Bagatelle Table

The Bagatelle Table is a remarkable piece of pinball prehistory, held in the permanent collection of the German Historical Museum in Berlin and identified as originating in southern Germany, circa 1750-1770. As an early example of a bagatelle-style Pure Mechanical (PM) game, it predates the electromechanical (EM) and solid-state machines that would come to dominate the industry by roughly two centuries. Its manufacturer and designer are unrecorded, as is typical for game furniture of this age.

The Bagatelle Table's gameplay features are both simple and clever. The table top lifts up to reveal a playfield underneath, allowing the game to double as an ordinary piece of furniture when not in use. A spring-action ball shooter launches the ball into play, and the upper playfield features a hanging bell that rings when struck, adding an audible flourish to the game's design.

As one of the oldest documented ancestors of pinball, the Bagatelle Table is a significant artifact illustrating how the bagatelle games popular in 18th-century Europe laid the groundwork for the pin-and-target gameplay that pinball would later inherit.