Bridge Markers and bridge scoring methods

B1900-1930 I have written extensively elsewhere on this site about the various Whist markers that were available to score games during the second half of the 19th Century and the first decades of the 20th: including the Cavendish, Pall Mall, Camden, Tom Thumb, Foster’s and eventually the Klik1. All were sold in huge numbers which helps to explain why there are so many still in circulation and available to collectors, if not for use by modern players of whist.

As whist evolved into various forms of bridge from the end of the 19th century2, designers turned their attention to applying the same ingenuity as they used for whist markers into ways of scoring bridge. The most notable example here is the “Klik” Bridge marker.

As far as one can tell this was not a great success and the key manufacturers quickly realised that paper score pads with pencils or pens was by far the best way of keeping track of scores as the game evolved. All the key manufacturers swiftly turned their attention to various sizes and shapes of score pads.

I am particularly fond of the wonderfully named ‘“Acme” Bridge Tablet’ produced by Chas. Goodall and Son around the turn of the 19th Century which I found in a contemporary boxed set. It is backed in black textured paper, with a pencil-holder at the side and shows the scores for bridge-whist (c.1897-1910). In this early version of the game winning all 13 tricks with spades as trumps still did not score enough points for game3 and helped to move thinking on to the more satisfactory scoring arrangements in later versions of the game. The score sheets were printed on one side only with three “We”/”They” columns and, for the first time, a distinction between ^{[1] [2]} Auction 1908-1930; Royal Auction 1914-1930 and Contract from 1927. ^[3]

Above: The “Acme” Bridge Tablet, with sliding markers for honours and tricks.

Above: A leather-covered Bridge scoring tablet with its pencil holder.

Above: The “Acme” Bridge Tablet score sheet, with columns for each partnership.

Above: A black textured Bridge tablet with its attached pencil.

“Tricks” (below the line) and “Honours” (above). “Honours” were a key element of scoring at this point, secured by how many Aces and other high cards were held in each hand, and this element of sheer chance potentially outstripped the points to be scored in play.

Sometime around 1914, De La Rue produced its “Reversible Scoring Block” which had scoring columns printed on both sides. In an attempt to cater for the game as it was evolving, the pad provided scoring charts on the back catering for Bridge (later called bridge-whist), Auction bridge and Royal Auction Bridge (1914-1930). Attached, at the side, was triangular “Onoto”

Bridge pencil, De La Rue’s brand name for a large number of stationery items, in particular fountain pens for which there is a substantial collectors’ market today.

Above: A red decorative Bridge scoring tablet with a gilt border.

Above: The inside of De La Rue’s “Reversible” Scoring Block, with honours and tricks columns.

Above: The reverse of the “Reversible” Scoring Block, showing Bridge and Auction Bridge tables.

Above: A leather-covered Royal Auction Bridge scoring tablet.

Other producers followed suit. Here is the “Buff” Bridge Tablet (complete with “Buff” pencil), from an unidentified manufacturer. On the back, which has by now become standard, is the scoring chart for Auction Bridge (1908- 1930), along with some “Hints on Bidding” and “Hints on Play” – the game was obviously still in its infancy at this point.

One company (whose thistle logo I cannot identify) produced a series of faux books, some containing two packs of playing cards, while others contained two bridge scoring pads (which they term “markers”, harking back to earlier times). The back of the pad offers the scoring arrangements for both Auction and Contract. The Auction scores are arranged in the familiar chart, while the Contract scores are presented in a somewhat unfamiliar pattern. For me this suggests a production date soon after Contract bridge was introduced, say the late 1920s before the Contract scoring chart became standard.

One ingenious compromise was the “Perpetual Bridge Marker” (manufacturer unknown) which offered a compromise between gadget and paper and pen.

Here, a hinged metal frame was attached to a wooden base. Charmingly detailed instructions for use were printed on the back: “This Bridge Marker is made to hold a sheet of ordinary (Octavo) note paper which should be folded lengthwise so that each page is divided into two. By turning after every rubber, a sheet will provide storing accommodation for eight rubbers. Any other writing paper will answer if cut to size” .

