La Grammaire,– Jeu Magnetique.
(Magnetic grammar game)
Publication details: Paris, Léon Saussine,[c. 1875]
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In superb condition is this attractive magnetic game designed to teach French grammar. The player poses questions by placing the interrogative 'palette' on the central panel, causing the genie pointer to spin before alighting on one of the thirty-six colour co-ordinated answers. The questions concern French grammar of varying complexity: 'Deffinissez le substantif propre', for example, or 'Comment se forme le pluriel dans les adjectifs'. The cover design of King Charlemagne in a school room ('Charlemagne fonde les premires coles') references the Carolingian Schools, by which he implemented far-reaching educational reforms.The game was developed and published by Lon Saussine, an important French producer of games, shadow theatres and other book-adjacent paraphernalia. He succeeded in 1860 to Hugues-Marie Duru, the Parisian publisher, professor and bookseller who had been making educational games (albeit not as advanced as the present effort) for at least a couple of decades. Saussine continued this tradition, but developed this magnetic question-and-answer format, for which he received a patent in 1870. He usually out sourced the lithography, as here, to Roche, but oversaw the assembly and distribution of the games from his warehouse. He exhibited at the Unicversal Expoisition of 1878, as a manufacturer of educational and social games in cardboard (itself a cutting-edge technology). He later moved to a new shop in the Marais, and was succeeded by his widow and sons. The magnetic games were on various topics, including French history and world geography. For a nineteenth-century child (as for a modern-day user) playing this game was doubtless a thoroughly magical experience. It significantly leavens the experience of learning French grammar.