bagatelle exhibit + lecture at the Field House Museum

There will be a talk about bagatelle on 2022-08-10!  (that's tomorrow, as I write this)

FB event link, eventbrite link (use the eventbrite link to reserve for the lecture!)
remember, it is 2pm EST

I've been writing back and forth with James for a year or so and I'm super excited for this talk!   He runs the store Masters Traditional Games and the wonderful resource site TradGames: The Online Guide to Traditional Games

Join the Field House Museum on Wednesday, August 10, at 1:00 pm for a Speaker Series that takes Bagatelle from the parlor to the arcade. Gaming expert and creator of the Online Guide to Traditional Games website, James Masters, will join us via Zoom, all the way from the UK! Masters will share his passion and interest in the evolution of the table game through to pinball. For those joining us in person for the watch party, explore our main gallery exhibit, "Bagatelle," after the presentation.

This presentation will primarily take place on Zoom, but the Field House Museum will host a small watch party during the event. Reservations must be made in advance through Eventbrite, by calling the Museum at 314-421-4689, or by emailing info@fieldhousemuseum.org.

About the Speaker:

James Masters has been into the history, mathematics, strategy, camaraderie, rules, and even the playing of games since early childhood. His interests tend to whirl around pub games, table games, ancient board games, and how games of all sorts evolve over time. Author of the Online Guide to Traditional Games website and maintainer of the Games Research Database, most recently, he has completed a paper on the medieval sport of Loggats and an article on the ancient Egyptian game of Mehen for the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge.

The Field House Museum in St. Louis, MO is currently hosting a marvelous exhibition of bagatelles from Ed Nickel's collection.  Here are a few pictures that were sent to me by Ed:

And from the Field House Museum staff:

Between the knowledge of Ed Nickels in the USA, James Masters in the UK, Wayne Morgan in Canada, and Kazuo Sugiyama in Japan, we are piecing together a robust history of bagatelle and related table games.

We do need someone from Finland to discuss the history of Fortunaa, perhaps...