La Scatola dei Giocattoli per Imparare a Leggere, a Scrivere e a Contare
[Sampierdarena, Genoa, Italy: Alfabetiere Internazionale Pollano, [n.d., ca. 1930]. First edition. The text on the box lid notes that this game is more elaborate than other games produced at the time, being the only model with both capital letters and cursive, and with the vowels printed in a different color than the consonants (blue and red, respectively). Box (16 ” x 11”) enclosing two wooden game boards (15” x 9 ”) and wooden tiles corresponding to every letter of the alphabet (in both lowercase and capitals with cursive letters on versos, plus accented vowels) numbers zero to nine, punctuation marks, and math symbols. The verso of the box lid is also a game board. The paper-covered game boards are printed in color with images and their corresponding names (e.g., an image of a soldier is combined with “soldato”) and a space for children to copy the word using the wooden game pieces. Each letter, number, and symbol have multiple copies of each corresponding game piece. It is unclear how many corresponding pieces were issued per character (and if the number of game pieces relates to the frequency of the characters in language, like in Scrabble), but each character has between three and six pieces. Some wear and soiling to box lid and some cracking at edges. Game boards inside are quite clean and bright despite a bit of rubbing. A very good copy of this rare educational game. Wooden box with color-printed paper onlay illustrated with a scene of children playing the game. Item #17313
We could not locate any copies in commerce at this time. OCLC records no copies.
Price: $2,000.00