[late 1850s][unknown], Edinburgh, Scotland.
Despite its French title, this game was made in Scotland for an English-speaking audience. France supported Scotland through centuries of conflict with England; this game was produced during a renewed interest in French relations due to the two nations’ alliance during the Crimean War (1853–1856).
The buildings clustered around the center of the board are Parisian monuments; the scenes around the outside each represent the rule of a different French king.
The figures at top are the French Emperor Napoleon III and his wife, Empress Eugénie de Montijo. While his image is copied from an official 1853 portrait by the famed artist Franz Xaver Winterhalter, Eugénie’s does not resemble any famous portrait of her (and indeed, does not particularly resemble her at all.)
The military scene at bottom is likely from the Battle of Balaclava (25 October, 1854), which went down in history thanks to Lord Tennyson’s poem “The Charge of the Light Brigade.”
Gift of Ellen Liman ‘57
