Original Loteria Card

Extremely rare early 20th century hand drawn and hand colored 'loteria' card from Mexico, circa 1940's. 

Lotería (Spanish word meaning "lottery") is a traditional Mexican board game of chance, similar to bingo, but played with a deck of cards instead of numbered balls. Each card has an image of an everyday object, its name, and a number, although the number is usually ignored. Each player has at least one tabla, a board with a randomly created 4 × 4 grid selected from the card images. Players choose a tabla ("board") to play with, from a variety of previously created tablas, each with a different selection of images.

The traditional Lotería card deck is composed of 54 different cards, each with a different picture. To start the game, the caller (cantor, "singer") shuffles the deck. One by one, the caller picks a card from the deck and announces it to the players by its name, sometimes using a verse before reading the card name. Each player locates the matching pictogram of the card just announced on their board and marks it off with a chip or other kind of marker. In Mexico, it is traditional to use pennies, crown corks or pinto beans as markers. The winner is the first player that shouts "¡Lotería!" after marking all the images in their tabla, or completing a pattern on it, similar to bingo: row, column, diagonal, four corners, or unique to this game, four in a square (pozo).

Displayed in a period wood frame. 

Dimensions: 12 inches vertical x 11 inches horizontal.