IT’S ALL FUN & GAMES

You’re probably picking up on the fact that Gayle has us feeling just a wee bit nostalgic. Everything about it is giving us retro vibes and reminding us of fun little things from back in the day. And, of course, in her concepting phase for this collection, Cheryl collected relics from the era, and while we love to give her a hard time for “hoarding inspiration”, we must admit, these are pretty dang cool.

“The official name for them is bagatelle games,” Cheryl explained. “But I think they’re probably more commonly known as Poosh-M-Up games. Because it’s catchier and more fun to say, and because that’s essentially the game – it has metal pinballs that you fire onto the board with a spring-loaded pin, you push ‘em up! They usually have objectives – like holes you want to get the balls in or like on this one, the little arched ‘cups’ that are worth different points – and obstacles.”

The way, way back origin of these games was 17th century France, but the versions we Americans would be more familiar with are these kitschy, cartoony kinds that date from early to mid-20th century. Many of them of them have sport themes (like baseball) or other pop culture themes, and of course, this era coincided with the rise of the TV Western, so it’s not uncommon to find them with this exaggerated, comical cowboy theme, which was obviously perfect when concepting Gayle.

But as you know, Audrey is urging a purge of props and trinkets now that the Seguin design office is closed, so now this fun little piece of nostalgia can be yours!