John Bull
“John Bull”, the Capital English Game published by W. Cremer, c.1865.
W Cremer was an importer and manufacturer of toys and games at 27 New Bond Street, London in c.1860 and his son W H Cremer junior at 210 Regent Street from c.1861-c.1880. “John Bull” - based on the satirical personification of the United Kingdom by Dr. John Arbuthnot - is a quartet card game similar to Happy Families consisting of 64 original, humorous cartoons organised into family groups of four cards. See the Instructions►
[[$gallery?xl=`2`]]The game has a total of 16 families, and a selection of the remaining family cards is shown below.

Above: “John Bull”, the Capital English Game published by W. Cremer, c.1865. 64 cards + instructions in cardboard box. The cards are very large = 76mm x 114mm. Backs are plain uncoloured. Earlier editions are known in wooden boxes. Images courtesy Rex Pitts.
REFERENCES

By Rex Pitts (1940-2021)
Member since January 30, 2009
Rex's main interest was in card games, because, he said, they were cheap and easy to get hold of in his early days of collecting. He is well known for his extensive knowledge of Pepys games and his book is on the bookshelves of many.
His other interest was non-standard playing cards. He also had collections of sheet music, music CDs, models of London buses, London Transport timetables and maps and other objects that intrigued him.
Rex had a chequered career at school. He was expelled twice, on one occasion for smoking! Despite this he trained as a radio engineer and worked for the BBC in the World Service.
Later he moved into sales and worked for a firm that made all kinds of packaging, a job he enjoyed until his retirement. He became an expert on boxes and would always investigate those that held his cards. He could always recognize a box made for Pepys, which were the same as those of Alf Cooke’s Universal Playing Card Company, who printed the card games. This interest changed into an ability to make and mend boxes, which he did with great dexterity. He loved this kind of handicraft work.
His dexterity of hand and eye soon led to his making card games of his own design. He spent hours and hours carefully cutting them out and colouring them by hand.
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