A Railroad Stock Market Inspired Card Game
Gavitt's Stock Exchange ... The Great College and Society Card Game ... Corner the Burlesque Stock Market.
Topeka, Kansas: W. W. Gavitt Printing and Publishing Co, 1904.
Complete set of 49 playing cards (each measuring 3 1/4 by 2 3/8 inches, printed on both sides, with pictorial rectos printed in red, depicting a smoke-spewing locomotive, stating within the smoke: "Gavitt's Stock Exchange...", with 1903 copyright on each card), plus three folded inserts of instructions and ads. A Railroad Stock Market Inspired Card Game. Original box. Some splits and creases to box, the cards in very fine condition Item #325354
The complete set of 49 cards, consisting of one "Telegram" card and 48 broker cards-- broker cards consist of six sets (of eight cards each), each designated with the name of a different railroad company and it's dollar value (e.g. Santa Fe R.R. $250, N.Y. Cent'l R.R. $200, C. B. & Q. R.R. $125, etc.). Players exchange the cards (i.e. trade stocks), in an attempt to corner the market on a particular railroad. Also present, with the complete set of 49 cards, is the original instruction sheet, and three individual sheets printing promotional material about the game and its maker, Harry E. Gavitt. All the sheets are folded and housed, with the cards, in the original grayish-lavender printed box (as issued).
"This game amuses, pleases and entertains... An imitation of and a reproduction on a small scale of the excitement and confusion generally witnessed in the great stock and grain pits of the World" (from the box). When it was first published, 'Gavitt's Stock Exchange' game rose to become one of the best-selling games in America. It is considered by some to be the first "simultaneous action" set game, where all the players play in unison. It was also the basis of a similar game, 'Pit,' first published by Parker Brothers in 1904, which become equally as popular. Uncommon, with OCLC locates only three holdings of Gavitt's Stock Exchange: Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library, University of Kansas Archives, and the Winterthur Museum.
Price: $1,200.00 Free International Delivery
