Old Fashioned Skittles Game
by Kym Backland
Title
Old Fashioned Skittles Game
Artist
Kym Backland
Medium
Photograph
Description
This is a handmade Wooden Skittles Game! It's been in the family for over 65 years. It's pretty fun you wind the string on the top, and depending on how tight you wind your string, and how fast you let go of you top, and how many pins, you top takes down, depends if you win or not... some pins are wroth more than other pens.. It's pretty fun, once you get the hang of it!
The author initially heard about this game from Americans who wrote to say they were trying to find a supplier of the game. Apparently it has been handed down the generations in North America for more than a century. The game consists of a several small rooms laid out on a board - designs vary somewhat. Skittles are positioned amongst the rooms and a top is then sent spinning from one end of the table in an effort to topple as many of the skittles as possible. Each skittle scores (or sometimes deducts) differing numbers of points and success is largely a matter of luck.
As the author has discovered more and more about the game it's apparent that a great deal of uncertainty reigns, not least as to precisely what the game should be called. In the USA, it is somewhat confusingly known simply as "Skittles" - this is possible because Americans don't play the original game of Skittles or Nine Pins - only ten pin bowling, it's direct ancestor. One person wrote to say that the game was called "Racketeer" while another wrote to say that he was attempting to restore an old game believed to be French from around 1850 and that the English owner from whom it had been bought referred to it as "Devil amongst the Tinkers". More research has established that the game is alive and still popular in France, Belgium and Holland. In France it's known as "Table à Toupie" (literally Table with Top) although one vendor also refers to it as "Jeu de Roi" (Game of Kings) and in The Netherlands it's called "Toptafel".
Then, in Aug 2001, an auction house wrote with a picture of an exquisite gaming table featuring a wealth of different games. The table is from France during the reign of Charles X, dated approximately 1820. One of the games (shown on the right) was the most beautiful Table a Toupie game with multiple intricate brass fitments and little bells to ring as well as skittles to topple. It is a piece that would have certainly originally belonged to French nobility.
The final piece of evidence discovered so far is from the famous book by Joseph Strutt - "Sports and Pastimes of the English people". From his text, believed to have been first published in 1801, comes a description of a game called "Devil Amongst the Tailors". But instead of the game with the ball and pole, Strutt describes in some detail (and, in fact, with some scorn - he obviously considered it to be a game worthy only of children) Table à Toupie! So like many games of this era, it seems likely to have originated in England or France but it's not clear which. Interestingly, though, while the French still apparently manufacture and play the game, it's now all but unheard of within the British Isles.
Rules
Description and rules for Devil Amongst the Tailors, Hood Skittles and Daddlums are available for free from Masters Traditional Games
Where to Buy Table Skittles
You can buy a Table Skittles (Devil amongst the Tailors) game from Masters Traditional Games. Full size Skittles sets and Northamptonshire Skittles equipment is also for sale as is the rare Toptafel game.
Uploaded
July 30th, 2012
Statistics
Viewed 2,060 Times - Last Visitor from Romeo, MI on 03/28/2024 at 9:00 PM
Embed
Share
Sales Sheet
Comments (5)
Neil Patterson
I have that game - imported from Japan in the 1930s and known as "Pin Top". Hours of good clean family fun!
Nick Cherney
That plan is being sold http://berea-college-crafts-605257.shoplightspeed.com//games/skittles-game/ A smaller oe with a different layout can be found on amazon. Thank you kindly for the article!
Patricia Overmoyer
Hey! I've got one of those!! It's a great game! And your photo definitely does it justice! :)
Kym Backland replied:
Patricia, Thanks for leaving a message! Isn't it fun? I know it's not video game.. but it's old fashioned fun... It takes skill to get good at it, doesn't it?