| Series | Early American imprints. First series ; no. 50093. ^A478749 |
| General note | Ten printed cards, housed in a pasteboard slipcase. "Directions for playing Chesterfield's impenetrable secret" are given on a printed label affixed to the slipcase. |
| General note | An edition of Chesterfield's impenetrable secret is advertised in the Sept. 25, 1794, issue of the Baltimore daily intelligencer as "Just published, and for sale, at this printing-office, in Calvert-Street, near the Court-House, (price, one quarter of a dollar per pack.) A new and elegant edition of Chesterfield's impenetrable secret; consisting of ten cards, which contain one hundred excellent proverbs: each card contains ten lines with a border, on one side, and ten without a border on the other, and are so arranged as to enable the purchaser to show any person the line they may think of on the plain side. Plain and exact directions for shewing the secret, &c. are put up in each pack. Fryer & Brown." |
| General note | The edition advertised in the Intelligencer of Sept. 25, 1794, is recorded by Evans as entry 27026 and by Minick as entry 160. Another edition is advertised in the Baltimore Telegraphe for Nov. 8, 1800 ("Just published, and for sale at the book-store of Mr. Monday, in Howard-Street, Messrs. Warner and Hanna's, Thomas Andrews and Butler, at this office, Messrs. Conrads & Co. and at Mr. Sweney's Navigation Store on Fell's-Point, Chesterfield's impenetrable secret, or The mysterious puzzle; containing, besides the ingenuity of the invention and the intricacy of the secret (which is calculated to afford rational amusement) one hundred of the best maxims extant, intended for innocent diversion and moral instruction. These cards are put up in neat cases with directions for playing them -- price 18 cents."). That edition is recorded by Minick as entry 567 and in Evans as entry 37174. Neither Evans nor Minick locates a copy of either edition. The copy in hand is without imprint, and may be either of these editions or another, unrecorded edition. |
| General note | "Directions for playing Chesterfield's impenetrable secret. When any person choses a line on the bordered side of any card, you must take notice of the first letter of the last word in the top line of that card, then request the person to shew you the card that has the line of his choice on the unbordered side of a card, and in spelling the word A DISCOVERY, taking a line for a letter down the unbordered card, you must stop at the line where the letter you took notice of comes in, and that will be the line chosen."--printed label on slipcase. |
| References |
Evans 27026 |
| References |
Evans 37174 |
| References |
Minick, A.R. Maryland, 160 |
| References |
Minick, A.R. Maryland, 567 |
| Reproduction note | Electronic text and image data. [Chester, Vt. : Readex, a division of Newsbank, Inc., 2002-2004. Includes files in TIFF, GIF and PDF formats with inclusion of keyword searchable text. (Early American imprints. First series ; no. 50093). |
| Genre/form | Games. |
| Genre/form | Maxims. |
| Other title | Impenetrable secret. |
| Other title | Directions for playing Chesterfield's impenetrable secret. |
