“The first known dated game [in England] is ‘A Journey through Europe’, produced by the geographer John Jefferys in September 1759. This was to set the pattern for map games for the next eighty years, although it seems to have been over a decade before the idea was first copied by anyone else … In these games … the geometrical arrangement of the course has been replaced by a track meandering across the surface of a map, punctuated by numbered stopping-places at various cities or other places of interest” (Hill). A fascinating geographical game published by the firm of Bowles and Carver. Very few publications by the partnership survive to this day and they are particularly desirable. Carington Bowles died in 1793 and the old family business was continued by his son Henry Carington Bowles (1763-1852) and Samuel Carver, both members of the Joiners’ Company. Carver was apprenticed to Carington Bowles in 1770 and freed 1777. The Bowles family were wealthy and there was little incentive to compete with the likes of John Cary so many of their publications are scarce.

Carington Bowles first published this geographical game in 1780, an example may be found in the Bodleian Library. Entitled ‘Bowles’s British Geographical Amusement or Game of Geography’. The two side panels contain the directions to play the game and a numbered key to 114 places on the map, each with brief description. An advertisement above the title states “Where may be had, Bowles’s European Geographical Amusement, or Game of Geography, designed for the Grand Tour of Europe by Dr Nugent.” A rare survivor of a popular game of the day. Provenance: private English collection. Hill (1978) pp. 7-14. BL Maps C.44.d.22 (1795 edition).