Leap Frog, from The Games of the Urchins of Paris

Jean-Baptiste Tilliard and Augustin de Saint-Aubin’s series of prints depicting traditional children’s games also included horseshoes and jump rope. Although some of the leap-frogging “urchins” in this etching are barefoot and disheveled from their athletics, their trappings would not be out of place for the more adult and aristocratic game of the hunt. The moralizing verse at the bottom of the print notes that while this pastime is good exercise for forgetting the woes of schooling, the delicately etched, rosy-cheeked boys also symbolize ambitious members of society or politics, those who unduly elevate themselves before their reputation comes crashing down.