History of Gluckhaus-The Game of Sevens

History of Gluckhaus, The Game of Sevens

The game we call Gluckhaus today is likely not the original one. The name has been ascribed to a game that was called many things, but mostly Game of Seven's. There are even rules to play this game as a drinking game. (The Treatise Palamedes Redivivus, edition 1730)

The oldest board that represents what we play with today is a two-sided board estimated to be from 1475 to 1525. Despite the stories of boards always missing a 4, this board has a 4 on both sides. 

 

Oldest surviving board that looks to be for the Game of 7's

 

Board from Pszczyna, Castle Museum.
Catalogue No 351
Dice-board, Inv No R 94
Germany, 16th C (?)

Plain framework with filling of untreated wood. Both sides are painted with ten equally large circles around a larger circle in the centre. The larger circle contains a chalice, on one side with a number 7, and in the smaller circles on that side the numbers 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, X, XI, and XII; on the other side there are two dice in each circle showing different combinations of the points.

Wood – spruce, tempera-painting. 44x43x4cm.

Acquired before 1883.

Schönes Schach, Nuremberg, 1988

Two sides of the gaming board in the BNM, R 94, ca. 1475-1525.

One of the first boards that pops up under the name "Gluckhaus" is a board from the Bavarian National Museum. The board is dated 1582-1583. But is it really intended for Gluckhaus?

To understand the issue further, we will present the rules by which the game is most often played now:

Bavarian National Museum. 1583.

 

On a Gluckhaus board today

The playing field consists of Roman or Arabic numbers from 3 to 11. 2 is drawn as a pig, 12 as a king, and 7 is most often called “Wedding.”

The player throws two six-sided dice and places a coin on the value that comes up. If the value is already covered by the coin, the player takes it.
If 12 is rolled, the player takes it all. "The king takes it all!"
If 2 is rolled, the player takes everything except the coins worth 7.
7 – the player only puts coins here, the bank is accumulated at the Wedding.
There is another option where the value 4 is a skip move, but this is optional.

Note that the arrangement of the figures and the captions on this board are very different from the traditional Gluckhaus.

The Bavarian board has other images and other meanings.

For example, a character with the signature "O" and a character with the signature "U".

U is Unter in German style cards, O is Oberst. Oberst conventionally corresponds to Queen, Unter — Jack.

After reading the description of this board, we found out that it was intended for another game. Most likely, the card game Poch (Pochspiel).

 

Richter, Jonas. “The Game of Seven: Glückshaus and Related Dice Games.” Board Game Studies Journal, vol. 13, no. 1, 2019, pp. 67–97, https://doi.org/10.2478/bgs-2019-0004.https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Board-from-Pszczyna-Castle-Museum_fig6_337140928

 

Grunfeild, F. V.; Games of the World. Holt, Reinhart and Winston, 1975

Himmelheber, Georg (Ed); Spiele. Gesellschaftspiele aus einem Jahrtausend, Munich 1972 (Katalog des Bayrischen Nationalmuseums, 14)

Jennings, A.S.; Paint and Colour Mixing, 6th Ed. Spon, 1921

Schönes Schach, Nuremberg, 1988 (Catalogue of a joint exhibition by the Bavarian National Museum and the Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nuremberg)

Board for a card game (Pochen or Turmspiel?), dated 1583, BNM I 14.105.

How do we know the rules?

The oldest rules similar to "Gluckhaus" are present in the treatise Palamedes Redivivus. The thing is very popular, several times reprinted. The first edition is 1678, but only in the editions of the 1730s is there a "drinking game" similar to the subject of our story called Das Böse-Sieben-Spiel (can be translated as "The Evil Seven").

The rules are roughly as follows:

The playing field is from 2 to 11. We throw two dice. If the number that comes up is not occupied, we put a coin, if it is occupied, we take a coin from it. The player who throws 12 takes all the money, the player who throws 7 drinks a glass of beer or wine.

Since 7 is the most common number on two six-sided dice, you can imagine what kind of fun this was.

Glückshaus – when does the word appear?

Translated from German, Glückshaus means House of Happiness. And yes, this game is often drawn as a house. But that's in our days.

Concerning the game, this word is found no earlier than the second half of the 20th century (specifically, in 1963 - more on that later). In the middle of the 19th century, this word means "happy family" and has nothing to do with the board game.

But how did it happen that this particular term took hold?

One of the first boards that comes across under the name "Gluckhaus" is a board from the Bavarian National Museum. The board is dated 1582-1583 and we wanted to make it, and then we started looking at it. It is a Poch board. But it is attributed to Gluckhaus in the museum.

In conclusion 

At this time I can't find the name Gluckhaus used in the period for the game of Sevens. 

Which means the game of Sevens, a period game, is the game that today we call Gluckhaus. 

 

https://dzen.ru/a/Za5kW-LwnHYGWtIR

http://www.giochidelloca.it/storia/seville_game_of_21.pdf

https://leatherworkingreverendsmusings.wordpress.com/2020/07/19/gluckshaus/

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Board-from-Pszczyna-Castle-Museum_fig6_337140928