Le Petit Âne Savant – Antique French Fortune Telling Game – c.1890

Le Petit Âne Savant (“The Little Learned Donkey”) is a late-19th-century French fortune-telling and parlor divination game, published in Paris around 1890 by Saussine.

The game allows players to ask questions about the future, answered through a magnetic mechanism hidden beneath a glass plate. When activated, a magnetized needle shaped like a donkey’s head moves beneath the wheel and points to the written answers on the rotating discs.

The lid is decorated with a chromolithograph by A. Desolle, depicting a theatrical fortune-telling scene typical of Belle Époque popular entertainment.

Contents

🔹 Original wood-and-cardboard box with chromolithographed lid
🔹 Glass-covered game board with printed design
🔹 Rotating fortune wheel with written answers
🔹 Magnetized donkey-head pointer beneath the glass
🔹 Two question palettes
🔹 Eight small original boxes containing miniature cards
🔹 Original rules pasted inside the lid

🔹 Complete and entirely original set

Details

🔹 Publisher: Saussine – Paris
🔹 Title: Le Petit Âne Savant sait prédire l’avenir
🔹 Date: circa 1890
🔹 Numbered example: No. 109
🔹 Materials: wood, cardboard, glass, paper, metal
🔹 Dimensions: 27 × 22 × 5.5 cm
🔹 Technique: chromolithography
🔹 Magnetic mechanism: very delicate

Condition

🔹 Complete and original example
🔹 Lithography well preserved with attractive aged patina
🔹 Interior elements intact
🔹 Box shows age-related wear consistent with late-19th-century games
🔹 Magnetic mechanism is fragile and must be handled with care

🪶 Collector’s Note

Le Petit Âne Savant is one of the most iconic French magnetic fortune-telling games of the Belle Époque. Combining humor, superstition, and early interactive mechanics, it sits at the crossroads of parlor magic, divination, and toy history.

A museum-quality piece for collectors of:
- antique divination tools
- 19th-century French games
- curiosity cabinets & occult memorabilia

VERY RARE – increasingly hard to find in complete condition.