SCRABBLE REG. U.S. PAT. OFF.
Box top Scrabble sticker, c. 1949-1953. (Click to enlarge.)
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As you know from my page dealing with changes to the box top Scrabble rules, I've picked up a bunch of Scrabble sets dating from the early 1950s to at least 1989. I don't claim to be an expert in dating them, but I might have a few tips worth passing on.
For a start, we're only talking about the standard, basic Scrabble set, not deluxe or travel or anything unusual. And we're talking rough dating here, usually no better than within a couple of years or so, and in some stretches not even that refined. As modest and as obvious as these tips are, I offer them because, as far as I know, no one has addressed the subject on the web.
Before we get started, here is a useful thumbnail history of Scrabble, extracted from Word Freak by Stefan Fatsis.
1937-1947: Alfred Butts finalizes Criss-Cross Words. He sells about 100 sets.
1947: Butts turns the game over to James Brunot. Brunot weeds out a few
premium squares around the middle of the board; adds 50-point
bingo bonus; renames it Scrabble!
Summer 1948: Brunot starts production. He orders the gameboards from Selchow & Righter.
1948: 1948 SCRABBLE RULES.
1949: 1949 SCRABBLE RULES.
1949: 2413 games sold.
1950: 1632 games sold.
1951: 4859 games sold.
Summer 1952: 200 games/week. Brunot returns from vacation to find 2500 orders!
3rd Quarter 1952: 500+ games/week.
4th Quarter 1952: 2000 games/week.
Early 1953: 6000 games/week; but orders arriving by tens of thousands!
March 1953: Brunot licenses production and marketing to Selchow & Righter.
later 1953: 1953 SCRABBLE RULES.
1953: 800,000 games sold, regular and cardboard.
1954: 3,798,555 games sold.
Jan 1 1971: Brunot sells Scrabble outright to Selchow & Righter.
1976: 1976 SCRABBLE RULES.
1986: Coleco buys Selchow & Righter.
1989: Hasbro acquires assets of bankrupt Coleco. Milton-Bradley,
a division of Hasbro, produces Scrabble.
1989: 1989 SCRABBLE RULES.
The main information used for dating comes from inside the box top, below the rules. The first cut is simply the copyright date ascribed to the rules. That gives an earliest possible year for your game: 1948, 1949, 1953, 1976, or 1989.
You might be thinking, "Criminy, I needed somebody to tell me that?", but some people do jump to the conclusion that the last date they see is the manufacture date. You will find loads of Scrabble sets "from 1953" on eBay. Don't bet on it.
Also consider that somebody might just as well pick the date off the game board as inside the box top. This is even more misleading; the date on the board is not useful at all. The copyright there is for the board itself, and since it didn't change substantially through the years, it stayed put at 1948. It still says "1948" on boards from the Hasbro/Milton Bradley era, which started in 1989. This is, no doubt, the basis for almost all of the "1948" Scrabble sets you see on eBay. Buyer beware!
The next refinement comes from the identification of the manufacturer. If you stew over the above chronology a while, you will see that changes to the Scrabble box top rules generally did not happen in sync with a change in manufacturer or owner. This allows us to subdivide the periods in which the rules stayed constant.
Further refinement comes from dated leaflets included in the game. I have a few of these. I'd be very interested to hear from others who have inserts that can be pegged to certain time periods. Using that information, we should be able to determine when various design changes came about. This includes features such as the color and texture of the box and back of the board; the stickers and printed information on the box top; and the star-burst points on the premium squares.
Always be aware that there may be changes to Scrabble games within and between the time periods laid out here that I don't know about. I've worked from the sets I own, plus an examination of "vintage" Scrabble sets on eBay. I encourage you to fill in any gaps you find.
Let's get started.
I don't have a set from this earliest period. Do you? If so, get in touch! I'd love to see the original rules. Presumably, if you ever should stumble on one, it will be easy to recognize; there will be no date later than 1948 shown anywhere.
