De La Rue Pocket Guides

De La Rue Pocket Guides 1864 – 1940s

ne of the constant features of 19th Century card games was the production, by all of the major companies, of pocket guides or “mini- books” containing details of the laws and instructions on how to play the particular game in question. The two largest companies involved were Chas.

Goodall and Son and De La Rue who between them dominated the scene. In 1922 De La Rue took over Goodall and continued to produce Goodall products as such or under their joint names, and later without any reference to Goodall.

Mike Goodall’s “Goodall Card Game Booklets, 1868-1922” is an invaluable source of information on the booklets published by his ancestors, demonstrating the wide range of games covered and lists of production dates and other details.

Above: A sixth-edition De La Rue pocket guide to Whist by “Cavendish”, published in 1893.

Above: A seventh-edition De La Rue pocket guide to Whist by “Cavendish”, published in 1901.

Above: The eighth edition of “The Pocket Laws of Whist” by “Cavendish”, dated 1897.

Above: An interior spread from a De La Rue Whist guide, showing the index and the Laws of Whist.

A perfect resource for researchers such as yours truly. But, as far as I am aware, there is no equivalent record of the activities of De La Rue in this field and I wondered whether it would be possible to make a start at least on producing one. In the first instance I have drawn mainly on my own collection of pocket guides and other books as the primary source, together with details published by Frederick Jessel1 (up to 1905). I have researched the subject as far as I can but do not claim that this is a complete record, and any and all additions and corrections would be most welcome. Where known I have included the date of first editions and as many subsequent editions as I have been able to identify.

Whist to Bridge

The biggest card game from the 1860s to the end of the century was Whist, later evolving into Bridge in its various forms. Two key De La Rue publications appeared in the same year, 1864, both by “Cavendish” and are almost certainly the first of the DLR pocket guides which have become so familiar to collectors.

From 1868 until his death in 1899, virtually all of Cavendish’s substantial output of publications published in England were by Thos. De La Rue & Co. His name therefore figures large in the history of the DLR pocket series until the turn of the century2. Other authors are specifically named where appropriate.

Above: The eleventh edition of “Pocket Rules for Leading at Whist” by “Cavendish”, dated 1897.

Above: The first-edition De La Rue pocket guide to the play of the third hand at Whist, dated 1890.

Above: “The Pocket Laws of Bridge”, revised by the Portland and Turf Clubs in 1904, with hints to beginners by W. H. Whitfield.

Above: An interior spread from “The Pocket Laws of Bridge”, showing the index and the revised Laws of Bridge.

First there was a modest, two-sided card, “The Pocket Guide to Whist by ‘Cavendish’” (1864), which was swiftly superseded by a 16-page pocket guide with the same name in 1865. There were further enlargements and revisions; a ^[1] & Co., 1905 ^[2] nd th 2 enlarged edition in 1868 (26 pages); 5 edition 1886; and pictured here is the 6th edition, 1893 and 7th edition, 1901. Others may have followed after 1905.

1893 1901 It is worth noting at this point that the so-called 6th and 7th editions above, although eight years apart, are absolutely identical in every detail including the advertisements. So, in these early years the term “edition” may mean nothing more than a new printing. As you will see, this definition is not followed in later years (see Bezique and Patience below) where it appears that for a volume to be designated as a new “edition” there has to be some significant change to the text, otherwise later printings usually, but not always, carry the same edition number.

The next pocket guide in the series was “The Pocket Laws of Whist by nd th ‘Cavendish’”, first published in 1864; 2 . edition in 1865. Pictured here is my 8 edition dated 1897.

1897 De La Rue also published “Pocket Rules for Leading at Whist, with a Table of rd th th Leads and Practical Hints by ‘Cavendish’”,1865; 3 . edition 1875; 9 . 1889; 11 1897 (below).

Above: Goodall & Son’s fourth edition of “Royal Auction Bridge” by Ernest Bergholt, dated 1921.

Above: De La Rue’s “The Laws of Royal Auction Bridge”, dated 1920.

Above: A 1929 “Guide to Royal Auction Bridge” published jointly by De La Rue and Chas. Goodall & Son.

Above: A De La Rue and Goodall advertisement for bridge scoring tablets, including pencils and ruled score sheets.

th st 1897 (11 edition) 1890 (1 edition) Cavendish’s “Pocket Rules for the Play of the Second Hand at Whist, with a Table of Play” was published in1890,17 pages, followed in the same year by “Pocket Rules for the Play of the Third Hand at Whist, with a Table of Play and Rules for Scoring” (above), 24 pages, 1890. Jessel shows no second or subsequent editions of the Second and Third Hand booklets by 1905.

