[FRENCH BOARD GAME]; DURU, H, publisher

Le Jeu Du Portier, [The Doorman's Game]

Paris: H. Duru, 1840. Item #04338

A Remarkable Survival
H. Duru’s Apparently Unrecorded Le Jeu du Portier
Complete with All Six Hand-Colored Standing Figures and the Original Pictorial Box

[FRENCH GAME]. DURU, H., publisher. Le Jeu du Portier. [The Doorman’s Game]. Paris: H. Duru, [ca. 1840].

An exceptionally rare early French hand-colored lithographed game, complete with the original architectural playing board, all six numbered standing figures, and the original pictorial card box.

Original hand-colored lithographed board depicting the façade of a Parisian multi-story house (8 3/4 x 6 3/4 inches; 222 x 172 mm.), the upper right corner beveled as issued. Six original hand-colored lithographed cut-out figures, each mounted on its original base (average size 3 1/8 x 1 1/4 inches; 80 x 32 mm.).

Complete in the original card box, the lid bearing a hand-colored lithograph depicting the same multi-story house and titled beneath “LE JEU DU PORTIER, PAR H. DURU.” The board and figures in near fine condition; the box somewhat soiled, with the corners strengthened with cloth tape. A remarkable survival in substantially complete original condition.

The architectural board represents a vertically organized Parisian apartment house, its occupants and businesses identified floor by floor. It is lettered, from top to bottom: “No. 6”; “No. 5 / Locart Fnt Lunetier au 3me”; “No. 4 / F. Sonnet M.de Dentelles”; “No. 3 / Clagmann et Cie. Banquiers”; “No. 2”; and “No. 1 / Loge du Portier.”

The six accompanying figures correspond to the numbered hierarchy of the building and are identified as: 1. Le Portier [the doorman or concierge]; 2. Propriétaire [proprietor or landlord]; 3. Banquier [banker]; 4. Marchand [merchant]; 5. Fabricant [manufacturer]; and 6. Ouvrier [worker]. The original printed numbers and occupational designations remain visible on the bases of the figures.

The figures form a delightful miniature gallery of French social types: the prosperous Propriétaire in his vividly patterned blue coat; the top-hatted Banquier; the fashionably dressed Marchand carrying his hat; the Fabricant; the plainly dressed Ouvrier; and the Portier, the indispensable guardian of the building. Their original hand-coloring remains remarkably fresh.

More than simply a children’s amusement, Le Jeu du Portier presents in miniature a fascinating picture of nineteenth-century Parisian urban life and social hierarchy. Proprietor, banker, merchant, manufacturer, workman, and concierge are transformed into movable characters associated with a single apartment house. The game belongs to the particularly appealing nineteenth-century tradition in which children’s toys simultaneously entertained and introduced their young players to occupations, social distinctions, and the organization of contemporary life.

The choice of the portier as the central character is especially evocative. Occupying the loge at street level, the Parisian concierge stood literally at the entrance to the social world represented by the building, controlling access and observing the comings and goings of its occupants. The numbered inhabitants ascending through the building consequently provide an engaging physical representation of the social structure of nineteenth-century Paris.

H. Duru was a Parisian publisher active in the production of illustrated educational works, children’s books, puzzles, and games during the middle decades of the nineteenth century. Among Duru’s publications were Nouvelle méthode de lecture progressive, ou Lecture apprise en quarante jours, Syllabaire universel en action, Les homonymes illustrés, Grammaire illustrée, and Alphabet chantant. Duru’s activity as a publisher of games is independently confirmed by another lithographed production, Le Jeu du Touriste, preserved in the collection of the Musée des Civilisations de l’Europe et de la Méditerranée (Mucem).

The survival of the six separate standing figures together with their architectural board and original pictorial box is exceptional. The standing figures are of particularly delicate construction, consisting of thin lithographed card cut-outs mounted upright on their original bases - ephemeral playthings never intended to survive nearly two centuries of use.

We have been unable to locate another example of Le Jeu du Portier in OCLC or in the institutional collections and published references consulted. Apparently unrecorded, and possibly unique in this complete state.

A remarkable and highly evocative survival of an early French children’s game, combining hand-colored lithography, three-dimensional play, and a wonderfully detailed representation of nineteenth-century Parisian social life.

Price: $2,250.00