Neues / Bilder-Lotto / Course of life of the horse. / Nouveau lotto d'images / Het nieuwste lottospeel 1820 - 1865

This print, Neues Bilder-Lotto, or New Picture Lottery, was made by Friedrich Gustav Schulz, though we aren’t certain exactly when. It shows a kind of proto-bingo card, with many different images arranged in a grid. Prints like these were popular across Europe and the German states in the 18th and 19th centuries. They speak to the rise of print culture and a new kind of commercial leisure. Consider the imagery itself: animals, people, and everyday objects. These images would have been recognizable to a broad range of people, suggesting a growing sense of shared cultural knowledge. The lottery format also speaks to a culture of chance and speculation, perhaps reflecting new economic realities and the rise of market capitalism. To better understand the context in which these prints were made, we might consult historical trade directories, collections of printed ephemera, and studies of popular culture. The images and their arrangement speak volumes about the social and economic world of their time. Art, like this, is always contingent on such context.