Happy Families

While rootling in a drawer for some incense sticks, my mother happened upon this treasure left behind by my departed German grandmother, who most likely afforded it the same amount of disinterest as her daughter-in-law:

I don't know precisely when this dates from; in my mind it could be anything backwards from 1940. It's complete, as far as I know, with nine idiosyncratic respectable families each with a husband in trade, a wife either cleaning or sewing, one blonde daughter and one rotund son each happily engaged in activities relating to their father's profession. What the game would be like if it was made today I don't honestly know. It would probably involve more cards.

Many of the cards have sadly outdated professions; turncock, beadle, and the children are nostalgically enterprising. I particularly like Miss Silence the Usher's Daughter, who is grinning and holding a decapitated doll and its head in the other. Master Chop the Butcher's Son, on the other hand, is standing in the street bawling his eyes out because a dog is running away with his string of sausages. I'm sure there's a hidden message in these cards, but until I do the tarot reading I won't be able to decipher it.

I don't know if my grandmother particularly prized these, and this is why they're in a reasonable condition, or whether she didn't much care - my mother is sick of the sight of them and familial connotations and was going to flog them on eBay. Let the irony of this post's title sink in a minute there.