Solitaire; English; 1940s

Design: circular board of moulded green plastic with a ridge around the edge, 33 round hollows; 17 black plastic marbles, 16 red plastic marbles, contained in 2 compartments on the side.
No. illustrated: none

Given by Mary Kempson

Said to have been invented by an imprisoned French nobleman and first introduced into England towads the end of the 18th century.
Games of the World and How to Play give full details.

Lid illustration shows parents and a girl playing the game at a table in front of a window with a star light night sky beyond.

No. of Players: one or more
Equipment required: playing surface and balls

Rules: BASIC RULES

There can be two aims to the game - the first to clear the board of all the pieces and the second to try and position the pieces into a specific pattern. The playing surface is a special board and set of pegs or marbles made of ivory, bone, wood and later plastic. The traditional French board is octagonal and has 37 holes to accomodate the same number of pegs. the traditional English board is circular and has 33 holes or hollows, usually to accomodate the same number of marbles (33). Often there is a channel running around the outer edge to hold eliminated pieces. Some games required all the pieces, others only a certain number. The pieces are positioned before the start of the game.

French Layout English Layout
* * * * * *
* * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * 19 IS CENTRE * * * * * * * 17 IS CENTRE HOLE
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * HOLE * * *
* * * * * *

PLAY
Pieces are moved in the same manner in all solitaire games. Each peg or marble is jumped over an adjoining pieces to an empty space beyond - the piece that has been jumped over is then removed from the board. Pieces may only be moved horizontally or vertically.
The game is considered won only if its objective has been exactly met. For example the standard game is a success only if the board has beencompletely cleared of all but one of the pieces. Although some games can be won by more than one method, a player will usually have to take numerous attempts until he has worked out a winning solution.

Standard Solitaire
The objective of the basic colitaire is the same whichever type of board is used. The players tries to clear the board so that at the end of the game only one piece is left, either in the central hole or in some other hole predetermined by the player.

Play starts from the centre of the board, after the middle piece has been removed. It is vital that no pieces are left isolated from the others during play as t
y cannot then be cleared. if a player wishes, the board can be cleared from some other chosen starting point leaving the central hole filled and removing a piece from elsewhere on the board in order to make a starting point.

STANDARD MOVES CAN BE:-

5-17, 12-10, 3-11, 18-6, 1-3, 3-11, 30-18, 27-25, 24-26, 13-27,27-25, 22-24,31-23, 16-28,33-31,31-23,4-16, 7-9,10-8,21-7,7-9, 24-10, 10-8,8-22, 22-24, 24-26, 19-17, 16-18, 11-25, 26-24, 29-17.

r turner ltd, london, n16. made in england

MISC.191-1988