According to Word Freak, Scrabble's owner James Brunot assembled these games in his kitchen. He hired Selchow & Righter to make "a few hundred boards." Whether that represents the total number of games manufactured in this earliest period, or whether there were orders for more boards, I don't know.
I don't know where to view a 1948-issue Scrabble set, but if you dig around the National Scrabble Association site (find a link to "History") you can see the predecessor, Alfred Butts' Criss-Cross Words game board before it was modified slightly by James Brunot and renamed Scrabble.
This period begins with the appearance of the "1949" rules. I have a set from this period. The identifying text below the rules states:
Copyright 1949 by The Production and Marketing Corporation, Newtown, Connecticut.
I don't know what month in 1949 the "1949 rules" appeared. The cutoff for this period has to be about February 1953. The demand for Scrabble had grown so great that Brunot could not keep up. In March 1953, he licensed the production and marketing to Selchow & Righter. After that happened, it was so indicated in the box top. This set is clearly pre-Selchow & Righter.
Let's pause for a few words about James Brunot's company. As you see, it had the horribly lengthy and generic name, The Production and Marketing Corporation. In my view, that's one of the biggest drags in the exciting, early history of Scrabble Wouldn't a simple "J. Brunot & Co." have been far classier? Besides being monumentally dull and unwieldy, it will become stupendously misleading when, starting with the next dating period, Selchow & Righter handles the production and marketing for The Production and Marketing Corporation. Got it? Yuck.
In this pre-Selchow & Righter period, the circular, blue and yellow sticker in the upper left corner of the outer box top simply says:
SCRABBLE REG. U.S. PAT. OFF.
The narrow yellow border is text-free; in later periods, it will show Selchow & Righter's involvement. Inside the game lid, there is just a single-line border around the rules; in later periods, it will be a double line.
My set has a flier called WHAT WORD WOULD YOU ADD? showing a Scrabble game in progress on a table top. The insert appeared in following years, but with blank backs. The back of this one lays out Scrabble features in five line items. SCRABBLE is "absorbing"; "appeals to crossword puzzle fans"; "keen competition"; "fascinating and instructive game for older children"; "unexcelled vocabulary builder"; "an investment in lasting enjoyment."
One "feature" disappoints me a little: "SCRABBLE is played by two, three, or four persons. It is an especially fine two handed game." I'd like to think that game playing in the golden '50s would have been viewed as, "the more the merrier." I'm sorry to see there was a leaning toward anti-social, head-to-head, for-blood, tournament-style play so early on.
Although nearly identical to the Scrabble board everybody is familiar with, the board in this set has a few small differences. The "slick" pasted on the folding board truly is glossy, as opposed to the non-gloss playing surfaces that followed.
Beneath the Letter Distribution is the copyright notice for the board:
COPYRIGHT
1948 by
PRODUCTION
AND MARKETING
CORPORATION
--
NEWTOWN
CONN.
Note the snazzy red
(R)
that follows "SCRABBLE" on each side of the
board. You won't see that again.
You may know that, in the early years, the premium squares do not have the star-burst points on the edge. We'll see that had to come along some time after 1955. Selchow & Righter's name does not appear since, in this period, they were simply hired by Brunot to supply boards.
I wouldn't know when my set was manufactured within this period. Of course, I'd like to believe it really is from 1949 (ok, I'd settle for '50 or '51) but simple probability would suggest late. How rare and valuable is this, my oldest Scrabble set? Accepting those sales figures in the chart at the top, a rough calculation indicates about 100,000 Scrabble games with the 1949 copyright were sold before Selchow & Righter took over the production and marketing in March 1953.
Ok, so it doesn't look like my pre-Selchow & Righter set will be my retirement after all . . .
