Arum,J.H.van. (publisher). — Het Vrijschutterspel.

Te Amsterdam, bij J.H. van Arum, [1823]. 24 loose playing cards [each approx. 87 x 56 mm.] on handmade paper, of which 7 cards with hand-colored engraved images of people ('Agatha', 'Antje', 'Kasper', "Kilian" 'Max', 'Samiel' & 'de Heremiet'), and 17 cards with images of dice pasted onto them. Together in original cardboard box [approx. 110 x 60 mm.] with an engraved, hand-colored 'title page' pasted on the front (as published). - Bottom of small box is missing.The game was released with 24 cards and 8 stones (tokens). The tokens are missing. There are 24 cards present. We have not been able to determine whether the set of the 24 cards present was originally issued in this form. - - A rare historical Dutch parlor game published in 1823 by the Amsterdam bookseller and publisher J.H. van Arum. The game is directly inspired by the then immensely popular romantic opera "Der Freischütz" (The Free Shooter) by Carl Maria von Weber, which premiered in Berlin in 1821 and shortly thereafter sparked a major craze in the Netherlands as well. The game aligns with the magical and folk character of the opera, in which a hunter (the free shooter) attempts to win a shooting contest by means of magical bullets blessed by the devil, in order to be allowed to marry his beloved.