Hands on Tauranga offers students stimulating and original learning opportunities with real museum objects that support the New Zealand curriculum at primary and secondary school level.
A collection of early 1900's games. One large tin spinning top. Three wooden tops spun by string. Four 'Jacob's Ladder' games. Five playing boards of 'Nine Men's Morris'.
Nine Men's Morris
Nine men's morris is a strategy board games for two players dating at least to the Roman Empire. The Latin word merellus means 'gamepiece', which may have been corrupted in English to 'morris', while miles is Latin for soldier.
The board consists of a grid with twenty-four intersections or points. Each player has nine pieces, or "men", usually coloured black and white. Players try to form 'mills'—three of their own men lined horizontally or vertically—allowing a player to remove an opponent's man from the game. A player wins by reducing the opponent to two pieces (where they could no longer form mills and thus be unable to win), or by leaving them without a legal move.
> How to play Nine Men's Morris https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmFDibk7_qc
Jacob's Ladder
A Jacob's ladder is a folk toy consisting of blocks of wood held together by strings or ribbons. Jacob’s Ladder is one of the oldest toys in the world, rivalled only perhaps by the spinning top. One is thought to have been discovered in Tutankhamun’s burial chamber in Egypt. Its name Jacob's Ladder comes from the biblical ladder to heaven, mentioned in the Book of Genesis.
When the ladder is held at one end, blocks appear to cascade down the strings. Other tricks can also be done with the ladder.
> How to play with a 'Jacob's Ladder' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiIpUUsIsVE
Date: Replica
Subject Area: Social Science, The Arts
Subject Themes: Leisure, Toys, Children
Handling Collection Number: HC218
