The Club Series by G. Bell & Sons

As readers will know, in the late 19^th and early 20^th century there was a huge interest in card games of various kinds. As a result, book publishers were swift to respond to this demand and the number of games-related books and periodicals throughout this time was enormous. They ranged from the large and relatively expensive games compendiums, mainly in the name of Hoyle, to the sixpenny pocket guides or mini-books which were sold separately or contained within boxed sets for all the popular games such as whist, piquet, bezique and so on.

But there was one company which catered for games publications which were more substantial than the pocket guides, and far less expensive than the large tomes. This was George Bell & Sons who, from the late 1880s until at least the mid-1930s, produced The Club Series of books, each specialising in one or more of the popular games of the period and retailing at the unchanging price of 1/- (one shilling). I know that the series started in 1889 but am not absolutely sure when it ended, although the latest of the series in my collection is dated 1934. The look and style of this series will be familiar to anyone who has delved into the history of games’ literature.

George Bell & Sons was a remarkable educational publisher covering a vast range of topics from Arithmetic to Shakespeare, from Continental Churches to the Queen’s Treasures, from Classic literature to the Scientific Method. So prolific was this company that the Wikipedia entry exploring the history of the company cites 24 series of books for which they were responsible and does not even include the Club Series which is the subject of this article! But my intention here is not to examine the company as a whole but to focus on its contribution to the literature on card games through this particular series of books.

In 1864, Bell and Daldy, later G. Bell & Sons, bought Bohn’s Libraries – a huge repertoire of books published by Henry George Bohn which produced, among many other things, compendiums of cards and other games. Bohn’s “Handbook of Games” was first published in 1850 – “Written and Compiled by Professors and Amateurs” – and was frequently reprinted until 1884, initially by Bohn himself and then by Bell & Sons. This was for many years, according to Jessel^[1], the standard handbook of games in England, and had enlarged and improved versions produced in America.

In 1890, the original Bohn’s Handbook was superseded by the first volume of an enlarged edition published by G. Bell & Sons with contributions by well-known writers – Dr. William Pole, Major-General Drayson, Robert F. Green and others – together with edited sections by “Berkeley” (W. H. Peel), about whom little is known. Volume II, specialising in card games, followed in 1891.

George Bell’s sons, Edward and Ernest, who took over the primary responsibility for running the company from 1888, saw a new and potential market. The large handbooks of games, albeit in two volumes, did not necessarily cater for the mass market of games consumers with less to spend, and the idea of breaking the handbook down into specialist volumes was born. Two new series were created as a result.

Above: The All-England Series: Boxing, by R. G. Allanson-Winn (1889).

Above: The All-England Series: Swimming, by W. H. Roberts (1890).

Above: The All-England Series: Fencing, by H. A. Colmore Dunn (1899).

Above: The All-England Series: Lawn Tennis, by J. H. M. Forbes (1904).

“All-England Series” was described as “Handbooks of Athletic Games”, including cricket, lawn tennis, Rackets and Fives, Golf, Hockey, Rowing and Sculling, Sailing, Swimming, Canoeing, Mountaineering, Boxing, Wrestling, Fencing, Riding, Ladies’ Riding (!) and many others.

This left The Club Series to concentrate primarily on cards and table games. Both series were sold at 1/- each and were, for many years, in hardback covers.

The first of the Club Series books – Whist, by Dr. W. Pole – was published in 1889. In the same volume, the next five additions to the series were advertised as already available or in various stages of preparation: Billiards, Chess, Draughts & Backgammon, Piquet, Écarté & Euchre, Bezique & Cribbage and Round Games. (Round Games included Napoleon, Poker, Loo, Vingt-un, Newmarket, Pope Joan, Speculation, Spin, Cassino, Commerce, My Bird Sings, Snip-Snap-Snorum, Cuckoo, and Spoil Five.)

While the first and second volumes were obviously going to be a success – Whist and Billiards, both by well-known authors – the next one was far from straightforward.

Above: The Club Series: Whist, by Dr. W. Pole.

Above: The Club Series: Draughts & Backgammon, by “Berkeley.”

Above: The Club Series: Piquet & Rubicon Piquet, by “Berkeley.”

Above: The Club Series: Écarté and Euchre, by “Berkeley.”

