Eugen Sue's Der ewige Jude

Game, ca. 1840. 6 + 2 playing cards (hand coloured copper engr.), with German, English, and French text. + 8 contemporary throwing dice and hand written rules of the game. In original illustrated cardboard box, in beautiful condition.

Variant to the popular game "Boerenschroom" (Papertoys, Buijnsters, p. 296). *Loosely based on Eugene Sue's novel. The novel is about the way an inheritance is divided, and the evil role the Jesuits play in this process: the heirs are all robbed of their share in the inheritance. The German game appears to be anti-Jewish rather than anti-Jesuit. The game is actually a play dice game: the cards only function to determine the different roles of the players. The Jew and the Jesuit take centre-stage, the other players are 'heirs'. Most dice have a picture on one side only; whomever throws 'without eyes' usually has to pay, which is generally to the benefit of the Jew, and occasionally the Jesuit. At the end of the game, most 'Penningen' go to the Jew, which will not have contributed much to his popularity...