The making of a Bridge or Bézique marker

A long time ago I used to be a school-boy and as such was always interested to see how things worked and were made. Seventy-odd years later I have long been intrigued by the manufacture and inner workings of my beloved whist and bezique markers, designed by Goodall & Son and subsequently copied around the world. I have an extensive collection of such markers^[1] designed for a variety of games, but always with the same basic internal design. Almost 150 years after many of them were made most of them still work as well as they did when they left the workshop where they were put together. I wonder how many of the gadgets we buy today will be equally functional 150 years from now?

However, one of the markers which I acquired had seen much better days and was falling apart. Here was my opportunity to answer some long-standing questions. This post-mortem was carried out on a Bezique marker but it might equally have been performed on any of the others using similar mechanics.

In summary, the marker was made up of a remarkable 33 separate elements: A shaped hard-wood base-plate with angled edges; a soft-wood internal frame; four sets of four brass springs; four single brass springs, two steel rods; 20 shaped and holed ivory “pop-ups” and a shaped hard-wood top plate. In addition, many of the ivory markers carried an appropriate number, and the top or bottom plate would normally carry the name of the maker, either in gold lettering or with a stick-on label.

This is how they look when assembled:

Above: the components of a Bezique marker: a wooden base, ivory numbered pop-ups and the cover plate.

I offer the following diagram and photos to illustrate how these markers were constructed internally.

Above: the internal layout of a marker, showing the wooden frame, steel rods, brass springs and ivory pop-ups.

Above: brass springs used to operate the marker’s ivory pop-ups, shown in two forms.

Above: ivory pop-up pieces, including numbered examples marked 50 and 5.

Hopefully, this diagram and pictures show:

1. The shape of the soft-wood internal frame which holds all the working pieces in place;
2. The design of the bent brass springs;
3. The shape of the “pop-ups” and how they are slotted on to the steel rods and rotate as far as is allowed when assembled;
4. The positioning of the brass springs and steel rods containing the ivory “pop-ups” inside the marker;
5. The profile of the hard-wood base plate is shown at the bottom ensuring that the shaped ivory pieces interact with the springs and stand upright or lie flat as required.

The Victorians were an extraordinary people, designing trains, constructing bridges, creating extravagant public buildings and so much more. But take a moment to marvel at the ingenuity of this small-scale design and reflect upon the men and women who made each of these elements with such precision and spent their lives assembling them and gluing them in place.

Footnotes

1. Tony Hall, “A New Look at the Evolution of Whist Markers and Gaming Counters”, WoPC, 2023, and “Bezique Markers, 1860-1960”, WoPC, 2022. ↩