Whist marker boxes

Anyone who has read any of my articles on this website will have gathered that I collect boxes associated with card games. I have many dozens of boxed sets of cards for whist, patience, bezique, bridge-whist, auction bridge, contract bridge, canasta, pinocle, poker patience, Kuhn Khan, etc. You name it and somewhere in my study there will be one, probably more, boxed sets of this type. They come in all shapes, sizes and materials, from the tiny leather or cardboard boxes of “Elfin” (Goodall & Son), “Pigmy” (De La Rue) or “Little Duke” (US Playing Card Co.) designed for patience games to huge boxes of games compendiums offering a variety of games…and all points in between. They are not rare and there is a huge range of quality from the “falling apart” variety to those which look as if they have only just been made. This latter group, I suspect, were Christmas, birthday or wedding presents which have been stored unused in a drawer from the day they were received until they found their way on to eBay, frequently with a grossly inflated price because they are old!

While playing card boxes are not rare, the boxes containing “loose” whist markers are much less frequently found. Most would have been discarded soon after they were purchased and their contents stored separately. If you do find an original box it is usually falling apart, and frequently does not house the item which it originally contained. I have a few examples of these rare survivors.

Here are two examples from Goodall & Son, all of which were hugely popular in the 1870s and beyond.

Above: Two Camden Whist Markers with their original boxes.

Above: Camden Whist Markers showing their wooden boards and ivory indicators, with their boxes.

These are both boxes of “Camden” Whist Markers named after the district of London in which Goodall & Son was based for many years after their move from Soho to find larger premises as the company grew. All markers were sold in pairs, one for each playing partnership at the whist table. The markers on the left were packed one on top of the other and were the cheaper version with “pop-ups” made from contrasting woods. The version on the right, packaged side by side, were the more expensive version in hardwoods with pop-ups made from ivory.

The Camden Whist marker was being advertised by Goodall & Son in 1872 as a new product.

Above: Advertisement for the Camden Whist Marker, describing its styles and ivory indicators.

The second type of markers produced by Goodall were named after another district of London, “Pall Mall”. I presume this was because this was the area of the city which housed most of the gaming and recreational clubs.

Above: Two Pall Mall Whist Markers with their original box.

Above: Pall Mall Whist Markers showing the reverse of the boards and their box for long and short whist.

The left-hand example has the very large label on the front of the marker and they were stacked one above the other. On the right is the more modest version of the “Pall Mall” marker with the tiny name label on the back. This boxed pair were laid side by side in a box twice the size of the others. It has never been clear to me why one version of the same-named product has a tiny name tag on the bottom side, while another has a hugely ornate design across the middle of the top. Was this an evolution in promotion to get the name better known? Was it reflected in the price purchasers were expected to pay? Who knows? If someone out there does, please let me know.

My last two examples of Goodall boxed markers show the evolution of the genre.

Above: Two Foster Whist Markers with a Chas. Goodall & Son box.

Above: Advertisement for the patented Foster Whist Marker, made in wood and ivory.

The “Foster Whist Marker” was a new design marketed from the 1890s and pictured here with an advertisement from 1908. Instead of “pop-ups” this new design used revolving “indicating devices” which were made of ivory in the expensive examples, and from contrasting woods for the cheaper versions. The markers lie side by side in the box. It is worth noting, in passing, that in the same 1908 publication^[1], the “Camden” whist and bezique markers are also still being advertised.

One further Goodall example is a rare find: the combined “Cribbage and Whist Marker”, with sliding compartment containing small scoring pegs.

Above: A Camden Combined Cribbage and Whist Marker with its box.

At this point in its evolution, cribbage was played two-handed with five cards each, aiming for a winning score of 61. For whist, the pop-ups were used in the usual way. The markers are boxed one on top of the other. I particularly love this box because two of the corners are repaired using what looks like the marginal edges of a sheet of penny red stamps which ceased production in 1879!

My final example is from Goodall’s main rival, De La Rue.

Above: The Portland Whist Marker by Thos. De La Rue & Co., with its box.

The “Portland Whist Marker” was named after the celebrated London Club, “The Portland”, recognised through most of the whist-playing world as the final arbiter on the rules by which whist and other card games are played. This boxed pair, one on top of the other, are in the Goodall “Camden”/“Pall Mall” design but carry no markings on the markers themselves, only on the box. I have searched extensively and have found no examples where the markers themselves carry a name or logo. This seems unlikely for a company which was well-versed in self-promotion and advertising, but it may have been a hurried effort to keep up with the obviously massive sales being secured by Goodall at this time. If anyone can find a marker carrying the name Portland, please let me know and send me a picture.

I suspect that De La Rue were late to the market with a wooden, pop-up style marker. As late as 1889, in the back of William Pole’s book “The Philosophy of Whist”, amidst pages of adverts for De La Rue publications, they are still offering “Cavendish” markers for whist, Piquet and Bezique.

Above: Cardboard Cavendish Whist Marker by De La Rue & Co.

Above: Wooden Cavendish Whist Marker by De La Rue & Co.

These were very popular from 1868 when the patent was first granted, and became the standard whist marker, usually in cardboard, in the absence of alternatives. They even tried a more expensive wooden version (right) but these were swiftly superseded in the 1870s by the various superior pop-up designs from Goodall.

Above: The Klik Whist Marker by Thos. De La Rue & Co.

By 1901^[2], DLR were promoting their “Klik” series of markers, and so had moved from the cardboard “Cavendish” design to a completely new product, pausing only briefly to market a blank “pop-up” version in the style of Goodall.

Sadly for DLR, soon after this date, scoring markers were quickly superseded themselves by scoring pads as players realised that it was easier to use a paper and pencil to score the various versions of bridge than the gadgets so useful during the earlier whist years.

One final thought. When collecting artifacts, don’t forget the boxes. They are not as crucial in the market place as are the boxes which toy collectors crave (frequently more valuable than the toys themselves), but they do help to tell the story–even the repairs–and should be cherished.

Footnotes

1. Captain Crawley, “Whist for all Players”, Chas. Goodall & Son, 1908. ←
2. Tarbart, Games of Patience, Thos. De La Rue & Co., 1901. ←