If you are familiar with the board game Life, you might be surprised to learn that while it has roots in the 1860’s the two games are very different in its goals and rules of play. In 1860, Milton Bradley produced the Checkered Game of Life board game, launching his career in board games. It sold out in the first year with a first run of 45,000 and was immensely popular for offering families of all ages an alternative to card games and devoid of the temptations of gambling dice. Multigenerational families could spend leisure time promoting moral, ethical behavior while playing a game. The Museum of Play describes the game as “combining chance and skill to negotiate life's many challenges, players traversed a checkered board of colored squares representing the virtues of honor, truth, and temperance, or the vices of idleness, crime, and drink.”
The game was drastically updated and revised as Game of Life in 1960 to meet the expectations of baby boomers and their parents to play for play money, a dream job, car, spouse, and kids.
Holiday or Christmas ornament, four small blown glass balls and tinsel chenille formed into a quartrefoil shape. Balls all have an opening at top and bottom to allow wire to pass through. Balls are silvered glass, two with overcoat of gold and two with overcoat of magenta. No mark.
Long, rectangular lidded box or trunk with scrolled hasp lock at center of one long side, oval wire handle pinned at center of stamped lid top, and two hinges at back. Lid has a wire-rolled rim, while the box has a folded top edge with wire bead below and a flat bottom. Both lid and box are made of five pieces. Tinned interior. No marks.
High-shouldered, cylindrical canister with a friction-fit, low-domed cover folded along its bottom edge; modern red paint. Both the rounded shoulder and cover have horizontal, overhanging, folded edges. The canister is made in six pieces, the collar has a soft-soldered lapped seam, the shoulder is stamped as a single piece, the body has three, folded, vertical seams and the flat bottom has a folded edge. No marks.
Double-pointed gas iron trivet with the model and manufacturer's names cast in around "H 2 H", each in its own circle, at center. Four peg legs; no handle. Closed railing.
Maker is The General Specialty Co. of Buffalo, NY; dates in business needs further research. George A. Humphrey of New York, NY, received U.S. Patent No. 1063350 on 3 June 1913 for his "Self-Heating Sad-Iron".
Handleless baluster measure with a tapered, galleried rim and molded, flared base; gill size. One pair of incised lines at top and bottom of body; line visible at seam. Front of body is stamped "GILL" in incuse serif letters with a partial square mark to left. Crowned "X" on bottom exterior. At least thirteen unidentified verification marks are around rim exterior, including several circles containing a crowned Hibernian harp between "[?]R" over the numbers "303" and "245", and a partial mark with the word "DUB[LIN?]" in incuse sans serif letters.
Large, conical coffeepot with a high-domed, flared-edge, hinged lid topped by cast and applied oak leaves and a spurred, bead-decorated, S curve cast handle with conical sockets soft-soldered opposite the cast S curve spout at the vertical folded seam. Body has single raised beads near rim and base and is perforated at spout. Slightly concave, attached bottom has a rolled edge and foot ring. No marks.
Skimmer, spoon-shaped with short handle. Curved, molded handle, with oval-shaped hole at end for hanging. Shallow, circular bowl, solid with small circular punctures to form diamond pattern in center. Handle is loose. No mark.
Handleless baluster measure with a tapered, galleried rim and flared base; half gill or quarter noggin size. One pair of incised lines at top and bottom of body; line visible at seam. Body is stamped "1/2 GILL" on one side and "1/[4?] NOGGIN" on the opposite side, both in incuse serif letters. Rim exterior with verification mark of a crowned Hibernian harp between "ER" over "542" to the left of the number "16". Crowned "X" in a clipped-corner rectangle on bottom exterior.
Two-pint can with tapered strap side handle topped by a low-domed, arched strap-handled cover. Can made in four pieces: a short, wire-rimmed, soft-soldered lapped-seam neck; seamless breast; cylindrical, folded-seam body; and flat bottom crimped at underedge, all joined by folded seams. Cover has folded edge and lapped-seam collar. Both handles have wire-reinforced, rolled-over edges and are soldered in place. No marks.
Silvery gray, cast trivet for a triangular or single-point iron with the model and manufacturer's names cast in around a depiction of the iron at center. Three peg legs; no handle. Railing on two sides, open at toe and closed at heel corners.
Lidless bulbous or bellied measure with a beaded, galleried rim and cast circular flared foot; half gill size. Center bead flanked by a pair of thick and thin incised lines at shoulder. Tapered, S-scroll handle with incurved thumbrest and lower pointed terminal with oval attachment at seam. Front of body stamped "1/2GILL" in incuse sans serif letters. Front of rim with a crowned "ER" verification mark for London County ("386 / LCC").