calling all Leeds brainboxes and puzzle fans.
Can you beat history boffin Kitty Ross, and solve this 19th century conundrum?
The historic scroll, thought to date from the 1860s, is actually an advertisement for a lottery, in the form of a pictogram.
Kitty, who is curator of social history at Abbey House Museum in Kirkstall, is trying to decipher the message.
But can YEP readers beat her to it?
The piece forms part of the museum’s current exhibition, entitled ‘Fate and Fickle Fortune’.
The collection is inspired by the ‘13’ in 2013, and looks at all aspects of good and bad luck
It examines popular beliefs and rituals, as well as people’s attitudes to risk, gambling and games of chance.
The exhibits are drawn from across the museum collections, as well as some unusual finds, including a cauldron found sealed up in a wall in a Chapeltown basement!
The curios include ancient Egyptian amulets and Roman gaming tokens. Also featured are lucky horseshoes, good luck cards, and Japanese temple charms. A number of games from the Waddington archive are on show, including the horse-racing game Totopoly and 1960s toy Ouija boards.
A section looking at luck and money also features market-inspired board games such as Monopoly and Poleconomy, together with Roman coins featuring the Goddess Fortuna and Chinese cash amulets.
Kitty said: “This piece is an advertisement for a lottery. There are lots of bits of it that have been puzzling people.
“We have figured some of it out. The bits that were are puzzling us for ages are near the end.
“For example there is a globe and two dice. “We puzzled for ages on that one, thinking it could be anything. Then we suddenly realised it was paradise [pair of dice]!
“So it’s quite corny, full of wordplay and puns.
“These puzzles were very popular - Jane Austen heroines did these for each other and they were parlour games.”
Kitty is urging museum visitors to come and examine the original pictogram at the museum. And the prize for anyone who can solve it first? “The satisfaction of beating us!” she said.
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