Jeu de Mail Flamand - Antique Engraving

Regular Price $1,800

Jeu de Mail Flamand ~ After the painting by Teniers by Pierre Louis de Surugue (1710-1772)

A very loose translation of the title of Pierre Louis de Sugurue’s engraving reads “Flemish mail game,” mail being a variation of the French pallemaille, referring to a ball game that would eventually evolve into golf and other contemporary games. In the 13th century Northern Netherlands, the game was referred to as “colf,” after the hair-filled leather sack used for hitting into a small hole in the ground, and is first mentioned in the poem by Jacob van Maerlant in “Merlin’s Book” in a passage that reads:

Vnde gaff rikesten enen slach / Van den dorpe dat he lach / Mit ener coluen vor zine schene”

Which roughly translates into, “...and hit the richest boy in the village with a colf against his shin.”

An 18th century engraving depicts the game Jeu de Mail Flamand a now-obsolete lawn game originating in the Late Middle Ages and mostly played in France, surviving in some locales into the 20th century. It is a form of ground billiards, using one or more balls, a stick with a mallet-like head, and usually featuring one or more targets such as hoops or holes. Jeu de mail was ancestral to the games palle-malle and croquet, and (by moving it indoors and playing on a table with smaller equipment), billiards.

One of the four known variations of the game Chicane is similar to golf; the winner is the one who reaches a distant goal in the fewest strokes.

This 18th century engraving is engraved in French and lists the address of publishers and description of the scene. The print has some light foxing and some minor chipping on the frame.

Framed Dimensions: 25.5" x 22.5"