Above: The “Buff” Bridge Tablet, with a dedicated pencil and separate honours and tricks sections.

Above: Auction Bridge instructions and scoring tables printed on the “Buff” tablet.

Above: A book-style Bridge scorer with a blank score sheet and pencil.

Above: A scoring table for the International Laws of Contract Bridge and Auction Bridge.

Bridge scoring pads were not confined to stationery producers. Even enterprising ceramics companies joined in. Some had been producing whist markers for many years; this one (left) was designed for those early years when each game of whist was played to ten points rather than five. And, although not a score pad, this ceramic trump indicator (right) showed the scoring chart for bridge-whist as well as reminding players of the current trump suit.

But some ceramics companies went further producing reusable pottery versions of the scoring pads, for which scores could be added in pencil and cleaned off for repeated use.

This first one pictured is by Carleton Ware and dates from around 1900 and, as can be seen by the scoring chart, was designed for “bridge-whist”.

Above: A reusable metal-framed Bridge marker with separate “We” and “They” registers.

Above: The reverse of a Perpetual Bridge Marker, with instructions and a Bridge scoring table.

Above: A ceramic Whist scoring marker for games played to ten points.

Above: A circular ceramic trump indicator combining the trump display with a Bridge scoring chart.

Much later a Staffordshire bone China version was produced by Elizabethan for Contract Bridge.

I could go on, but won’t, to illustrate the many other forms of scoring pad which were produced as Bridge-whist and Auction bridge finally evolved into Contract.

I have illustrated these pads and scoring charts to demonstrate how difficult it must have been for Victorian and Edwardian inventors to come up with designs of Bridge marker similar to those which had become commonplace for whist players. The unsuccessful Klik Bridge Counter, described above and elsewhere, was just one example. I had until recently thought it to be the only one as in all my searches I have not found another. Until, that is, I was examining the adverts in the back of card game books from the Late Victorian/Edwardian era and came across two more advertised in the back of an unlikely volume, “The Laws of Four-Handed Bezique”, published by De La Rue in 1903. I regret that I can only demonstrate these items from the

illustrations as I suspect that hens’ teeth are in plentiful supply compared with survivors of this particular type of marker.

Above: A reusable Carleton Ware ceramic Bridge scoring tablet.

Above: The reverse of the ceramic Bridge tablet, showing its maker’s mark.

Above: An Elizabethan Staffordshire bone-china Bridge scoring pad with cards and pen.

Above: An Elizabethan Staffordshire bone-china piece decorated with playing cards.

The first is ‘The “Warren” Bridge Marker’ offered in “Mahogany Colour and black”, with “ivory tongues” and retailing for 30/- a pair. (The Klik”

equivalent was 21/- and a pair of the Improved Foster’s Whist Markers was only 7/6). This was a “high end” product. I will not begin to try to explain how this was used in play, with various flip-up tongues and a double-sided slider down the centre. Suffice it to say that one can understand why paper and pencil won the day, quite apart from the expense involved.

The second example, also available from De La Rue (as wholesaler), was the smaller and much cheaper “Corona” Bridge Marker”, retailing at only 5/6 a pair.

Above: Advertisement for the “Warren” Bridge Marker with ivory tongues and a table of scores.

Above: Advertisement for the “Corona” Bridge Marker with sliding registers and gilt studs.

The “Corona” was “made of the finest consolidated Ivory Boards, richly Enamelled and Ornamented in colours, with sliding registers and Gilt Studs”.

The description and placement of the gilt studs suggests a design similar to that used for the “Cavendish” whist Marker, available from 1868. So this was an attempt to adapt an earlier, successful design to a new and rather more complex purpose. The advert wonderfully proclaims that use of this device “dispenses with the use of Pencil and Paper” – a good try from the marketing department, but I suspect not a successful one.

I have not yet found any examples of these advertisements after 1903, so these particular items may have been short-lived. If anyone has an original copy of either of these markers, I would be delighted to see photographs.