Bagatelle
 | This article relies largely or entirely on a single source. (June 2011) |
Bagatelle (from the Château de Bagatelle) is a billiards-derived indoor table game, the object of which is to get a number of balls (set at nine in the 19th century) past pins (which act as obstacles) into holes. It probably developed from the table made with raised sides for trou madame, which was also played with ivory balls[1] and continued to be popular into the later nineteenth century. Bagatelle is a precursor of pinball (which also inspired the creation of pachinko), and is laterally related to miniature golf.
History
Table games involving sticks and balls date back to at least the 15th century, and evolved from efforts to bring outdoor games like ground billiards, croquet, shuffleboard and bowling, inside for play during inclement weather. While some games took the wickets and mallets of croquet and ground billiards and turned them into the pockets and cues of modern billiards, some tables became smaller and had the holes placed in strategic areas in the bed of the table.
France
In France, during the long 1643–1715 reign of Louis XIV, billiard tables were narrowed, with wooden pins or skittles at one end of the table, and players would shoot balls with a stick or cue from the other end, in a game inspired as much by bowling as billiards. Pins took too long to reset when knocked down, so they were eventually fixed to the table, and holes in the bed of the table became the targets. Players could ricochet balls off the pins to achieve the harder scorable holes. Quite a number of variations on this theme were developed.
In 1777 a party was thrown in honor of Louis XVI and the queen at the Château de Bagatelle, recently erected at great expense by the king's brother, the Count of Artois. Bagatelle from Italian bagattella, signifies 'a trifle', 'a decorative thing'. The highlight of the party was a new table game featuring a slender table and cue sticks, which players used to shoot ivory balls up an inclined playfield. The game was dubbed bagatelle by the count and shortly after swept through France.[2]
England and America
"Bagatelle" in this sense made its debut in English in 1819 (OED), its dimensions soon standardised at 7 feet by 21 inches.[1] Some French soldiers carried their favorite bagatelle tables with them to America while helping to fight the British in the American Revolutionary War. Bagatelle spread and became so popular in America as well that a political cartoon from 1863 depicts US President Abraham Lincoln playing a small tabletop version of bagatelle.[3]
Plinko
The Price Is Right TV gameshow sub-game "Plinko", although its name might suggest that it was based on pachinko, bears more resemblance to bagatelle.
See also
References
- ^ a b Gloag, John (1969). ""Troumadam"". A Short Dictionary of Furniture. London: Allen & Unwin. Illustrates a London design that was current in 1782.
- ^ Carlisle, Rodney P. (2009). Encyclopedia of Play in Today's Society. Sage Publications . Retrieved July 17, 2009.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) - ^ Ives, Currier and (1864). "A little game of bagatelle, between Old Abe the rail splitter & Little Mac the gunboat general". Currier and Ives. unknown. Retrieved February 6th 2009.
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