French Mechanical "Jeu de Course" Eight-Horse Racing Parlour...
French Mechanical "Jeu de Course" Eight-Horse Racing Parlour Game, circa 1900–1925, early 20th-century French mechanical horse-racing parlour or betting game, commonly known as a "Jeu de Course", constructed in painted metal with eight hand-painted racehorses and jockeys, the circular game is housed within a substantial black-painted drum-form base edged in metal and surrounded by an ornamental pierced perimeter railing, within are concentric ochre-painted racing tracks arranged around a raised green central field, the course ornamented with numerous slender posts supporting decorative undulating overhead rails or gates, eight individually modelled and painted metal horses with jockeys are mounted on vertical operating rods at intervals around the course, each shown at full gallop, at the centre stands a large metal pedestal bowl, characteristic of French horse-racing gambling games of the period and intended to receive stakes or counters, a projecting side control is associated with the internal mechanical racing mechanism, approximately 470 mm diameter.* Literature: When operated, games of this type set the horses travelling around their respective tracks, the mechanism ultimately stopping unpredictably to determine the winning horse and therefore the successful wager. Comparable French examples were produced as sophisticated domestic and café or parlour amusements during the opening decades of the 20th century.
[ translate ]French Mechanical "Jeu de Course" Eight-Horse Racing Parlour Game, circa 1900–1925, early 20th-century French mechanical horse-racing parlour or betting game, commonly known as a "Jeu de Course", constructed in painted metal with eight hand-painted racehorses and jockeys, the circular game is housed within a substantial black-painted drum-form base edged in metal and surrounded by an ornamental pierced perimeter railing, within are concentric ochre-painted racing tracks arranged around a raised green central field, the course ornamented with numerous slender posts supporting decorative undulating overhead rails or gates, eight individually modelled and painted metal horses with jockeys are mounted on vertical operating rods at intervals around the course, each shown at full gallop, at the centre stands a large metal pedestal bowl, characteristic of French horse-racing gambling games of the period and intended to receive stakes or counters, a projecting side control is associated with the internal mechanical racing mechanism, approximately 470 mm diameter.* Literature: When operated, games of this type set the horses travelling around their respective tracks, the mechanism ultimately stopping unpredictably to determine the winning horse and therefore the successful wager. Comparable French examples were produced as sophisticated domestic and café or parlour amusements during the opening decades of the 20th century.
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