Quartermaine Hall

Artisan: Zena Coffield (Zena’s Miniatures)
Date: 2022
Dimensions: 6 x 17 x 30 mm. / ¼ x ⅝ x 1 ⅛ inches (height x width x depth, of box)
Inventory number: 2022.223
Intended Room: Day Nursery
Category: Toys & Games

Provenance: Purchased directly from the artist’s Etsy shop

Jules Verne’s 1872 novel Around the World in 80 Days captured the imagination of many children and armchair travellers, but it also led to criticism in the press. Circumnavigating the world in eighty days simply wasn’t possible, according to the naysayers. Certainly, M. Verne told a good story, but that’s all it was: fiction. Elizabeth Cochrane (known as Nellie Bly) begged to differ. She was a journalist for the New York World, a thoroughly modern woman, and, at the age of twenty-five, she decided to put the story to the test. Off she went, managing to complete her own journey around the world in seventy-two days. She enjoyed instant celebrity, and was considered by some to be the most famous woman in the world (after Queen Victoria, one imagines). Her popularity is shown by the publication of this board game in 1890, probably rushed out very soon after her return to capitalise on public interest.

Published by the prolific New York firm of the McLoughlin Brothers, this game came with a spinner and counters. The first to reach the end of the board won, but players might land on squares that either hindered or helped them, adding a further degree of unpredictability.