John Passmore “The Laughable Game of What D’Ye Buy” Card Game (12/12 Trades Cards, 61 /72 Original Letterpress Cards, Partial Instructions, NB), “Professor Punch,” c.1840s

Incomplete, but quite rare and collectible antique card game made and published by John Passmore of Great Britain, probably c.1840s. In the 1870s, the game would be made with a different look by McLoughlin Bros., but to the extent McLoughlin has been credited in some places with “creating” the game, the claim is erroneous. The McLoughlin set is “Americanized” and has McLoughlin’s unmistakable artwork, but conceptually it is the same game as the Passmore game of 30 years previous. The basic idea is that a “Conductor” is chosen, and each player is assigned a trade. The Conductor reads a story with blank spaces in it, and designates a player with a trade to fill in the blank in accordance with what is written on one of the cards for that trade. The story takes some very humorous twists and turns.

Before discussing what the game listed here includes (and what is missing), it might be helpful to begin with a description of what a complete game would have. A complete game would have 12 “trades” cards, engraved and hand colored. Each of the 12 trades cards would be accompanied by 6 of what might be called “letterpress” cards with the name of the trade to which they belong and a “product” of that trade. For example, one of trades is “Tailor” and one of the “Tailor letterpress” cards has “A Flannel Nightcap” printed on it. Again, there should be a total of 72 such cards, 6 for each trade. A complete game would also have a 20-page booklet with the rules of the game, and a wooden box with an illustrated sliding lid to house everything.

The example listed here has the following: all 12 trade cards; 61 of the original 72 letterpress cards, plus 4 handwritten “replacements”; and, pages 5-14 of the booklet. There is no box. It should also be mentioned that the examples of these cards that can be found online have design variations, not only between each other but also in a couple of respects from the set for sale here. The 12 trades are not always the same, and the borders surrounding the artwork on the trade cards differs from set to set. The trade cards measure 98mm x 63mm, and the letterpress cards measure 49mm x 63mm.

The cards are approximately 170 years old. They have the wear one would expect of cards that old, with corner and other creases and generalized wear. However, they are reasonably clean, and there are no tears; the hand coloring on the trade cards, while quite simple, is still fairly bright. The faces of all of the trade cards have been photographed to assist in evaluating condition. The trade cards have been photographed together in groups of 4, and then a couple of trade cards have been photographed with their related letterpress cards; each of the 2 trades shown with letterpress cards has one of the handwritten “replacement” letterpress cards. The pages of the booklet that remain are quite vulnerable, but are legible.

It should be mentioned that there is nothing on any of the cards, or on the pages we have of the partial book, that mentions Passmore or confirms that these are Passmore cards. The sets available for comparison online are primarily in museums or were offered some years ago at auction. Even though this set gives every appearance of being completely authentic, it would be nice to have the box or a complete set of the rules that would serve to confirm it.