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Caroline Shenton

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A Regency Child’s Playing Cards

23 July 2012 By Caroline Shenton

A few years ago I went to an auction and bid for a cardboard box of miscellaneous bits and bobs.  Hidden among the items was a small box (not the reason for the bid) containing some children’s playing cards, dated about 1820.

Box of Delights

They are designed to teach Regency children their ‘Times Tables’ and to add up pounds shillings and pence, helped along by matching the two halves of various birds and animals.  They are charming, and have childish scribbles on them, some of which clearly date from that period.  I like to think that these might have been the kind of toy which Frances Rickman and her brother and sister owned.

 

Chirrrp!

 

Growwwl!

 

Find out more about Frances Rickman and her father John Rickman, if you enjoyed this post.

 

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Filed Under: Historic Westminster

About Caroline Shenton

Dr Caroline Shenton is an archivist and historian. She was formerly Director of the Parliamentary Archives in London, and before that was a senior archivist at the National Archives. Her book The Day Parliament Burned Down won the Political Book of the Year Award in 2013 and Mary Beard called it 'microhistory at its absolute best' while Dan Jones considered it 'glorious'. Its acclaimed sequel, Mr Barryís War, about the rebuilding of the Palace of Westminster, was a Book of the Year in 2016 for The Daily Telegraph and BBC History Magazine and was described by Lucy Worsley as 'a real jewel, finely wrought and beautiful'. During 2017 Caroline was Political Writer in Residence at Gladstone's Library.

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About Caroline

Dr Caroline Shenton is an archivist and historian. Her book The Day Parliament Burned Down won the Political Book of the Year Award in 2013. Read More…

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