What can we learn from mini-booklet advertisements?

Over the years I have collected a large number of mini-booklets and pocket guides offering rules and play guidance on a wide variety of games. Goodall and De La Rue guides were included in all of their retailed boxed sets and were available as purchases in their own right at 6d a time. Other producers had their equivalents. I have used these mostly to inform me about the development of particular games as rules have evolved and been modified over time. I have also used them to identify and date a particular whist or bezique boxed set by examining the description contained in the adverts.

But, at the same time, I have been intrigued by the advertisements themselves. Initially, in the mid-19^th century, the odd page was used to promote as many other products from that supplier as could be contained in a single spare page. As the century progressed and a new century arrived, the number of pages given over to adverts increased as did the variety of products presented. There must be something here to explore.

As a first step, I looked at the evolution of advertisements contained in De La Rue’s Bezique mini-booklets from 1869 to the 1940s which are in my own collection.

Above: The 1869 De La Rue Pocket Guide to Bezique by “Cavendish”.

Above: An 1869 advertisement for De La Rue books, Bezique cards and the Cavendish Whist Marker.

Above: An 1869 advertisement for “Drôle”, a new card game with rules and a guide by Cavendish.

In the first edition of the Bezique rules (1869) by “Cavendish”^[1], one page is reserved to promote five other “Cavendish” books, all published by De La Rue, of course, with some glowing testimony from critics writing in The Times and Field magazine. But the biggest plug is for Thomas De La Rue & Co.’s sets of Bezique Playing Cards “Complete with Markers and ‘Guide’ by ‘Cavendish’”. The quote from the Pall Mall Gazette, January 1869, offers the coup de grâce: “With a single exception, every publisher has thought proper to print rules which are absolutely unintelligible. Intending players should buy Bezique only when ‘Cavendish’s’ rules are sold with it.”

By the second edition, published in the same year, all quotes other than that from the Pall Mall Gazette are omitted in favour of creating space to promote the latest DLR card game, “Drole”, with rules and guide written, inevitably, by “Cavendish”. DLR also offer a “Drole” board “manufactured in a variety of styles” and ranging in price from 3s 6d to 42s each. In both editions all these products “may be had of all booksellers and stationers.”

By 1898 the game had evolved and both Bezique and Rubicon Bezique were being promoted, again by Cavendish. The fatter booklet offered more pages for more text and therefore an opportunity for more ads.

Above: The 1898 third edition of Cavendish’s Pocket Guide to Rubicon Bézique.

Above: Advertisement for Rubicon Bézique, boxed sets, markers and Cavendish’s guide.

Above: Advertisement for De La Rue’s patent “Pneumatic” playing cards.

Above: Advertisement for De La Rue’s “Pelican” self-feeding pen.

Above: Advertisement for the “Isobath” constant-level inkstand and “Swift” reservoir pen.

Above: An 1898 list of Cavendish guides covering Whist, Piquet, Bézique and other games.

De La Rue’s patent “pneumatic” playing cards offered alleged advantages in shuffling and dealing. DLR was also offering its own brands of fountain pen, as yet unnamed as such–“Pelican” and “Swift”–which were gathering momentum in popularity as the turn of the century approached. But for those still dipping their pens rather than filling them, there was the patented “Isobath” constant-level inkstand, together with a Mucilage jar, a type of glue, and the “Isobath” Stamp and Envelope dampener. In 1898 the middle classes did not lick their stamps and envelopes; they were encouraged to spend 10s 6d on a dampener, presumably some type of sponge-pad, to do it for them.

Finally, there is a familiar page of ads for books and guides to a wide variety of card games, all under the name of “Cavendish”.

A number of points from the 1898 ads are worthy of note.

First, the De La Rue company is by this time well advanced in realising the value both of advertising to create awareness of new products now available, and of the use of celebrity, “Cavendish”, to promote their products. They were also well aware of the hot competition from other producers in the marketplace, and of Goodall & Son in particular.

Second, the numbers of card and other games being promoted through the production of books and “Sixpenny Pocket Guides” was huge: whist, piquet, bezique, Rubicon bezique, Polish bezique, écarté, euchre, spoil-five, calabrasella, cribbage, and sixty-six, patience and “round games” as well as chess, draughts, dominoes, backgammon and billiards. All were written or “edited” by Cavendish. This range reflects the massive appetite in Britain at this time for parlour games and new forms of amusement in the years before radio and television.

Third, one has to marvel at the logistics. DLR must have had a production and distribution system of Amazon proportions, but without the technology, to write, design, print and produce this huge array of products and distribute them throughout the country to be able to fulfil their advertised promise that all of these products were available from “all booksellers and stationers”!

Finally, it is worth pointing out, as I examine these particular booklets and a variety of others, that the number of adverts included in a particular volume depended on the number of pages which were not being used for the basic text. Some of the other booklets at this time and later had only one page of ads or none at all. When only one “free” page was available, the standard inclusion was as long as possible a list of DLR books and booklets currently on sale.

My next example is from 1916, 16^th edition, in the middle of WW1.

Above: The 1916 16th edition of Cavendish’s Pocket Guide to Bézique.

Above: Advertisement for De La Rue’s Onoto self-filling fountain pen.

Above: A 1916 advertisement listing De La Rue publications on bridge and other card games.

Here, in the two sides available at the back of the booklet, we see that DLR have concentrated on one in-house pen, now called a “fountain” pen…the Onoto. Offering this “From 10/6” suggests that the pens, as well as all their boxed sets and other merchandise, were available in a range of different styles and colours at suitably modified prices. Now the pen is accompanied by offers of Onoto ink in various bottle sizes ranging in price from 6d to 2s a bottle and “best for fountain and other pens.”

