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Creator:
Cotterell, J. H. (Jacob Henry), -1868
Title(s):
The paths of life / by J.H. Cotterell ; drawn on stone by C. Burton.
Published/Created:
[London] : R. Cartwright, lithogc. printer, 1, Warwick Pl., [circa 1840]
Physical Description:
1 game : hand-colored lithograph ; 55 x 64 cm, folded to 16 x 11 cm
Holdings:
Rare Books and Manuscripts
GV1199 .C68 1840
Yale Center for British Art, Gift of Ellen and Arthur Liman, Yale JD 1957
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Copyright Status:
Copyright Not Evaluated
Full Orbis Record:
http://hdl.handle.net/10079/bibid/13684237
Classification:
Three-Dimensional Artifacts
Notes:
Title and imprint from playing sheet.
Hand-colored lithograph mounted on linen and folded into twenty sections.
Enclosed in a marbled-paper slipcase bearing a printed paper label.
The "Rules and directions" for this allegorical game appear in a column down the right-hand side of the lithograph.
Date of publication from Liman.
Liman, E. Georgian and Victorian board games, pages 54-55
Shefrin, Jill. Ingenious contrivances, 6
Selected exhibitions: "Instruction and Delight: Children's Games from the Ellen and Arthur Liman Collection" (Yale Center for British Art, 17 January-23 May, 2019).
BAC: British Art Center copy includes publisher's original slipcase, with printed title label.
"Although at first glance this board looks like a simple geographic game, its actual intent was to send a moralizing message about the consequences of choosing certain paths in life. Starting from Parental Care Hall at the top (1), players spun the teetotum and if the result was a one or two, they began their life on the 'bad' road, moving through Careless Backway (2), into Careless County, passing by attractions such as Cock-Match Pit (15), and ending up in a Drunkard's Hovel (26) or Gaming Quicksands (25) in the Poverty Maze. On the other hand, players who got a three or four at the start could proceed on the 'good' road, traveling through Direction Gate (2) and Discreet County, and stopping at Good Book Pastures (6), Many Friends City (13), or Comfort Cottage (29). There were occasional opportunities to change your destiny--if you were lucky enough to land on the numbered circles in black (such as Risk Lane or Knave's Lure) you were offered a road “either into a good or bad Route”--but on the whole, it was a straight path to the bottom of the board: either to the Bottomless Pit (36) and losing the game, or to Happy Old Age Hall (37) and winning it all."--Gallery Label for Instruction and Delight: Children's Games from the Ellen and Arthur Liman Collection, 2019.
Subject Terms:
Conduct of life.
Educational games.
Geographical recreations -- Specimens.
Imaginary places.
Liman, Ellen and Arthur -- Provenance.
Form/Genre:
Games -- Great Britain.
Recreations -- Great Britain.
Board games.
Maps.
Lithographs -- Hand-colored -- 1840.
Contributors:
Burton, Charles, active 1823-1839, lithographer.
Cartwright, R. (Richard), -1865, printer.
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Instruction and Delight: Children's Games from the Ellen and Arthur Liman Collection (Yale Center for British Art, January 17, 2019-May 23, 2019) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]


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