Linda Edgerton Happy Families
Linda Edgerton ‘Happy Families’ published by Chad Valley Games, Harborne, England, c.1925.
Linda Edgerton (1890 - 1983) produced many designs featuring images of children and childhood, starting from around the time of the First World War, which were reproduced on postcards and in books published by Raphael Tuck & Sons Ltd. She also designed this Happy Families and a Snap set for Chad Valley Games in c.1925 in art deco style. The drawings have a sense of freedom and innocence. Linda Edgerton’s name can be seen on “Mrs Tube the Artist’s Wife” card (left).
Above: ‘Happy Families’ designed by Linda Edgerton and published by Chad Valley Games, Harborne, England, c.1925. 40 square-cornered cards in boc.
Update from Liz Carrington
I have acquired a set of these cards, consisting of 64 in total. It includes Mr. Puritan and his family, along with five other families. Linda Edgerton’s illustrations reflect the late Edwardian to early interwar period aesthetic. The figures are stylized to convey easily recognizable stereotypes, depicting trades that are now largely obsolete or marginalized. Notably, one family is named using a term that is now considered offensive, reflecting the normalized racism of the era. Such imagery today survives only in a museum context or specialist collections, serving as a cautionary example of the biases embedded in cultural products of the time.
Above: extra families from extended edition of ‘Happy Families’ designed by Linda Edgerton and published by Chad Valley Games, Harborne, England, 64 cards inn total, c.1930. Rounded corners.
By Rex Pitts (1940-2021)
Member since January 30, 2009
Rex's main interest was in card games, because, he said, they were cheap and easy to get hold of in his early days of collecting. He is well known for his extensive knowledge of Pepys games and his book is on the bookshelves of many.
His other interest was non-standard playing cards. He also had collections of sheet music, music CDs, models of London buses, London Transport timetables and maps and other objects that intrigued him.
Rex had a chequered career at school. He was expelled twice, on one occasion for smoking! Despite this he trained as a radio engineer and worked for the BBC in the World Service.
Later he moved into sales and worked for a firm that made all kinds of packaging, a job he enjoyed until his retirement. He became an expert on boxes and would always investigate those that held his cards. He could always recognize a box made for Pepys, which were the same as those of Alf Cooke’s Universal Playing Card Company, who printed the card games. This interest changed into an ability to make and mend boxes, which he did with great dexterity. He loved this kind of handicraft work.
His dexterity of hand and eye soon led to his making card games of his own design. He spent hours and hours carefully cutting them out and colouring them by hand.
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