Miniature Card Dominoes

Anyone who has read any of my articles will have realised that I am a big Goodall & Son fan. Great designs, wonderful quality and built to last. (Shame about the takeover, but it was along time ago!) This small item demonstrates all three attributes of a Goodall product. It is a miniature set of domino cards (5.9 x 3.5 cms) still in perfect condition.

Above: a miniature set of Goodall domino cards (5.9 x 3.5 cms), 1904.

It carries the Goodall logo on the box which contains the 28 domino cards with characteristic gilt edges and a red and gold patterned back. What I love in particular about this set is the corner indices. It was several hundred years of card players struggling to check their hands before corner indices became established in the second half of the 19 th century. No such problem for players using these domino cards who could happily make a fan and check their holding with ease.

And, as if to underline the quality and concern about detail, the box still contains this tiny slip which encourages unhappy customers to complain and helpfully provides the production date as 13th April 1904.

Jeu de Dominos Grotesques

Above: illustration from “Récréations et passe-temps” by Henry-René d'Allemagne, Hachette & Cie, 1906. Source gallica.bnf.fr / Bibliothèque nationale de France.