I don't think it is older than around 1970 but I do love the graphics because they are probably a reproduction of an originalīoard which to me looks likes a style from the 1920's or 1930's.
From the type of materials used to make the board I am sending you a photo of a snakes and ladders game that I own. I was recently looking up the history of one of my beloved games Snakes & Ladders when I came across your website. Victoria and Albert Museum has a page up for the year of the snake: Museum of Childhood, a division of the Victoria & Albert museum, has a good page on Snakes and Ladders as well. Beautiful history site-typical of museums in the U.K to provide great photos, info and links.
Hampshire County museum's Board Games page in their Toys and Games collection. Though their comment was to be that Snakes and Ladders goes up, down and all around, the way the numbers are set on the board, that's "boustrophedon"-as an ox turns to plough-to the right, then to the left, then to the right. Some scripts were read from right to left (Hebrew and Arabic), others in columns, from top to bottom (Chinese and Japanese) a few were read in pairs of vertical columns (Mayan) some had alternate lines read in opposite directions, back and forth-a method called boustrophedon, "as an ox turns to plough", in ancient Greek.Yet others meandered across the page like a game of Snakes and Ladders, the direction being signalled by lines or dots (Aztec).Īlberto Manguel, Chapter 2 of A History of Reading (New York Viking, 1996). The direction in which the eyes were supposed to follow these reels of letters varied from place to place and from age to age the way we read a text today in the Western world-from left to right and from top to bottom-is by no means universal. Here's a comment on the back and forth direction:īecause books were mainly read out loud, the letters that composed them did not need to be separated into phonetic unities, but were strung together in continuous sentences. The virtues (Hindu) are named there, and some of the English substitutions.īoard Game Geek has a page on this game, and just about every other boardgame you could think of. Called Snakes and Ladders, the game play was pretty much the same but some of the vices and virtues were renamed according to Victorian ideals. The morality of the game must have appealed to the Victorians, who took to the game when it was published in 1892 in England. Presumably the last square, 100, represents Nirvana. The game is Hindu and was used to teach children about the religion in that the good squares allow a player to ascend higher in the league of life whereas evil will reduce a player back through reincarnation to lower tiers of life. If anyone sees the sleds and toboggans as wrapping paper, please e-mail me! They also have had one from the turn of the century (not THIS century, 19th to 20th) withĬats, which I own as a piece of wrapping paper I had laminated. They must've scored a French printshop warehouse from 100 years ago, because they have several game boards being sold as posters-the printed paper, not mounted on board.
I've never owned a Chutes and Ladders game, but does someone who owns one want to write and say whether they credit it as traditional? (I'm guessing they don't.) The art.com website below even refers to two games they have from the late 19th century as "chutes and ladders spinoffs." Yikes, no! The game itself is very old, and "Chutes and Ladders" is a(nother) American claim to copyright something traditional. Many Americans haven't even heard of it, and think it's a "wrong" name for Chutes and Ladders. I've always thought Snakes and Ladders was a beautiful game, and it comes in lots of versions. Images of an English board and its box lid have been added below and the owner has questions. Here's a motivational article using Snakes and Ladders as a basis: Snakes & Ladders – The Game Of Life.