Bagatelle
Board Games Shop
Bagatelle is a traditional wooden handmade indoor Pub game.
The game is played in a similar way to Billiards. The object of the game of wooden bagatelle is to get a set number of small metal balls (usually nine) past the bagatelle pins in the handmade table and in to holes' each of which carry a score.
The game itself evolved from efforts to bring outdoor games, such as Croquet and Shuffleboard, indoors.
Above is a photo of the Jaques Handmade Bagatelle Board game being made in the Jaques Wooden Games workshops.
In France, during the reign of King Louis XIV, Billiard tables (like giant bagatelle and snooker tables in our board games shop) were narrowed and pins placed at one end of the table whilst making the player shoot the balls from the other. Over time the decision was made to fix the pins to the table (as they took too long to reset once knocked over) and targets were replaced with holes. Players would then have to ricochet balls off the fixed pins to reach the harder to reach and higher scoring holes.
In 1777 (18 years before Jaques of London was founded by the now world famous Thomas Jaques) a party at the Château de Bagatelle took place in the King's honor. The highlight at the party was this new table top game in which players shot ivory bagatelle balls up an inclined playfield. The table game was dubbed Bagatelle (like todays Jaques handmade Bagatelle board game) by the comte d'Artois and shortly after swept through France.
board game
"Bagatelle" in this sense made its debut in English in 1819 and soon afterwards became so popular in America as well that a political cartoon from 1863 depicts President Abraham Lincoln playing a tabletop bagatelle game. Modern-day pinball machines ( now more popular in the USA that bagatelle) also owe their present existence and popularity to this remarkable handmade game.
Buy a Bagatelle Game
The Jaques family and Team of board game makers craftsman and makers currently manufacture two variations . Jaques' Hit-a-Pin is handcrafted from hardwood, mahogany and brass to the same design as the supplied to Queen Victoria.
The Hit-a-Pin version conforms to regulation size and correct layout and comes complete with a facsimile copy of Jaques' instructions dating back over 100 years.
Jaques' Trumps game is a new larger Victorian version of the game. The Trumps version of the game introduces card suits and a double trump feature to create a new element of rapidly changing scores.
