together with a quantity of Dutch printed paper gaming counters (from another game) in a paper-covered box, game somewhat stained, slight wear to surface and extremities
Sold for 8,750 GBP at Sotheby’s in 2020
FRENCH BOXED PARLOR GAME “COURSE DE CHEVAUX” BY SAUSSINE
23″ (58 cm.) x 13″. A board game with vibrantly decorated paper covers depicts on its lid a racing grandstand and an amusing scene of jockeys,horses and spectators,and the title “Course de Chevaux” (the Horse Race). The interior contains a race course centering a four stanchion stable,each containing a carved and painted wooden horse with loosely hinged legs and wooden pin legs,being ridden by a cardboard jockey with bright costume. When the horses are placed on the race track,and the handle turned at the front,the horses “race” along in an amusing manner. Saussine,French,circa 1890,that firm employed the “dancing doll” (or,in this case,dancing horse) theme in many of their games. Excellent condition of the rare and imaginative game.
Sold for $650 at Theriault’s
A.R.P. Board Game 1938-39 (published)
The First and Second World Wars generated a lot of games. Some of them were meant to be fun, while others had an educational purpose. This one is played like a normal race game with rewards and forfeits along the way. The start is the air-raid drill and the finish is the All Clear sounding.
The game was inspired by the air-raid precautions (ARP) put in place in Britain before the Second World War. The design of the game is interesting in that the board layout gives a three-dimensional effect, as if you are looking down a tunnel.
Reference: © Victoria and Albert Museum
MAP GAME – GAME OF THE SNAKE Bowles’s Royal Pastime of Cupid, or Entertaining Game of the Snake, engraved sheet with spiral track in the form of a snake with 63 divisions incorporating 20 illustrations, rules of the game printed either side, within decorative border, partial loss to two words of title caption, soiled with small loss at central fold, laid down on old brown paper, 375 x 460mm., Carington Bowles…, No. 69 in St. Pauls Church Yard, [c.1784]
Sold for £ 573 inc. premium at Bonham’s in 2019
In the Gioco dell’Oca or ‘Game of the Goose’, players race to move tokens around the track according to the roll of two dice. Landing on those spaces marked by geese allow them to double their throw, whilst others invoke a range of outcomes: players at the inn on space 19 miss a turn, players must wait at the well on space 31 until another takes their place and the skull (Death) on space 58 sends them back to the beginning. Records of the goose-game in Italy date back to 1480. Soon popular across Europe, this is the first known impression to carry a date.
Published by: Lucchino Gargano
Reference: © The Trustees of the British Museum
Mcloughlin Bros. Game of the Automobile Race, ca. 1904, great imagery of Santa driving an early auto filled with toys on the cover, instructions on underside, with inset gameboard in bottom, spinner and wood game tokens, 12 1/2” x 12 1/2”.
Sold for $2,600 at Pook & Pook, Inc. in 2021