Henry Jones (“Cavendish”) died in 1899 so was not around to document the first stage of the evolution of whist into bridge. I have seen a 1901 advertisement for De La Rue’s “Pocket Guide to Bridge” by someone writing under the pseudonym of BOAZ but have been unable to trace a copy to say more. Henry Jones had for many years been the card editor of The Field magazine and his successor was William Henry Whitfield. It was to W. H. Whitfield that De La Rue turned to write “The Pocket Laws of Bridge” in 1904 (31 pages)3. These included the Laws as “revised by the Portland and Turf Clubs, 1904”, together with advice on play, and variants such as “Dummy Bridge” and “Three-handed bridge” when there were too few players to play the four-handed version.

1904 Goodall and Son had commissioned Ernest Bergholt to write “Royal Auction Bridge and Auction Whist” by 1917. Here is my (sadly damaged) updated and “entirely re-written” fourth edition dated 1921. Shown along side is the only contribution to the literature on this evolving game by De La Rue that I can find, dated 1920, and not specifically in the Pocket Guide Series, although of identical size. ^[3] 1908 had produced 16 editions.

1921 (Ist edition 1917) 1920 Whereas the DLR publication simply restates the Laws of Royal Auction Bridge “Finally Approved and Adopted by the Committee of the Portland Club (May, 1914)”, the Berghold version for Goodalls added 49 pages of description and analysis of the game. If there is an equivalent text from De La Rue I have yet to find it.

Above: A 1930 “Guide to Royal Auction Bridge” published jointly by De La Rue and Chas. Goodall & Son.

Above: An advertisement for De La Rue contract bridge scoring blocks with pencils, replacing the earlier auction-bridge tablets.

Above: An early De La Rue pocket guide to Bezique by “Cavendish”.

Above: The sixteenth edition of De La Rue’s pocket guide to Bezique by “Cavendish”, dated 1916.

Perhaps, given the imminence of the Goodall takeover they saw no need as they would soon inherit and republish the existing and superior Goodall product.

Certainly, by 1929 the DLR “Guide to Royal Auction Bridge” by Ernest Bergholt was published under the joint names of De La Rue and Chas. Goodall & Son, Ltd. This was, with 54 pages of text, substantially different from the earlier (1921) Goodall publication (with 84 pages). Here below are the two, almost identical editions side by side; one from 1929, one from 1930. I attach both because of the adverts shown. In 1929, DLR was advertising Bridge Scoring Tablets for Auction Bridge. By the following year this ad was replaced by one for Contract Bridge Scoring Blocks. A little bit of bridge history as the game evolved.

1929 1930 Bezique The “Cavendish” first edition of “The Pocket Guide to Bezique” was published nd th in 1869, a modest 18 pages. Multiple editions followed; 2 in 1869; 4 in 1870; 16th in 1916, 1925 and beyond.

st th th 1869 (1 . ed.) 1916 (16 ed.) 1925 (16 . ed.) !!!

Above: A sixteenth-edition De La Rue pocket guide to Bezique, printed in 1925 with a later cover design.

Above: The third edition of “The Pocket Guide to Rubicon Bezique” by “Cavendish”, dated 1898.

Above: An interior spread from “The Pocket Guide to Rubicon Bezique”, explaining the game and its method of play.

Above: A Goodall & Son edition of “Rubicon Bezique and Bézique” by Angelo Lewis and “Camden”.

The essential text between 1869 and 1916 (and 1925) varies little apart from revisions made from the 8th edition onwards necessitated by the adoption of new laws for Rubicon Bezique by the Portland and Turf Clubs.

Note the significant difference in design between 1916 and 1925. The text is identical; both are stitched and have gilded edging; only the adverts vary, yet both carry the designation 16th edition. The 1925 copy is clearly from a different printer and has a different design on the front cover. Perhaps this was the transitional design between the familiar late 19th century/early 20th century version and that which De La Rue developed by the mid-1930s. If so, I have seen very few volumes in this style. The closest, although different again, are the two “Patience Games” volumes shown below, also from the 1920s. If this was a transition, it was not a very smooth one as several different cover designs were being produced at the same time.

“The Pocket Guide to Rubicon Bezique by Cavendish” was first published in 1887. Pictured here is the unchanged 3rd edition, 1898, “Entered at Stationers’ Hall”. I have so far found no later editions of this text, although, as noted above, the laws of the game were agreed in 1914 so later revised editions are likely.

Eventually, the Cavendish guide was replaced by “Rubicon Bezique and Bezique” written by Angelo Lewis (Professor Hoffmann) and “Camden”

Above: A joint De La Rue and Goodall edition of “Rubicon Bezique and Bézique”, from 1935.

