Boxed card game, Mc Dowall's Musical Game, published in England by Smith, Elder & Co in 1836

Design: letterpress on card; wooden box with 4 compartments and sliding lid; labels each side with lithographed titles and diagrams of a pianoforte keyboard

all the questions are on music, for example `What is the use of this character?' with a treble clef sign.

*The players are referred to as Young Ladies, inferring that boys/men did not play the game,however, there appears to be no reason other than boys were not musical trained at the time and it was considered a girl's pastime only.


Games & Puzzles, CGG 1991.

Rewards: ?
Forfeits: ?
No. of Players: any
Equipment required: 150 cards divided into 6 sets, lettered A - F and numbered respectively 1-16, 17-39, 40-64, 65-89, 90-115, 116-150. (2 3/8in x 3 5/8in)
sheet of letterpress rules
12 page booklet of answers, dated 1836

Rules:
McDOWALL'S MUSICAL GAME

In selecting cards for an evening's amusement, the judgment of the president will prove the best criterion, it being evident that out of a pack comprising 150 Questions, a sufficient number to form an interesting game may be chosen, adapted to the capacities of the players in any degree of forwardness in the study of music; it is therefore only necessary to remark that
Class A contains Questions on the Form of the Characters, etc
Class B Time, Rests Clefs, etc
Class C The Names of the Lines and Spaces
Class D Sharps, Flats, Accents, etc
Class E Signs and Italian Terms used in Music
Class F Scale, Major and Minor Keys.

RULES.
1. Those joining in the amusement are to draw a card from the pack, when the holder of the highest number is to deal an equal quantitiy to each.
2. Each is to receive 6 counters, and the remaining counters are to be put into a pool.
3. The player, on the left of the dealer, is to read alound one of her own cards, and answer it from memory. If the answer be correct, a counter is to be received from the pool; if incorrect, one is to be forfeited to the pool.
4. The forfeited card may now be passed round the table until it be answered. The Lady who replies correctly, is to receive a counter; but the others are not to forfeit.
5. A president should be appointed to hold the key, and decide whther the answers be correct. When no one at the table can reply to a card, the answer is to be read from the key, and the person on the left of the owner ofthe card is to proceed.
6. When all the dealt cards are answered, the holder of the greatest number of counters has won the game.

Young ladies who have received no instruction in music are advised to read the answers to the cards they are about to use, at least once before playing with them; and not to use the second class till they can answer the first perfectly; and so on with the rest.

This is a boxed game with 150 cards each printed with a question about music. The answers are all contained in an accompanying booklet. The players are referred to as 'Young Ladies' at a time when boys were not usually musically trained.

There are six classes of questions concerning different aspects of written music. The rules state that: 'Young ladies who have received no instruction in music are advised to read the answers to the cards they are about to use, at least once before playing with them; and not to use the second class till they can answer the first perfectly; and so on with the rest.'

E.1808-1954