Giochi dell'Oca e di percorso
(by Luigi Ciompi & Adrian Seville)
Avanti Home page Indietro

Torna alla ricerca giochi
(back to game search)
Jeu Royal or couvert ne se paye pas - Royal Game "If You're Covered You Don't Pay" 
immagine
Versione stampabile      Invia una segnalazione
primo autore: Anonimo 
secondo autore: Anonimo 
anno: 1710 
luogo: Francia-Parigi(?) 
periodo: XVIII secolo (1°/4) 
percorso: Percorso di 66 caselle numerate 
materiale: carta (paper) (papier) 
dimensioni: 685X1040 (642X935) 
stampa: Acquaforte (taille-douce) (engraving) 
luogo acquisto:  
data acquisto:  
dimensioni confezione:  
numero caselle: 66 
categoria: Lotterie, fortuna, gioco d'azzardo 
tipo di gioco: Gioco con i dadi  
editore: Non indicato 
stampatore: Non indicato 
proprietario: Collezione Rothschild 
autore delle foto: Waddesdon The Rothschild Collection (The National Trust) 
numero di catalogo: 1174 
descrizione: Gioco di 66 caselle numerate.

REFERENZA 1
The sheet for this game, in which the players are opposed to a banker as in Roulette, consists of 66 numbered spaces in rows and columns, and is a staking layout based on the Italian Gioco Reale (Royal Game). Thierry Depaulis (1987) illustrates a version with slightly but significantly different iconography in the collection of Jean Verame and puts the game in the context of similar games of the Biribi type. He also notes (private communication) a third slightly-variant version in a Brussels collection. The game is played with accompanying numbered balls or pieces of paper which are drawn at random from a bag, or possibly with a set of cards. In the game, stakes can be placed on any of the numbered spaces and will win if the number drawn corresponds. They can also be placed, at correspondingly reduced odds, on the spaces above or below the columns, when they will win if the number drawn is contained in that column. The 11 columns are headed: Les Femmes, Les Armes, Les Hommes, Les Fruits, Les Bêtes a Quatre Pieds, Les Oyseaux, Les Fruits, Les Armes, Les Femmes, Les Ports et Bâtiments. [The coats of arms include that of Pope Clement XI: His period of office 1700-1721 therefore provides an indication of the game’s date.] Stakes can also be placed on the spaces at the ends of the rows: these spaces each contain a specified group of 6 numbers. The phrase in the title panel “Or couvert ne se paye pas” is obscure but comparison with similar Italian games, in which the title panel reads “Giuoco Reale – denari in tavola, oro coperto non si paga” (see for example the panel by Paolo Scorzia in the Collezione Mestrovich, Ca’ Rezzonico, Venice) suggests that the meaning is “table stakes only – covered gold will not be paid”. This interpretation is confirmed by the recent discovery by Manfred Zollinger (2010) of a document printed in Amsterdam between 1689 and 1695 that shows a “Royal Oak Lottery” game in progress, this being a gambling game (a variant of Hoca) similar to the Jeu Royal. The print gives the rules of the game in three languages: Dutch, French and English. These rules clearly state that, when a punter stakes a gold coin, he must show it to the banker and say out loud what he is staking, and also that the gold must not be concealed beneath another coin: “Si quelqu’un met de l’or sur le jeu, il doit dire tout haut (...), autrement le Banquier n’est pas tenu de le payer, non plus que quand on cache quelque piece d’or sous de l’argent ou autre monnoye.” Cheating by concealing a gold coin underneath a larger, silver one was evidently a common practice in France as late as the 19th century, as Zola recounts in his novel, first published serially in 1867, Les Mystères de Marseille, at Chapter XV: "Le maître portefaix regardait ce garçon avec méfiance. Il suivit ses gestes, et il s’aperçut qu’il cachait une pièce de vingt francs sous sa pièce de cinq francs en argent; lorsqu’il gagnait, il étalait le tout, il empochait vingt-cinq francs; lorsqu’il perdait, il laissait la pièce d’or cachée sous la grosse pièce d’argent et il ne donnait à Marius que cinq francs. Il paraît qu’il ne se passe pas de nuit sans que cette filouterie adroite ait lieu dans un tripot de Marseille".
(Plock, Phillippa - Seville Adrian)

Exhibitions
- "Playing, Learning, Flirting: Printed Board Games from 18th-Century France". Catalogue exhibition of French eighteenth-century Board Games, 28 March – 28 October 2012, Waddesdon Manor, The Rothschild Collection (Rothschild Family Trust). Rachel Jacobs, Curator.
bibliografia: 1) PLOCK, Phillippa - SEVILLE, Adrian: "The Rothschild Collection of printed board games at Waddesdon Manor", in XIIIth Board Game Studies Colloquium, Paris, 14-17 April 2010.
 
 
   
 
   
  Accession N°2669.1.19 Waddesdon-The Rothschild Collection
 

Vai alla ricerca giochi         Vai all'elenco autori