Above: A later joint De La Rue and Goodall edition of “Rubicon Bezique and Bézique”, from 1937.

Above: An undated 1940s De La Rue edition of “Rubicon Bezique and Bézique”, with the Goodall name omitted from the cover.

Above: The cover of “The Laws of Six-Pack Bézique or Chinese Bézique”, edited by Frederic Jessel.

respectively. This was simply a complete reprint of the many editions already published by Goodall prior to the takeover. The earliest edition I can find in the new format is dated in the margin as 1/35 (January 1935). This is presented as a “joint” publication by DLR and Goodall & Son. Precisely the same text is in a later (undated) edition, probably 1940s, in which the reference to Goodall and Son is dropped, both on the cover and inside. Frustratingly, I have any number of examples of this product which have no date, but there were clearly a number of reprints during the late 1930s and 40s Pre-1920s 1935 1937 1940s (?) The only other production difference worthy of note is that the 1935 and 1937

editions carry seven pages of adverts for a wide range of other DLR products; the 1940s version only two with several blank pages. As I have speculated elsewhere, this may have been due to a shortage of materials or because of the loss of production staff drafted to more essential war-related work or both.

It is perhaps worth noting that almost all of the DLR mini-books are stitched rather than stapled and therefore they have survived well, when many of their competitors used staples which have since rusted and damaged the booklets. I have found only one copy of a DLR booklet, from the 1940s, which was stapled; an obviously cheaper production process.

I have various editions of “The Laws of Six-Pack Bezique or Chinese Bezique” by Frederic Jessel. One has a margin date of 1/34 (January 1934); a second is undated but from sometime after 1936.5 A third carries a margin date of 1/37 (1937).6 The text in each is identical. Once again, the front cover of the 1934 edition acknowledges both DLR and Goodall & Son; the later edition carries only the DLR name on the front but inside joint publication with Chas. Goodall & Son is acknowledged as well as “By kind permission of Messrs. Mudie & Sons Ltd.” The reason for this is shown below. Jessel originally presented the Laws in this rather unprepossessing booklet, twice the size of the pocket series, published by Mudie & Sons in 1921, and DLR reproduced this text unaltered.in their pocket series. ^[4]

Above: The 1921 title page of “The Laws of Six-Pack Bézique or Chinese Bézique”, published by Mudie & Sons.

Above: A De La Rue pocket edition of “The Laws of Six-Pack Bézique or Chinese Bézique”, reproducing Frederic Jessel’s text.

Above: The fifth edition of “The Pocket Guide to Patience” by “Tarbart”, dated 1921.

Above: Another fifth-edition “Pocket Guide to Patience” by “Tarbart”, dated 1926 and printed in a different colourway.

review of Goodall & Sons Card Game Booklets, 1868-1922. ^{[5] [6]} from which they came.

1921 1937 Patience I do not know the date of the first edition of “The Pocket Guide to Patience” by “Tarbart, but this 5th edition is dated 1921. However, the adjacent version dated 1926 is also described as the 5th edition. Similar design, different colour, different year! The existence of this pocket guide by Tarbart perhaps explains why the series “Selected Patience Games”, initially published by Goodall, was not included as part of the DLR Pocket Guides series despite its continued publication by De La Rue after the takeover and well into the 1930s and 40s. This selection of 20 games

was first published by Goodall and Son in 1907 with the author specified as Professor Hoffmann. I have copies dated 1909, 1910, 1911 and 1914.

1907, 1909,1910 1918.1922 1930, 1934 Late 30s/40s By 1918 (and later in 1922) this was attributed to “Angelo Lewis MA (Professor Hoffmann)” by which time, for some reason, he was happy to use his own name.

Above: A Goodall & Son edition of “Selected Patience Games” by Professor Hoffmann, from the early twentieth century.

Above: An “Angelo Lewis, M.A. (Professor Hoffmann)” edition of “Selected Patience Games”, from the late 1910s or early 1920s.

Above: A 1930 edition of “Selected Patience Games” published jointly by De La Rue and Goodall & Son.

Above: A later De La Rue edition of “Selected Patience Games”, from the late 1930s or 1940s.

By 1930 (and later in 1934), the same text was published by DLR and Goodall & Son but with no named author. Later in the 1930s and 40s the same text was reproduced as a DLR publication alone with no reference to either the original author or to Goodall. The latest (undated) version is stapled rather than sewn; the only one I have seen.

De luxe versions of any number of these were produced backed in leather, textured card or silk in a variety of colours and labelled in gold script, designed to be added to boxed sets of the same colour and texture.

