Playing Cards game deck called "Golliwog" by Thos. De La Rue & Co. Ltd., 48-card set, after designs by Florence K. Upton.
A pictorial card game. There are 48 cards with pictures from the Golliwogg books by Florence K. & Bertha Upton. There are 16 sets of 3 cards, marked with a number. The object of the game is to collect as many sets as possible
This pack of cards was used to play a game similar to Happy Families and featured characters from a popular series of books written in the 1890s and early 1900s by Bertha and Florence Upton. Bertha wrote the stories in verse and Florence drew the pictures, using as inspiration her childhood toys - a black leather faced doll she had allegedly acquired at a fair when she lived in the United States, and some wooden dolls. Although it is likely that Florence's toy was based on the Minstrel tradition in the United States, her fictional Golliwogg was a friendly, brave and adventurous character.
The stories about the Golliwogg and the Dutch dolls were written by Bertha Upton (1849-1912) and illustrated by her daughter Florence Kate Upton (1873-1922).
Playing cards from the “Golliwogg” card game illustrated by Florence Kate Upton (1873-1922) and published by Thos de la Rue & Co Ltd by arrangement with Messrs Longmans, Green & Co, c.1902.
The black faced doll came out of the American tradition of black faced minstrels (which began around 1830) in which white men and a few black men wore intense black make up and sang songs in a fake Southern accent. When it came to the UK in the late 19th century it was very popular in the Music Halls and special Minstrel shows.