“Bezique and Cribbage” by “Berkeley” was published as planned in 1890 but was immediately withdrawn after it was revealed to have been “mainly pirated” from “Cavendish” – Henry Jones – who eventually agreed to a much-edited and reduced text before it could be published again later in the same year^[2]. The ill-fated original text was 96 pages long, reduced to 63 after what must have been some serious negotiations. Eventually, in 1890, Berkeley’s Écarté & Euchre, and Piquet and Rubicon Piquet also appeared; edited versions of his sections in the Bohn’s Handbook. All Berkeley books in the series, and presumably the others too, were also published in the States by F. A. Stokes, New York.

Above: The Club Series: Bezique & Cribbage, by “Berkeley.”

By 1892, Bell had added Solo Whist, The Two-move Chess Problem, Dominoes & Solitaire, Reversi & Go Bang, Skat, and Card Tricks & Puzzles.

Above: The Club Series: Solo Whist, by R. F. Green.

Above: The Club Series: The Two-Move Chess Problem, by B. G. Laws.

Above: The Club Series: Dominoes and Solitaire, by “Berkeley.”

Above: The Club Series: Card Tricks & Puzzles, by “Berkeley” and T. B. Rowland.

By 1898, “Parlour and Playground Games” by Mrs. Laurence Gomme was added to the list. Every volume containing a list of Club Series books describes the title and author in this way. However, the title page personalises her identity as Alice Bertha Gomme and acknowledges her other books on a similar theme. Both she and her husband were substantial authors focussing on history and folklore.

Above: The Club Series: Parlour & Playground Games, by A. B. Gomme.

Above: Title page of Games for Parlour and Playground, collected and arranged by Alice Bertha Gomme (1898).

Above: The Club Series: Bridge, by Templar.

In 1904, an unidentified author using the pseudonym “Templar” had a stab at writing an introduction to the relatively new game of Bridge (later called Bridge-whist). He admits to “having played it extensively…during the last two or three years with more success than failure”, but he is clearly still coming to terms with this new creation and admits that he has written this “treatise without reference to any other work on the subject”. It was, after all, a very new version of a well-established game, and all concerned were working out how it was best played in practice. It is always difficult to impart knowledge to others when you are in the process of learning yourself.

Understandably perhaps, given the gambling history of whist, “Templar” is keen to emphasise the importance of setting limits on stakes prior to play to avoid losing more than a player can afford as the potential for rocketing sums was far greater than when playing traditional whist.

By 1905, the series had been extended further, not only by Bridge, but by Hints on Billiards, and The Chess Openings. The two-volume Bohn’s Handbook is still being advertised at this point, accompanied by the message that “different sections…may be had in 11 separate volumes, price One Shilling each”, but this was the last time reference to Bohn would appear. Perhaps the sales of the rather out-dated Bohn had subsided by this time when faced with severe competition from other, more substantial compendiums, and as sales of the Club Series were doing well. Some volumes at least were reprinted many times.

By 1921, the familiar hardback covers had been replaced with soft, paper and cloth backs, presumably with an eye on production costs. All the earlier titles were still available but “Bridge” had been replaced by “Six-Handed Bridge”. It is a bit of a mystery why, after producing Templar’s Bridge that, as far as I can tell, the series did not extend its coverage to include Auction and eventually Contract. And why, given the importance of these new forms of the game, Bell & Sons would ignore the mainstream and get involved in promoting something as relatively obscure as six-handed bridge!^[3] Perhaps by this time, the steam was running out of the old texts, reprinted many times, and enthusiasm for new products was waning. I regret that this is one volume missing from my collection so, for the moment at least, I can offer no explanation of how this game would have been played, or the cards sourced.

By 1927 the variously described “School and Parlour Games” or “Parlour and Playground Games” had been dropped from the list, but otherwise the same titles continued to appear.

I have not (yet) been able to establish precisely the point at which George Bell & Sons ceased production of the Club Series. The latest copy in my collection is a reprint of Chess by R. F. Green published in 1934. This is the eighteenth reprint of this volume since 1890. Perhaps, instructively, it includes a list of Bell’s Chess Books but there is no list of either the All-England Series or The Club Series as was the case in almost all of its predecessor volumes. Perhaps the 1930s did mark the end of an era for these august and very popular series.

Footnotes

1. Frederic Jessel, Biographies of Works in English on Playing Cards and Gaming, 1905. ←
2. Frederic Jessel, op. cit. ←
3. Peter Burnett, Sextet: 6 handed bridge, WoPC, June 2023. ←