A game for children with 48 scenes 1865

This game for children with 48 scenes was created by Antonio Bosch, probably in Spain, sometime in the late nineteenth century. It's made from paper, and printed with engravings. So, quite a cheap method of production, and typical of popular imagery at the time. The material of this print is important. Being a printed image, it would have been relatively quick to produce, and could be sold at a very low price. The images themselves are very small and close together, so there is an implied sense of abundance. They are laid out in a grid of scenes that suggest a variety of social interactions. Some seem quite innocent, while others hint at a more complex world of power and social status. This was the world that children were being prepared to enter, and the artist offered them a chance to make sense of it all. In that respect, the work blurs the boundary between gameplay and real life. It gives us a direct insight into the values that were being taught to children at this time. It shows us that even the most humble printed ephemera can serve as a window onto the wider culture.