1909 1918 1925 Other Pocket Guides After the production of the Whist and Bezique guides, dealing with the most popular games at the time, Cavendish was commissioned to write pocket guides for a substantial list of other games.

By 1881, sixteen Pocket Guides by “Cavendish” were being advertised : Three on Whist plus Bezique, Polish Bezique, Écarté, Spoil-Five, Euchre, Calabrasella, Cribbage, Chess, Sixty-six, Draughts and Polish Draughts, Go Bang, Backgammon and Russian Backgammon, and Fifteen & Thirty-Four Puzzles. ^[7] By 1898, six more had been added: two more on Whist plus Rubicon Bezique, Imperial, Piquet, and Dominoes8.

Above: A red leather-bound deluxe “Patience Games” volume, made to accompany a matching boxed set.

Above: A black textured deluxe “Patience Games” volume, one of the luxury bindings made for boxed sets.

Above: A red deluxe “Patience” volume with its title stamped in gilt on the cover.

Above: The 1870 De La Rue “Pocket Laws of Écarté”, one of the other games in the wider pocket-guide series.

I have included pictures of those represented in my own collection; the rest are described, with details, as far as I can.

Pocket Laws of Écarté, 1870

The Pocket Guide to Calabrasella, 1870

1921 1939 The Pocket Guide to Cribbage, 1873, 1921 (5th edition shown), by 1939, DLR had replaced the Cavendish text with a new version by Rawdon Crawley (which still carried the joint publisher names of DLR and Goodall on the inside title page but not on the cover). ^[8] The Pocket Guide to Backgammon & Russian Backgammon, 1878, 1886 (2 edition shown) The Pocket Guide to Piquet, 1890, 1898 (6 edition shown) In addition, the following Pocket Guides are listed in date order of the first edition. All of the card games are attributed to “Cavendish”, and probably

Above: The 1870 De La Rue “Pocket Guide to Calabrasella” by “Cavendish”.

Above: The fifth edition of De La Rue’s “Pocket Guide to Cribbage” by “Cavendish”.

Above: A later “Pocket Guide to Cribbage” by Rawdon Crawley, published jointly by De La Rue and Goodall.

Above: The second edition of De La Rue’s “Pocket Guide to Backgammon and Russian Backgammon”.

Croquet (as he was a member of the All-England Croquet Club) but I am not sure about Chess and the different forms of Draughts.

The Pocket Guide to Écarté, 1870,1878 (Laws and Guide combined), 1896 (6th edition) The Pocket Guide to Euchre, 1870, 1890 (4th edition) The Pocket Guide to Spoil-Five, Twenty-Five & Forty-Five, 1870 The Pocket Guide to Croquet, 1870 The Pocket Guide to Polish Bezique, 1873 The Pocket Guide to Round Games at Cards, 1875, 1887 The Pocket Guide to Sixty-Six, 1875 The Pocket Guide to Imperial, 1881 The Pocket Guide to Dominoes, by “JAR”, 1886

The Pocket Guide to Russian Bezique, 1887 The Pocket Guide to Chess, before 1881 The Pocket Guide to Draughts, before 1881 The Pocket Guide to DAAMA or Turkish Draughts, after 1905 The Pocket Guide to Poker Patience, 1910 2nd edition, W. Dalton The Bath Club Rules for Cooncan, 1912, 19139 ^[9] two copies which mysteriously are labelled 1912, seventh edition and 1913, Sixth edition!

Omissions

Above: The sixth edition of De La Rue’s “Pocket Guide to Piquet” by “Cavendish”.

As we have seen, after the takeover of Goodall in 1921/2, De La Rue continued to produce a number of Goodall publications in its own pocket series. For some, over time the reference to the original author and publisher was dropped.

However, many of the Goodall products of similar size did not appear subsequently in the DLR pocket series. These included Napoleon (1878); “Hindooly” (1908); “Draw-Bridge” (1908, 1912); Kuhn Khan10 (1912); Solo Whist (1889,1913); Poker and Three Card Loo (1889, 1895); Skat (1890); Khanhoo (1891); Penchant (1893); Hearts, Heartsette and Ombre (1902); Quinto (1907); Five Hundred (1908); Manx or La Main (1912); Royal Spades or Lily Auction (1914); and Poker Patience (1908, 1910, 1912). It is possible that DLR thought that the heyday of these games had passed so they were not worth reissuing. Or they may just have continued to sell the existing stock from Goodall but printed no further editions. Either way, I have so far been unable to find any examples later

than the dates shown. I explained at the outset that this is a first attempt to document the evolution of De La Rue’s Pocket Series from the 1860s onwards. I would be pleased to receive any additional information or corrections from readers so that the record can be updated and improved. ^[10]