[Printed item.] Evening Pastimes; or, Amusements for Hearths and Homes: A Magazine of Fun and Frolic; Containing Parlour Games and Forfeits, Riddles, Enigmas, Charades, Conundrums, Practical Puzzles, and Paradoxes, [...]

128pp., 12mo. In original wraps, with 11.5 x 7 cm label pasted on cover with coloured illustration of a man performing a magic trick for a group of ladies, beneath the title 'EVENING PASTIMES | OR AMUSEMENTS FOR | HEARTHS AND HOMES'. In fair condition, a tight copy on aged paper, in worn wraps. Ownership stamp of the Sussex ornithologist H. L. F. Guermonprez on front free endpaper. After '[...] Puzzles, and Paradoxes,' the title continues: 'With a Series of Comic Lessons for Fireside Recreation.' Among the sections are 'Transposition of Letters', 'Conundrums', 'Enigmas and Riddles', 'Charades', 'Practical Puzzles and Paradoxes' and 'The Alliterative Lesson'. The second half of the volume is devoted to 'Parlour Games'. Scarce: no copy in the British Library or on OCLC, and the only copy on COPAC at the National Library of Scotland, by which it is tentatively dated to the 1880s.