The Game of SNIP: A Victorian Palour Game by H&A Mullord c1880s

MULLORD, H. & A. The Game of Snip. [London: H. & A. Mullord, circa 1880s].

Victorian boxed card game comprising 46 of 48 colour-printed pictorial cards, the original instruction sheet printed on both sides, and circular card counters, housed in the original compartmented box with an illustrated lid, priced one shilling. Twelve numbered character designs: four cards each of numbers 1-10 and three each of numbers 11 and 12, lacking one card from each of the latter groups. Cards very well preserved, with light signs of handling. Instructions lightly toned and folded. Box rubbed and soiled, split at all corners, with marks from former tape repairs, the tape itself no longer present. Overall a good example, with particularly attractive cards.

A Victorian parlour game featuring twelve characters accompanied by comic verses, including a maid, a haughty baroness, a ballet dancer, a circus performer, a colonel, a footman, Tommy Atkins, Little Bo Peep, a cabman, a flower seller and Hodge. The illustrated lid depicts Queen Victoria beneath the royal arms playing the game with her family.

The accompanying instructions provide rules for five games: Snip, Speculation, Old Maid, Snip, Snap, Snorum, and Beggar My Neighbour. Snip itself is a matching game in which the first player to call out upon spotting identical exposed cards wins the corresponding piles.