Sefite card game
“Sefite” card game, Woolley & Co,. Ltd, London, c.1905
Woolley & Co aimed to make the world a merrier place and produced numerous card games in addition to standard playing cards. In those days card games were very popular due to their educational benefits as well as for recreation. Contemporary reviews describe the games as “excellently produced” with a finish that “scarcely leaves anything to succeeding ages”. This was one of the last games published by Woolley as they were dissolved around 1905. Their Funny Families, Old Maid and Street Cries Snap were taken over by Roberts Brothers Ltd (the Glevum series). “Sefite” and “Oosehe” were dropped. Roberts Brothers were in turn taken over by Chad Valley in 1954.




Above: “Sefite” card game manufactured by Woolley & Co Ltd, London c.1905.

By Rex Pitts (1940-2021)
Member since January 30, 2009
View ArticlesRex's main interest was in card games, because, he said, they were cheap and easy to get hold of in his early days of collecting. He is well known for his extensive knowledge of Pepys games and his book is on the bookshelves of many.
His other interest was non-standard playing cards. He also had collections of sheet music, music CDs, models of London buses, London Transport timetables and maps and other objects that intrigued him.
Rex had a chequered career at school. He was expelled twice, on one occasion for smoking! Despite this he trained as a radio engineer and worked for the BBC in the World Service.
Later he moved into sales and worked for a firm that made all kinds of packaging, a job he enjoyed until his retirement. He became an expert on boxes and would always investigate those that held his cards. He could always recognize a box made for Pepys, which were the same as those of Alf Cooke’s Universal Playing Card Company, who printed the card games. This interest changed into an ability to make and mend boxes, which he did with great dexterity. He loved this kind of handicraft work.
His dexterity of hand and eye soon led to his making card games of his own design. He spent hours and hours carefully cutting them out and colouring them by hand.