c. 1900: An exceedingly rare Victorian draughts or checkers "Two-move restriction" balloter
Designed and produced around 1895-1910, an exceedingly rare "Karo" balloter made and registered by G.J. Bevens of 79 Bentham Road, South Hackney, London N.E. The Balloter consists a 3-inch square shallow leather(?) covered box with a hinged lid and brass catch, similar to a small jewellery case. Contained within is a freely rotating brass pointer moving around a printed and varnished card dial. Spinning the pointer stipulates the opening moves to be made in a game of Draughts or Checkers under the "Two-move restriction" rule, an improvement introduced in the 1890s to lessen the frequency of draws in competition games. 
G.J. Bevens appears to be unrecorded in the annals of draughts or checkers nor have we been able to determine absolutely what "Regd 520469" (printed on the card dial below the pointer in the main illustration above) refers to. However, the cumulative total throughout the years of numbers of registered applications for British patents reached the 520,000 level in 1900-01 so it is possibly a patent application reference number. It has also been suggested that this number could be a Design Registration number which would date the item a touch later, to 1909 although it is understood that such numbers were more normally printed in the format Rd No xxxxx rather then, as here, Regd 520469. On the same question of dating, it is interesting to note that the term the term London NE, which Bevens gives as his address, was an 1857/58 Post Office designation which was being phased out from the late 1860s onwards, again by the Post Office, in favour of London E. Having said that, some disgruntled local residents were still using NE in the early 1900s saying that saying that the designation E in place of NE had affected their property values (an early example of "Postcode blight"?). However, whatever the precise year of manufacture, the device can be dated, on stylistic grounds, to the late Victorian and early Edwardian period, substantially prior to the first World War. At that time, 79 Bentham Road was one of a row of terrace houses, the road having been developed some 50 years earlier in the 1850s. Further research in Victorian and Edwardian directories or Census returns might well throw up further information on G.J. Bevens. Bentham Road still exists today but suffered extensive bomb damage in 1940 during the second World War as a result of which the approximate site of No. 79 is now occupied by a tower block development (shown to the right hand side of the photograph below of modern Bentham Road). 
The typographical error "G.J," (with a comma) on the lid in place of "G.J.", coupled with the slightly uneven white lettering, suggests that this might be a one-off demonstration model, with the item perhaps never having gone into commercial production. In any event, this Balloter by G.J. Bevens of Hackney is an exceedingly rare, or perhaps even unique, early artefact to be used in applying the "Two-move restriction" rule, the first important innovation in the development of tournament and competitive Draughts and Checkers. In very nice condition with but a little loss of the yellow varnish on the dial, revealing the underlying printed white card. Also included with this item, and dating from the same late Victorian period, is a double-sided card, with printed rules but numbered in ink, showing the draughts/checker board layout with piece-square numbering from each player's side of the board, illustrated below.  
Although the card fits neatly inside the Balloter box lid, it is not known whether this is part of the original Balloter item as made by Bevens or an ad-hoc addition by a subsequent owner. In this cataloguer's opinion, the former is far more likely; later researchers may be able to give a definitive answer. All in all, a fine piece to include in an historical draughts or checkers collection. |
|
£275 including first class insured postage in Britain
|
© www.UniqueOrRare.com