Turn-of-the-century humorous game of chance comprised of six large chromolithographed caricature-style figures which slide up and down along a scoring track, two brown cardboard dice cups, a bag of small cardboard number tokens or counters, and a special die with the numbers 1-3 in white and in red. Box measures 15 3/4 x 12 1/4 x 2 inches. Original wood and cardboard box with lithographed illustration to lid depicting a racist stereotype of a Black man and a circus clown standing on a ball signed E. Serre, printed rules in French affixed to underside of lid. Overall good condition, lid of box damaged and roughly repaired with tape, overall very good. Paris: Saussine, n.d. (circa 1900). A printed label affixed to the underside of the box lid give the instructions and rules for gameplay. Each player gives an agreed-upon number of tokens to the "bank" and receives in exchange a character. The characters in this game include a jockey, a postman, a matador, a farmer, a soldier, and a "tribal" style Black man in front of a hut wearing a colorful headdress. The scoring trackers start at zero, and on their turn, each player rolls the die. If the number shows up as white, they lose that many points and lower their character; if red, they raise their character that many points. During the course of the game, the "dwarf" becomes a "giant" or vice-versa, hence the title of the game. If the player's character reaches the extreme bottom of the tracker, they must pay extra tokens to the bank. Whoever reaches the top of their tracker first wins the game and receives the winnings.
Eugene Serre (1881-1964) was one of the greatest illustrators working at Saussine. Aside from games, he was also known for his designs for wine and perfume bottle labels and advertisements. Although not much is known about him, he is credited with helping to create a recognizable "Saussine style" for the games produced by the publisher during the first 30 or so years of the 30th century.
As of June 2026, OCLC only locates a single holding of this game in an institutional library.
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