Even though the copyright still says 1949, this period begins about March 1953, when Selchow & Righter took over the complete production and marketing (but not ownership) of Scrabble. The endpoint for this period would be whenever the "1953 rules" appeared later in 1953. I have a set from this period. The statement below the rules shows Selchow & Righter's new role:
Manufactured by Selchow & Righter Co., New York, N.Y. for The Production and Marketing Corporation Copyright 1949 by The Production and Marketing Corporation
The round, blue and yellow "SCRABBLE" sticker on the box top has also added the manufacturer in the wider, yellow border.
MANUFACTURED BY SELCHOW & RIGHTER CO., NEW YORK, N. Y. SCRABBLE REG. U.S. PAT. OFF. FOR PRODUCTION & MARKETING CORP.
The rules in the box top are identical to the pre-Selchow & Righter
"1949 rules". Now there's a double-line border around the rules.
The WHAT WORD WOULD YOU ADD? flier is now blank on the back. The
playing surface of the board is now non-gloss. The (R) after "SCRABBLE"
on the four sides of the board is now plain black ink. The statement
below the Letter Distribution on the board now reads:
Manufactured by
SELCHOW & RIGHTER CO.
NEW YORK N. Y.
FOR
PRODUCTION
AND MARKETING
CORPORATION
This period starts with the appearance of the 1953 rules. These are the rules that added the "Turn 5" example (in which BIT is played) at the bottom of the rules. As explained above, the "1953 rules" came along after March 1953, the month when Selchow & Righter took over production (but not ownership) of the game, and, presumably, some time before the end of 1953. In the text below the rules, a copyright for 1953 is added to the list:
Manufactured by Selchow & Righter Co., New York, N.Y. for The Production and Marketing Company Copyright 1948, 1949, 1953 by Production and Marketing Company
Two of my sets from this period have a Selchow & Righter game catalog pamphlet prominently marked "1954":
1867 S&R 1954 Families for Four Generations Have Played S&R Fine Games
These sets with the 1954 game catalog have the round "SCRABBLE"
sticker on the box top with one little difference from the previous
sticker: the word "CORP." is replaced by "COMPANY":
MANUFACTURED BY SELCHOW & RIGHTER CO., NEW YORK, N. Y. SCRABBLE REG. U.S. PAT. OFF. FOR PRODUCTION & MARKETING COMPANY
Even though the rules have been tweaked since the previous
period, the 1954 game board is identical to the game board
of the previous period.
I have a set that, with a bit of sleuthing, can be pegged to 1955. The inner box top and the game board are identical to those of the previous period (beginning in "later 1953"). But it has a different Selchow & Righter catalog inserted:
S&R INVITATION TO PLAY
Nowhere does this pamphlet say "1955", but there
are some solid clues. It claims Selchow & Righter has been "creating
best-selling games for 88 years". If you add 88 years to Selchow & Righter's
birth year, 1867 (see the 1954 catalog), you arrive at 1955. In the
company's address, what had been "Dept. M" in the 1954 pamphlet becomes
"Dept. 55", looking suspiciously like a year coded in there. The two
18-page pamphlets are very similar to each other. They show the same
games with two exceptions. Two games dropped from the 1954 pamphlet
were replaced with Down You Go and Get That License. Web
research indicates "Down You Go" had a 1954 copyright, and thus cannot be
used to prove a 1955 date for the insert, but "Get That License"
was a 1955 game. That's certainly enough evidence. Of course, I can't
say exactly when the "1955" pamphlet appeared and how long was it used.
Curiously, the round sticker on the box top shows another small difference from the 1954 sticker. Now the word "COMPANY" is shortened to "CO.":
MANUFACTURED BY SELCHOW & RIGHTER CO., NEW YORK, N. Y. SCRABBLE REG. U.S. PAT. OFF. FOR PRODUCTION & MARKETING CO.
So, assuming that changes to the "SCRABBLE" sticker came along
in an orderly fashion, and Selchow and Righter did not capriciously
jump back and forth between them, we would conclude that "COMPANY"
puts the game's manufacture up through 1954, more or less, and "CO."
picks up in 1955.
