Have we sold our precious heritage in exchange for frivolity and a game of tiddlywinks?".
"A 15th-century Donatello bronze,The Madonna and Child, served the Fitzwilliam family as a tiddlywinks bowl until the Victoria and Albert Museum [London] recognized its importance"
"Even in the matter of nursery games the Victorian child took things very seriously. There were some board games, however, which provided little or no intellectual stimulus. Chief among these was […] tiddlywinks, whose apparent inanity (to the uninitiated) is often regarded as the ultimate in useless activities."
Prince Philip once suggested that tiddlywinks be included in the Olympics. To which Ian Wooldridge, sports reporter for the Daily Mail responded: "At the risk of propagating royal support for tiddlywinks, a game of the utmost tedium played by anti-athletes too tired or apathetic to get up off the floor, I have to concede that his argument makes sense.",
"The research described in this chapter concerns a well-known children’s pastime, the game of tiddlywinks, where the idea is to take one counter and press it on the edge of another, to make the latter jump. Because this is extremely simple, the research centered less on cognizance of the movements actually carried out and more on conceptualization of the action in general and, above all, of its results on the object."
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2 ❖ On to • The Intrigue
Tiddlywinks presents a paradox. It is unique and it is generic.