This is a wooden, painted board showing a rocket shooting into space from a mountainous rocky surface. Above it you can see the earth with a belt of clouds around the equator and three spinning planets with ringed orbits. The board is edged with a shallow wall all around and has a spring mechanism on the right which launches marbles up into the painted universe.   

Parlour bagatelle is a miniaturised version of bagatelle, a game similar to billiards, pool and snooker. This simplified children’s variation is based on luck rather than skill. The spring mechanism shoots marbles or ball bearings up into the board which has a surface of small holes and nails which serve as obstacles. Each container scores different points depending upon the likelihood of a ball finishing in it. No points are scored if the balls roll right back down to the bottom edge of the board. Small versions of bagatelle first appeared at the end of the 19^th Century.

By the late 1950s space exploration had become a real possibility with the Americans and Russians racing to be the first to get a spacecraft to the moon. This children’s game links to the excitement surrounding this.