Adding to the confusion is a third, orphaned, box top with a sticker otherwise identical to the 1954 "COMPANY" stickers, but with an added period: "COMPANY." (Yes, a period!!! Can you handle the excitement?) Does this period (i.e., dot) represent a further breakdown of the period (i.e., interval of time) under discussion?
Note that by 1955, the star-burst points around the premium squares still haven't made their appearance.
Uh oh, this is a long haul. It picks up with Selchow & Righter building a new factory in Bay Shore, on Long Island in 1956. It extends to 1971, the year when James Brunot sold Scrabble to Selchow & Righter outright.
I don't have many sets from this period. I may have owned several, but didn't see them as historically important. They would have been mined for their tiles and boards and racks in making Scrabble II sets, after which the shrapnel was thrown out.
So I've had to turn to that marvelous research tool, eBay. I dug around eBay for "vintage" Scrabble sets and have tried to construct a plausible chronology. Here is what I believe is an early, if not the earliest, model to roll out of Bay Shore:
Why do I think this model is "early Bay Shore"? For one thing, we
know it's from the Bay Shore factory because we can make out "Bay Shore"
on the board, under "Selchow & Righter". And the box top is simply
sticker-only as it was in the previous periods. Surely that predates the
more complicated box tops we'll meet further on. Note that a line of text
has been added to the sticker: "A Crossword Game". And is that a
shiny, foil sticker?
If this speculation is correct, then we've also pegged the appearance of the star-burst points around the premium squares to the early period of the operation of the Bay Shore factory, call it 1956 or 1957.
And while we're speculating up a storm here, what about the texture of the box top and the back of the board? All the sets we've seen from the pre-Bay Shore era had the irregular, organic grain. Later sets have an almost, but not quite, regular weave texture. The weave texture will remain the same as the burgundy color gets lighter and brighter into the 1970s. You see that here it's almost a dark brown.
The weave texture, with the weaves always slanted on a
45-degree angle, is surely what gives rise to the pattern we see in
the photo of the box top shown above. Any reason not to speculate
the weave texture and the star-burst points appeared simultaneously
from the Bay Shore factory, c. 1956 or 1957?
(Unfortunately, my "1955" set, with its irregular grain, old-style sticker, and straight-edged premium squares, might throw a damper on some of this speculation. It had a "Missing Tile" order form giving the Bay Shore address, "proving" a 1956 production date or later. It may be that someone (such as me) mixed up inserts from different sets, but even without that for an explanation, there could be a number of others. Maybe the address was for an office in Bay Shore, before the factory was running? Or maybe there was some overlap of production of the two factories for a while? Or perhaps some inventory got moved over? Etc.)
Notice a patent number makes its appearance in the information below the Letter Distribution. (You didn't notice?) What I know it says, from boards in later sets, is:
Manufactured by
SELCHOW & RIGHTER CO.
BAY SHORE, N.Y.
FOR
PRODUCTION
AND MARKETING
COMPANY
Patent No. 2,752,158
The patent, by the way, is for nothing but the star-burst points on the premium squares. The idea is, after putting a playing piece down on a square that causes an adjustment to the scoring, the player often has to pick the piece up again to see the adjustment. With the triangular pips peeking out, you don't have to pick the piece up again. The patent was filed by James Brunot and his wife Helen on October 28 1954. It was granted June 26 1956, which seems like a good, nominal date to use for the appearance of the star-burst points on Scrabble boards.
Up to now, all the Scrabble box tops had a round "SCRABBLE" sticker in the upper left corner, nothing more. It appears that this design was succeeded by one which retained the round "SCRABBLE" sticker but moved Selchow & Righter's manufacturing information to the lower right corner, stamped in gold. Here are two examples:
Note that, as indistinct as the photos are, there is enough definition
to conclude the two box tops are not identical. In the first photo, the
font size of "Selchow & Righter" recognizable in the lower right is noticeably
larger. In the second photo, the bottom line is definitely longer, relative
to the line above, than in the first photo.
