After Lawn Tennis captured the fancies of Victorian era society, the game designers and manufacturers were quick to realize the "piggy-back" sales potential of parlor games based on tennis. In the 1880s and '90s a wide variety of experimental parlor tennis games began to appear: board games, card games, racket & balloon games, tiddledy winks played on a miniature felt tennis court (the most numerous variation), block puzzles, dexterity games, table tether ball games … and action games for the garden, floor or table.

Most all of these 19th century games were short lived and very rare now. But the attempts have continued throughout the 20th century, a tribute to the human imagination and entrepreneurial spirit. The only parlor game to persevere has been Table Tennis, now an official Olympic sport.

The boxed games usually had brightly colored box lid lithographs to attract the customer. The game collector market has increased dramatically over the years, with some prices reaching fantastic levels, largely due to the old fashioned color lithographed artworks on the lids and components.

This section of the Collection is well endowed with rare games from the 19th century, most of which can still be played today. The Collection also includes some fascinating examples made from the early 1900s to the 1950s.

Captions for selected games:

1. "Lawn Tennis" c. 1880 by J.H.Singer (New York) This is an ill-conceived board game with beautiful color lithography on the box lid and the playing board, which is the bottom half of the box. Small wooden mallets were used to strike a wood disk back & forth across the illustrated tennis court. This rare game is the earliest known American parlor game based on Lawn Tennis. The charming box lid image is available in our Tennis Heritage Shop in both note card and post card formats.

2. "Card Tennis" 1887 by J.H.Singer (New York) Another early attempt by Singer to produce a tennis parlor game. This very rare game features 4 types of playing cards "Serve" "Return" "Volley" and "Net", along with 5 larger cards used for the playing board. Each card has beautiful color lithographed Lawn Tennis scenes with players in period costume.

3. "Tiddledy Wink Tennis" 1890 by E.I.Horsman Jr. This is the earliest of the many Tiddledy Wink adaptations of Lawn Tennis, played on a miniature felt tennis court with a standing net. Horsman was also a major producer of fine Lawn Tennis rackets and boxed sets in 19th century America - see the Racket Collection for some outstanding examples of Horsman equipment. The Tiddledy Winks Tennis idea was copied and revived by game makers well into the 20th century.

4. "Improved Parlor Tennis" 1890 by E.I.Horsman Jr. This is the exact same game as Horsman's "Tiddledy Wink Tennis" (1890) dressed up with a new title and a color lithographed box lid. Steam powered presses and coal tar dyes made it possible to produce color lithographs at a reasonable cost, and the attractive box lids helped sell more products.

5. "Tiddldy-Wink Tennis" 1899 by Parker Brothers This is another 19th century variation on a Tiddldy Winks theme made by one of the giants of the game industry. It was played on a miniature felt court using small wooden rackets to propel the wink to and fro over the standing net.

6. "Pillow-Dex Tennis" 1897 Parker Brothers This was a popular parlor game featuring 2 strung rackets and a large net designed to be tied between the backs of 2 chairs. A balloon was batted back & forth over the next, but the balloon was asymmetrical, causing some strange and unexpected angles when struck. Parker Brothers also made a game of "Pillow-Dex" (1896) in which the hands were used to bat the balloon around. A clever game with a gorgeous box lid color lithograph. Very rare.

7. "Balloon" 1889 R. Bliss This is another early game using balloons, featuring an amazing pair of cane rackets strung in spider web style! A large wooden hoop structure was assembled, such that the balloons could be propelled to & fro through the hoop, points scored when one opponent misses the hoop. A very rare game housed in a large wooden box with colorful box lid lithograph, made by R. Bliss, who also made fine tennis equipment in 19th century America.

8. A group of Dexterity Games c. 1900+ The object of these games is to roll the tiny balls into the small indentations - easy to guide one ball, but tricky to manage 4 or 5 balls at the same time, requiring some dexterity. Colorful Lawn Tennis scenes were used to attract the customer, and the bottom surfaces are mirrors.

9. 2 Block Puzzles c. 1900 Made in Germany Block puzzles offered popular parlor recreation, as they had 6 colorful puzzle scenes using the 6 sides of the block cubes. Tennis theme puzzle scenes are very rare.

10. "Nintendo" c. 1950 (?) by Disney (Japan) This is a very rare pre-electronics era game of Nintendo with colorful Disney graphics. A swiveling pinball style shooter is used to propel a marble ball up the slant and onto the center court plateau. If the ball fails to rest on one of the scoring holes, it rolls down the opponent's slant, to be caught by the webbed shooter and returned up the slant, etc.