Here are some lovely antique games that I found recently at an estate sale. I did a bit of research and found out that they were made by an English company named R. Journet. The Company is best known for producing compact, boxed, dexterity puzzles. They challenged the player to move items or ball bearings through mazes, obstacles and traps with the aim of accurately positioning these items in pre-determined locations or holes.
Robert Journet started in business with a toy shop in 1878 near Paddington, London and produced the first dexterity puzzles in the 1890s selling mainly in the UK and then expanding into the US from 1918.
He died in the 1930s and his son Frederick continued to expand the Company until taken over by Abbey Corinthian Games in 1965. Production continued into the 1970s.
Typically, advertisements of their other games were printed on the box base and were usually tongue twisters or numbered lists;
– "Popular Portable Puzzles Providing Positively Perplexing and Perpetually Pleasing Posers Presenting Persistently Provoking Problems Providing Profuse Pleasure, and Producing a Palliative or Placid Panacea to People Possessing a Propensity for Persistence, Patience, Perspicacity and Painstaking Propensities."
I will be selling these individually- please inquire by e-mail.
WINDSOR PLACE ANTIQUES 