Story: Cards, board games and puzzles

Play Changeable Gentlemen

Click on the arrows on the sides of these pictures to play the 19th-century card game Changeable Gentlemen. The cards were produced in 1819 by R. Ackermann of London, and the full set contains 27 portraits of famous men including Lord Nelson, Voltaire and Napoleon Bonaparte. Each of these is divided into three parts, and the cards could apparently produce 21,952 different portraits. The set shown here belonged to the family of the Reverend Vicesimus Lush, an Anglican clergyman who arrived in New Zealand from England in 1850. The cards were kept in a specially made wooden box at the family home of Ewelme Cottage in Parnell, Auckland.

Using this item

Heritage New Zealand – Pouhere Taonga, Ewelme Cottage collection
Reference: XEC.1187

Permission of Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

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How to cite this page:

Mark Derby, 'Cards, board games and puzzles - Games in colonial society', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/interactive/38892/play-changeable-gentlemen (accessed 17 April 2024)

Story by Mark Derby, published 5 Sep 2013