I'm calling the second example the later one because it remains unchanged in the upcoming step in Scrabble's evolutionary chain. There we'll see what all that gold-stamped text says.
Now we come to a set in my collection that looks like it follows directly on the previous "hybrid" box tops. The box top sticker is gone, and in its place is a new, flowing Scrabble logo in a circle stamped in gold:
SCRABBLE crossword game
The manufacturer information is in the lower right corner of the
box top. It is identical to that seen in the second "hybrid" box top
example shown above.
SELRIGHT TRADE MARK REG. U.S. PAT. OFF. MANUFACTURED BY SELCHOW & RIGHTER CO., BAY SHORE, N. Y. FOR PRODUCTION AND MARKETING COMPANY MADE IN U.S.A.
The board is unchanged from the earliest board in this period shown
above, when "Bay Shore", the star-burst points, and the patent number
appeared.
Now I have an opportunity to examine an inner box top from this period and can report that it is unchanged from the first one with the 1953 rules. Selchow & Righter's address is still given as New York, N. Y., presumably for their office there. No reference to Bay Shore has been added anywhere inside the box top.
If I had to take a guess at the date of this game, I would say "early to mid-1960s". I figure it must have taken at least a few years from 1956 to pass through the three (at least) earlier box top designs to have come out of Bay Shore.
Here's a "1968" set found on eBay which is still sealed. Presuming the seller didn't pull "1968" out of the air, he must have read it on the color insert under the shrinkwrap. (Darn if I see any evidence of fine print, but I guess unobtrusiveness is what fine print's all about.) I'm willing to bet that once the loose, color sheet is removed, the design of the box top is identical to the one discussed above and the one that follows. The main point is that, for some time, there were eye-catching sheets under the shrinkwrap which may help in dating. And the sort of person who plays Scrabble is the sort of person who would save it neatly in the game box rather than throw it out. (Now how would I know that?)
Note that if we believe the 1968 date, it doesn't look like Scrabble
was gunning for the hippie market.
Here's another picture of a box top with the same design, found on eBay. If the brighter coloring is accurate - and meaningful - might this set be a tad later? Maybe 1970 or so?
One potentially handy bisection point in this 1956-1971 period
would be the implementation of zip codes in 1963. For Bay Shore,
the zip is 11706. I don't think the inner or outer box top or
the board began showing the zip code for a long time, but if you see it
on any inserted printed matter, that will set a lower limit on the
year of manufacture.
Let me know if you have evidence which helps to fix the date of design changes in this 1956-1971 period.
In 1971, James Brunot sold Scrabble outright to Selchow & Righter. At this point, all references to The Production and Marketing Company disappear completely from the game. The good, ol' 1953 rules are still in effect, though. The endpoint for this period is 1976, when new rules come along.
I have a set from this period which I can pinpoint to latter 1973. There was a Scrabble Players Newspaper from Fall 1973 included with the game. The identifying text below the rules inside the box top states:
Manufactured by Selchow & Righter Co., Bay Shore, N.Y. 11706 Copyright 1948, 1949, 1953 by Selchow & Righter Co.
On the box top, the Scrabble logo stamped in gold is the same as before. The manufacturer information printed in the lower right corner of the box top now appears as follows:
SELRIGHT TRADE MARK REG. U.S. PAT. OFF. MANUFACTURED BY SELCHOW & RIGHTER CO., BAY SHORE, N. Y. MADE IN U.S.A.
Notice the even brighter maroon?
The Production and Marketing Company is expunged from the board, too. Below the Letter Distribution, we see:
Manufactured by
SELCHOW & RIGHTER CO.
BAY SHORE, N.Y.
Patent No. 2,752,158
Prior to 1971, all the boards had a 1948 copyright ascribed to The Production and Marketing Company. Now it reads, "Copyright 1948 by Selchow & Righter Co."
