Boxed board game, Auctioneer, made in England between 1920 and 1929; Card and wood, English, 1920-29

A red card box with a pictorial label showing the title and people playing, containing 26 cards, each with an illustration, its title and the name of its pair, 48 card coins, printed in brown, representing coins of the realm - six 1/- (shilling), eighteen 6p (sixpence), twenty four 3p. (threepence); these are square cards 1 1/8in, 7/8in and 3/4in sq. respectively, an instruction card and a wooden hammer.

Given by Mrs J M Measday

All the coins are dated 1916.

Rules:
NEW GAME OF ACUTIONEER. INSTRUCTIONS.

Deal the cards round. Share out equally the coinage counters. (If only a few are playing instead of using all the coins fix a definite amount, say 5/- each). The game is to make as many pairs as possible, thus, Bull and Cow, Chair and Table, etc. When a pair is obtained the cards must be placed aside and are considered of the value 5/-.
The game is started by one of the players taking the Hammer and putting up for sale one of the articles representedon the cards; the only indication that the Auctioneer must give, is the number of legs the thing has, not naming the article itself, and as there are a number of articles etc with the same number of legs, players therefore bid on the off-chance that the card will pair with one they are holding. An Auctioneer that is witty and versatile can create great amusement. The purchaser of a card then becomes the Auctioneer, and in this way the game is continued until one play is out (having paired or sold all his cards), when the game is at an end the winner being the one who has the most value in pairs and loose coins (the unpaired cards do not count), thus if a player has three pairs (value 15/-) and coins to the value of 4/9 tht player is worth 19/9. If a player has two pairs (value 10/-) and coins 10/3 that player would be worth 20/3 and be the winner of the game.
The above method of play may be varied by the Auctioneer being taken in turn instead of by the purchaser of the last card, in other respects the game is the same. When there are only 3 or 4 players the game may be found more enjoyable if some of the pairs are withdrawn and the game played with less cards.

NOTE:- The name at the top of a card is the article to be sold, the name at the bottom of the article is the article wanted to make a pair.

Roberts Brothers, Gloucester, British manufacture, made in England
trademark Glevum Series in a diamond with a man's helmet head

Roberts Brothers of Gloucester used the Glevum Series trademark and were prolific publishers of table, board and card games from 1890 to 1957. The Game Auctioneer was first produced by the company in 1905 and is a card matching/collecting game. This example, which does not appear to have been played with much, is one of the later versions of the game. Despite the coins in this game being dated 1916, the date of production is at least twenty years later.

MISC.166-1983