H69.2.3B

7 in HIGH x 8 in WIDE x 10 in DEEP
(17.78 cm HIGH x 20.32 cm WIDE x 25.40 cm DEEP)
Museum Purchase
H69.2.3B

19th C. Gallery | Early California Art and History, Science Special Gallery, December 2007 - September 2009

Faro set. Description: a. game board, rectangular with curved ends, green felt over wood, leather strap wraps around side held firmly with set screws. 13 card positions painted with heavy paint over the felt, Black line painted over felt in middle of board. b. Scorekeeper, abacus counters, 7 on one side 6 on other side of 2 rows of cards painted on wood "Dailey Mfg. co. St. Paul Minn." in one box next to 6 of spades. Each side folds up and stands upright. c. Nickel plated card container with spring top where cards fit. Green felt worn on bottom. 52 card regular deck. Dimensions: a. 41 x 15 1/2" b. 10 1/4 x 6" c. 4 x 3: From the History Information Station: Faro was a popular card game throughout the Mother Lode. To play, you bet your money on the card you think will win. The dealer turns up one card which doesn't count, then a second card which loses, then a third card which wins. One miner, appalled at the number of gambling houses in California wrote,"We are thousands of miles from home and comfort ourselves by thinking that our indulgence in vice will never reach there." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------"Double yer money, gents!" Mining itself was something of a gamble in which a man's wealth seemed due as much to luck as to skill or hard work. And many men willing to gamble on mining were more than willing to gamble their hard-earned gold on the faro deck or the speed of the monte dealer's hand. William Swain, a miner who deplored the lax morals of his compatriots, wrote that, "It is not unusual to see hundreds of dollars staked on the turning of a single card." In Sacramento, "There are a great number of dealers in produce, but more dealers on monte. The taverns have usually...three or four tables and a man behind dealing monte, at all hours from breakfast to midnight." Bayard Taylor, who toured California as correspondent for the New York Tribune, said that "where there is gold there are gamblers. Our little village boasted of a least a dozen monte tables."

Used: game

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