J.W.S&S / JAP, Germany / England, late 1890sCYCLING (A FASCINATING GAME)

A classic game, also known as "A Cycling Tour".
Ok, you guessed it, I don't have the original board, I just have the small box, which includes four nice lead victorian cyclists and the original cards. (It also included some dice and a shaker, but I stongly doubt whether these are original. Maybe the shaker is... but then thereshould be four of them (?) Any additional information is welcome.
Gender violence? The two male riders are beheaded!

But wait, on of the heads was in the box after all. Carmen says it belongs to the OTHER rider. Oh!


These are the cards. Just print 3 of each. You can probably play J. Jacques & Son's Wheeling with those!

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This game is reproduced (in a playable form) in Olivia Bristol's "6 Victorian and Edwardian Board Games". She says "...dates from around 1880 when John Stanley introduced his new bicycle with equal-sized wheels and rear chain drive. The game was produced by Spears and printed at their works in Bavaria. Unusually, instructions do not appear on the board itself." In the featured board you can read "Designed in England by JAP. Published by J.W. S & S. New York and produced by their works in Bavaria". With the book you get 4 cardboard riders and 36 playing cards.
On the other hand, in Helmut Schwarz and Marion Faber's "Games We Played, History Of J.W.Spears and Sons" (p.58), one reads "[...] New games appeared from 1904 onwards in the dice/board game area wich took up current developments in transport technology, e.g. [...] "Radeln" (Cycling)..."
Dan Gindling ("Bicycle Collectibles with pricing guide", p.59) says "A Cycling Tour. JW Spears and Sons, London, circa 1890s [...] which came with a separate playing board, 27 playing cards, a spinner and cardboard bicycle player pieces". (Of course, he also mentions an estimated price, which I keep to myself). He adds "Other JW Spears & Sons games include Cycling, A Fascinating Game by JAP, produced in the late 1890s; the 1893 Bycicle Race game and a 1904 german game, Radeln (Cycling)".
All I can add is that "Spear" is one of the big names in the games world (they are the original producers of "Scrabble"). The conpany was was founded in Bavaria by Jacob Wolf Spear in 1879, and quite soon grew to become a highly successful games manufacturer with production facilities in Germany and England since the 1880s.
There are many editions of this game (see below). The one I own (called "A Cycling Tour") is a small box (27 x 20.5 cms) which says: "Designed in England. Manufactured at the 'Spear' works in Bavaria. Copyright in the United Kingdom. J.W. Spears & Sons. London".
This is the board in Olivia Bristol's book:
Here are three different versions seen on eBay (and here is another, of course).


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