View source for Bagatelle

{{Short description|Billiards-type game}}
{{Other uses}}
[[File:Bagatelle.jpg|thumb|A game of bagatelle in progress.]]
'''Bagatelle''' (from the [[Château de Bagatelle]]) is a [[billiards]]-derived indoor [[Tabletop game|table game]], the object of which is to get a number of balls (set at nine in the 19th century) past wooden pins (which act as obstacles) into holes that are guarded by wooden pegs; penalties are incurred if the pegs are knocked over.  It probably developed from the table made with raised sides for ''trou madame'', which was also played with ivory balls<ref name="Gloag 1969" /> and continued to be popular into the later 19th century, after which it developed into [[bar billiards]], with influences from the French/Belgian game ''{{lang|fr|billard russe}}'' (with supposed Russian origins). A bagatelle variant using fixed metal pins, ''[[billard japonais]]'', eventually led to the development of [[pachinko]] and [[pinball]].

==History==
Table games involving sticks and balls evolved from efforts to bring outdoor games like [[ground billiards]], [[croquet]], and [[bowling]] inside for play during inclement weather. They are attested in general by the 15th century, although the 19th-century idea that bagatelle itself derived from the English "[[shuffleboard|shovel-board]]" described in [[Charles Cotton]]'s 1674 ''[[Compleat Gamester]]''{{sfnp|''EB''|1878}} has since been disregarded.{{sfnp|''EB''|1911}}

===France===
In [[France]], during the long 1643–1715 reign of [[Louis XIV]], billiard tables were narrowed, with wooden pins or skittles at one end of the table, and players would shoot balls with a stick or cue from the other end, in a game inspired as much by [[bowling]] as billiards. Pins took too long to reset when knocked down, so they were eventually fixed to the table, and holes in the bed of the table became the targets. Players could ricochet balls off the pins to achieve the harder scorable holes.  Quite a number of variations on this theme were developed.<!--Go into some of them and redirect them here, like "trou madame".-->

In 1777, a party was thrown in honour of [[Louis XVI]] and the queen at the [[Château de Bagatelle]], recently erected at great expense by the king's brother, the [[Charles X of France|Count of Artois]]. ''Bagatelle'' from [[Italian language|Italian]] ''bagattella'', signifies 'a trifle', 'a decorative thing'. The highlight of the party was a new table game featuring a slender table and cue sticks, which players used to shoot [[ivory]] balls up an inclined playfield.  The game was dubbed ''bagatelle'' by the count and shortly after swept through France.<ref name=rpc>{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jLqXM3U_pzEC&pg=PT35 |title= bagatelle| encyclopedia= Encyclopedia of Play in Today's Society |first=Rodney P. |last=Carlisle |publisher=Sage Publications |year=2009 |access-date=July 17, 2009|isbn=9781412966702 }}</ref>

===UK and US===
[[File:A Little Game of Bagatelle, Between Old Abe the Rail Splitter & Little Mac the Gunboat General MET DP808899.jpg|thumb|''A Little Game of Bagatelle, Between Old Abe the Rail Splitter & Little Mac the Gunboat General'']]
The name "bagatelle" was first used to describe such a game in 1819.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |encyclopedia=[[Oxford English Dictionary]] |title=bagatelle}}</ref> Its dimensions soon standardised at 1&nbsp;ft 9 in x 7&nbsp;ft (53&nbsp;cm x 213&nbsp;cm).<ref name="Gloag 1969">{{cite book |last=Gloag |first=John |year=1969 |title=A Short Dictionary of Furniture |chapter= Troumadam <!--sic--> |location=London |publisher=Allen & Unwin}} Illustrates a London design that was current in 1782.</ref>  Some French soldiers carried their favorite bagatelle tables with them to America while helping to fight the British in the [[American Revolutionary War]].<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Bueschel |first=Richard M. |date=June 1990 |title=The earliest history of the pinball |url=https://archive.org/details/play-meter-volume-16-number-7-june-1990/Play%20Meter%20-%20Volume%2016%2C%20Number%207%20-%20June%201990/page/76/mode/2up |magazine=Play Meter |page=76 |volume=16 |issue=7}}</ref> Bagatelle spread and became so popular in America as well that a political cartoon from 1863 depicts US President [[Abraham Lincoln]] playing a small tabletop version of bagatelle against presidential rival [[George B. McClellan]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.abrahamlincolnsclassroom.org/Cartoon_Corner/index3.asp?ID=211&TypeID=9 |title=A little game of bagatelle, between Old Abe the rail splitter & Little Mac the gunboat general |access-date=February 6, 2009 |last=Ives |first=Currier and |year=1864 |work=Currier and Ives |publisher=unknown |archive-date=June 25, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130625011200/http://www.abrahamlincolnsclassroom.org/Cartoon_Corner/index3.asp?ID=211&TypeID=9 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

{{As of|2022}}, bagatelle is still played competitively in the Chester area of [[Cheshire]], England.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.chesterbagatelle.co.uk/agm_minutes_2022.htm |title=AGM Minutes 2022 |publisher=Chester and District Bagatelle League |access-date=3 October 2022}}</ref> The Chester and District Bagatelle League is believed to be the last surviving bagatelle league in the world.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://www.greatbritishlife.co.uk/things-to-do/bagatelle-is-booming-in-chester-pubs-with-audio-7088808 |title=Bagatelle is booming in Chester pubs |date=7 June 2010 |magazine=Cheshire Life |access-date=3 October 2022}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Pub games]]
* [[Le multicolore]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==References==
<!--reference works-->
* {{cite EB9 |mode=cs2 |last=Pardon |first=George Frederick |author-link=George Frederick Pardon |wstitle=Bagatelle  |ref={{harvid|''EB''|1878}} |volume=3 |pages=229–230 }}
* {{cite EB1911 |mode=cs2 |wstitle=Bagatelle |volume=3 |ref={{harvid|''EB''|1911}} |pages=192–193 }}

==External links==
{{Sister project links | commons=Category:Bagatelle (game) | b=no | n=no | q=no | s=1911_Encyclopædia_Britannica/Bagatelle | v=no | voy=no | species=no | d=Q621875 }}
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPnMcMsttaI Instructional / informational video of Bagatelle game]

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[[Category:Obstacle billiards]]
[[Category:Pub games]]
[[Category:Tabletop cue games]]
[[Category:Sports originating in France]]