Card game and box, Punch and Judy, Pepys Game, made in England 1955-1965

Design: cad printed in quite harsh colours with a base colour of dark pink; reverse sides printed in dark pink to show a Punch and Judy booth
No. of cards: 34
No. illustrated: all

This is a simple rummy game with the overall winner decided by an agreed score or number of games played.

No. of Players: 2 to 8
Equipment required: 34 cards arranged in 8 sets of 4 with a single Punch and a single Judy card; the cards show various characters and the cards are named
rules card
original box, printed in white and dark pink with a matching card on one side.

Rules:
PUNCH AND JUDY A SIMPLE RUMMY GAME FOR 2 TO 8 PLAYERS
There are 34 cards in the pack. On eachcard is a picture of a Punch and Judy character.
There is 1 Punch and 1 Judy card and 4 each of the following:- Dog Toby, The Baby, The Beadle, The Policeman, The Crocodile, Jack Ketch, Joey the Clown, Jim Crow.

The object of the game is to be the first to dispose of all the cards in one's hand, by laying down a set or sets of 3 or 4 of the same character.
The cads are first shuffled and then dealt as follows:-
For 2 or 3 players deal 7 cards each
For 4 players deal 6 cards each
For 5 or 6 players deal 4 cards each
For 7 or 8 players deal 3 cards each
The remainder of the pack is placed face downwards in the centre of the table.

Players look at their cards and the player to the left of the dealer begins by taking a card from the centre stack. If he is able to make up a set of 3 or 4 similar characters he will lay out the set face upwards on the table in front of him. He then discards one card from his hand, which he places face upwards beside the centre stack. This ends his turn.
Play passes to the next in turn. He has the choice of taking the top card of the centre stack or the discard of the previous player. He lays down if he can and discards, and the play passes on to each player in turn.
If a player, having laid down a set of 3, picks up the 4th card of that set, he may add it to his set of 3.
The Punch and Judy cards are Jokers and can be used by the players as any character, either to make a set of 3 or 4, or to add to a set of 3 he himself has already laid down.
When all the cards of the centre stack have been drawn the stack of discards is taken, shuffled and placed face down in the centre to become the new centre stack. This should be done before the player who took the last card of the centre stack has discarded.
The winner of the hand is the player who first disposes of all the cards in his hand. He scores 1 point for every card still in the hands of the other players.
The winner of the game is the player who first scores 50 or any agreed number of points.

This card game published by Pepys between 1955 and 1965 is a simple version of Rummy. The cards are illustrated with characters from the Punch and Judy show as performed in the mid twentieth century, each pictured within the brightly coloured frame of the booth.

Some of the characters in this set depict negative racial stereotypes, and these characters are not included in contemporary performances.

B.259:1-1996