Dated to 1820, Wallis’s Elegant and Instructive Wonders of Art, incorporated on its linen-backed, etched game sheet a total of 26 numbered compartments featuring various wonders of the classical and modern worlds. Complete with original slipcase and rule booklet, it realised £1700 in Ludlow.
A Survey of London by a Party of Tarry-at- Home Travellers – £2200 at Mullock's.
Also published in 1820, but by William Darton, was A Survey of London by a Party of Tarry-at-Home Travellers. The hand coloured aquatinted and engraved playing sheet folds into the original slipcase and was again complete with rule booklet. It sold at £2200.
Scientific pleasures
Science in Sport, or the Pleasures of Astronomy – £3400 at Mullock's.
The most expensive of the group, at £3400, was another Edward Wallis game, Science in Sport, or the Pleasures of Astronomy of 1815.
In the 35 numbered compartments that make up the octagonal border are depicted the various scientific instruments, experiments or phenomena that make up this ‘New & Instructive Pastime’.
In the centre, flanked by ‘Introductory Observations’, are portraits of Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, Ptolemy and Sir Isaac Newton orbiting a larger view of ‘Flamstead House’ at Greenwich. The linen-backed playing sheet is housed in a contemporary slipcase.
The sale took place on September 19 and the buyer’s premium was 20%.