The second page of ads, immediately inside the back cover, could not have been more tightly packed and offers a number of interesting features compared with earlier examples. First, there are no less than 12 publications concerned with bridge, and particularly auction bridge, the current state of evolution of the premier card game of the time; only two are concerned with whist, including one on solo whist, and there are two publications about poker.

The second issue of note is that a range of other authors are mentioned for the first time. The “Cavendish” domination of DLR-promoted publications ended with his death in 1899, aged 61. Although several of his products are still presented in his name, we now see references to “Bascule”, W. Dalton, “Hellespont”, F. Bergholt, “BOAZ”, W. H. Whitfield, “Tarbart” and “JAR”. But most important of all, there are five references to the person who during the previous decade had been Cavendish’s principal rival writing about whist and games, R. F. Foster. I have discussed the issue of pseudonyms elsewhere^[2]. Equally important to note, R. F. Foster’s books were not published by De La Rue, so we must assume that there was some sort of deal between DLR and these other publishers to pay DLR for the privilege of promoting their rivals’ books. It seems unlikely that this was done just to be helpful!

My next example is from 1937, fifteen years after Goodall & Son had been taken over by De La Rue. For some years after the takeover, DLR publications acknowledged the contribution of Goodall and its writers as can be seen below. The text is written by Angelo Lewis, also known as “Professor Hoffmann”, and “Camden”, whose identity is still unknown to me. This time the booklet has been printed to allow for nine pages of advertisements, including a full-page promotion on the back cover of Goodall’s Gold Medal Playing Cards, which DLR was continuing to produce because of Goodall’s long-standing reputation.

Above: The 1937 Rubicon Bézique and Bézique guide jointly attributed to De La Rue and Goodall & Son.

Above: A 1937 list of card-game publications, including Contract Bridge and Auction Bridge titles.

Above: Advertisement for De La Rue Contract Bridge scoring blocks with pencils.

Here, we can see in the publications being promoted the final phase of the transition from whist to contract bridge in its more familiar modern state. The Laws of Auction Bridge, 1932 are available for those still playing this form of the game, but so is the first edition of The Laws of Contract Bridge, 1935, together with a French variant of both, The Laws of Bridge-Plafond, 1937, which never really got off the ground. Most of the rest on this page are about the techniques of play in contract bridge, now that the rules are settled and their use is becoming widespread. As if to reinforce this position, page 2 offers two sizes of contract bridge scoring blocks, sold in dozens and complete with scoring charts on the back!

Five of the pages promote the sale of boxed sets of cards, markers, scoring pads, guides and all that is required to play the games concerned–in these examples, bezique, bridge and patience. All are offered in a variety of materials and quality, at prices ranging from 3s to 25/-.

The contribution of multiple authors is seen on a 6^th page of “handbooks” on familiar games–auction whist and bridge, patience games, bezique and Rubicon bezique, dominoes, poker, piquet, cribbage, solo whist, backgammon and rummy. The list, however, also includes new arrivals–“Draw-bridge”, “Chinese Bezique”, “Khanoo” and “Rummy Bridge”–underlining that the market is still interested in new games. It is also worth noting in passing that these “guides”, now called “handbooks”, are priced at 9d each, and not, as for the previous almost 80 years, at 6d. There are times when a change of name can be of financial importance!

My final example, by contrast, comes from the 1940s but is not specifically dated. Only a few years after the DLR-Goodall combined look of the 1937 example, this one is solely attributed to Thomas De La Rue & Co., although the authors and text are unchanged.

Above: Advertisement for a Bézique case containing two packs, markers and a guide.

Above: Advertisement for a Bézique case in imitation snake paper, containing cards, markers and rules.

Above: Advertisement for Goodall & Son Bézique cases in several styles and pack sizes.

Above: Advertisement for De La Rue Bridge cases fitted with Portland Club accessories.

Above: Advertisement for De La Rue Patience cases in various styles and leathers.

Above: A 1940s list of De La Rue handbooks on card games and related pastimes.

Above: A 1940s De La Rue advertisement for Rubicon Bézique and Bézique cases.

Above: Advertisement for Bézique cases containing card markers and rules.

Above: Advertisement for “Selected Patience Games” by Angelo Lewis, published by De La Rue.

Although there are seven pages, plus the back cover, which are not being used for text, only two are used for ads, and then in a very limited way, to refer only to a small number of other products which are available. The other five pages are blank. It is impossible to believe that a company which was so alert to the possibility of promoting sales would miss this opportunity and proceed with blank pages unless there was a very good reason, not just a change of policy. Was this the circumstances of World War 2 reducing the number of available skilled workers producing their products as workers were redeployed to produce munitions and other, more essential items? Many of the DLR factory workers were women who, in the 1940s, were taking on a wide range of different roles to support the war effort. Or was it a shortage of the huge variety of materials previously used to make the full range of DLR products and which were no longer available? Both of these factors were certainly in play.

But the more immediate problem may have been that in 1941 the DLR factory was hit by a bomb, and thereafter many of their items ceased production or were farmed out to other firms, such as Waddington, to fulfil existing orders. We may never know the full story, but it is interesting to see just how much information and possibilities can be deduced from examining a few advertisements.

Footnotes

1. Henry Jones, 1831–1899. ←
2. Tony Hall, “Whist writers and their pseudonyms”, WoPC, 2023. ←