I am unaware of any design changes within this 1971-1976 period, but that doesn't mean there weren't any.
This period begins with the 1976 rule tweaks. ("Tweaks"??? This is when the new challenge rule transformed Scrabble into Barroom Bluffer's Delight!) It ends in 1982 when Selchow & Righter gave the box a four-color face lift.
I have a set from this period. There are a few hand-written records in the box bottom, and the earliest date recorded is Jun 3 1979. (I made an 88-point play without a bonus. Doesn't sound too bad even now.) The identifying text below the new, 1976 rules states:
Manufactured by Selchow & Righter Co., Bay Shore, N.Y. 11706 Copyright 1948, 1949, 1953, 1976 By Selchow & Righter Co.
On the box top, the Scrabble logo is still the same as in
the 1960s. The SELRIGHT trademark disappears, replaced by
S and R Games, so the manufacturer information in the
lower right corner of the box top now reads:
S and R GAMES SELCHOW & RIGHTER CO. BAY SHORE, N. Y. 11706 MADE IN U.S.A.
The board is unchanged, with two tiny exceptions. The mystery
number "1776" appears below the manufacturer statement:
Manufactured by
SELCHOW & RIGHTER CO.
BAY SHORE, N.Y.
1776
Patent No. 2,752,158
My best stab at an explanation for "1776" is that Scrabble is Selchow & Righter's game No. 17, and 76 indicates the year of the last update. I notice my set from the upcoming 1982-1986 period has "No. 17" in the upper right corner of the box top. Anyhow, just a guess.
The other tiny change to the board is the copyright symbol (C) slipped in: "Copyright (C) 1948 by Selchow & Righter Co."
Later in this period, what I call the Selchow & Righter "peacock tail" logo replaced the "S and R Games" logo:
Besides being flashier than the "S and R Games" logo, I place this
one after it because the same logo is used, and colorized, on Scrabble
box tops in the next period, starting in 1982. I suppose that even in this
period the peacock tail was colorized on fliers inserted in the game.
This period begins with the retirement of our classy, beloved, maroon and gold Scrabble box. Now it's a full color picture of the top six rows of the board with a handful of tiles scattered to the left. I have a set from this period. The game maker has taken some of the sport out of this dating business by putting the year, 1982, right on the side of the box top.
Here's part of the new box top with the colorful NBC peacock tail:
The inner box top is identical to that of the previous, 1976-1982
period. The board adds the words "Brand Crossword Game" following
"SCRABBLE" on three sides of the board, and just the word "Brand"
below "SCRABBLE" on the left side.
The period ends in 1986 when Coleco bought out Selchow & Righter. Dear, old Selchow & Righter was wrecked when the bottom fell out of the Trivial Pursuit market. Curses upon Trivial Pursuit. I could almost explete.
This period begins with the acquisition of Scrabble by Coleco. It ends in 1989 when Coleco went bankrupt and was bought by Hasbro.
I don't have a Coleco set.
So there.
This period begins when Hasbro bought Coleco's assets, which included Scrabble. Milton Bradley, a division of Hasbro, took charge of Scrabble. The period ends with Milton Bradley redoing the classic colors of the Scabble board in early 2009, I think.
Milton Bradley served up slightly restated rules in 1989, which was added to the list at the bottom of the inner box top:
(C) 1948, 1949, 1953, 1976, 1989 Milton Bradley Company. All Rights Reserved. 4024
The board, bless its heart, says, "(C) 1948 Milton Bradley Company."
I have one Milton Bradley set. (Are they the people who introduced the sharp-edged tiles?) If there were any changes to the box or board within this period, I leave them to future Scrabble historians.
Oh, yeah, here's that later-1953-through-1954 "period" I was talking about:
MANUFACTURED BY SELCHOW & RIGHTER CO., NEW YORK, N. Y.
SCRABBLE
REG. U.S. PAT. OFF.
FOR PRODUCTION & MARKETING COMPANY.
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