Edwardian Airship Racing Game

Voyage en ballon dirigeable a travers l’Europe

No rule sheet, but fairly self explanatory: the board is a simplified map of Europe with vignettes of famous landmarks such as the Brandenburg Gate. The game starts and finishes in Berlin, and hazards include foul weather and fire. 

Saussine exhibited at the third Paris World’s Fair in 1878 as an educational and parlour games publisher. After his death in 1896, the company was run by his widow and then his sons.

Condition & Materials

Airship race game, board 36.5 x 38.5 cm, box label 26.5 x 19 cm, both printed in colours, neither laid down on cardboard, trivial loss to bottom left hand corner of board, affecting red margin only. nk stamp of Parisian bookseller C.F. Labarre to verso of box label. 

References

The example in the Musée des Civilisations de l'Europe et de la Méditerranée in Marseille (inventory number 1990.39.28.2) is attributed to Parisian publisher Léon Saussine.