National Museum of Play Online Collections

Out of Trifles/ Children's Games/ Seriousness/ Kinder-Spel

print | book

1655

This printed image, dated 1655, is an illustration from a book by Jacob Cats, a renowned Dutch author of the 17th century. The image, showing people and children at play in a Dutch square, is one of the earliest published images depicting play. Cats's accompanying text and other illustrations are intended to address the subject of marriage. His image of play in this instance is meant as a series of metaphors which reflect back on adult experiences. The image demonstrates forms of play common at that time--similar to contemporaneous forms of play in North America among settlers here.

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