This is one of those Roberts games that had a fairly long production run. It also demonstrates more readily than many the dangers of making assumptions about dating.
The game uses a series of cards bearing images of items with legs; furniture, animals, fowl, etc. The idea is to match pairs of cards, as in table and chair. This is done either by the unlikely chance that all the cards in one's hands are pairs, or else by buying cards 'at auction' to complete a pair. The snag is that whichever player is auctioneer only declares the number of legs on the card being auctioned, so that bidders are buying sight unseen.
The rules claim that a skilled and amusing auctioneer can cause much fun.
When an item is purchased, the winning bidder becomes the next auctioneer. The balance of the game is in protecting one's stock of cash whilst trying to make the correct matches to be able to lay down on the table a matched pair. The game ends when one of the players runs out of cards in hand, either through pairing them or selling them. The winner, however, is the one with the highest total value of cash in hand and paired cards; singles are not counted.
So far, so good.
The date is, however, unlikely to be that claimed by owners or sellers, although it may be. The usual means by which people date this game is the coins, which are most commonly well-made cardboard reproductions of coins of George V, dated 1916. This leads to claims that the game dates to 1916.
In some instances this is doubtless true, but far more frequently it will be wrong. The game has at least three designs of label, and was in production from the first decade of the 20th century to World War II. The potential for examples to remain on the shelves of shops beyond this must not be overlooked. As in archaeology, a firm date on something only indicates that it is likely to be on or after that date (assuming that the date was not a future one, which can usually be discounted) and not that it is precisely the right date.
So if you have believed that a game may be dated on the basis of the component parts you may be wrong, or if you think that a design for the lid or the game elements points to a specific date, you may be wrong there, too.
