gallery

In The Palm Of Your Hand: Dexterity Puzzles

(note: this online exhibit is currently being installed and is not yet complete, please visit again!)

"A good puzzle should be simple in idea. It should explain itself without any long instructions and it should look attractive." Robert William Journet, 1927

Dexterity puzzles - also known as palm puzzles, games of skill and hand-held games - have been a source of fascination for adults and children since the Nineteenth Century.

The simple hand-eye challenge of rolling a ball into a hole, or sliding, nudging and tilting a capsule through a maze, has proved to be among the most delightful, maddening, and enduring diversions of the

Ferris Wheel Puzzle, 1893
Columbian Mfg Co., Baltimore, Maryland
Wood, paper, glass

Query Puzzle , c.1900
R. Journet, London
Wood, glass, cardboard

The Silver Bullet, 1914
Dexterity puzzles mirror the social history of the times as witnessed by the number of puzzles produced during the First and Second World Wars. There were several games that featured soldiers, zeppelins, and trenches. In 1914, the British firm of R.F. & S made the game entitled The Silver Bullet, it was also known as the Road to Berlin. The object of the game is to get one silver ball to traverse a treacherous route to Berlin.

Dentist, c.1920
Germany was a center of toy manufacturing and distribution in the 1800s and early 1900s. German puzzles mass-produced after 1890 bear patent marks such as the initials “D.R.G.M., “ an abbreviation for Deutsches Reichs Gebrauchmuster. The German puzzles are round, chromolithographed tin with a mirror on the back. The subject matter is varied and includes everything from a stork delivering a baby to a dentist giving medicine to a patient with a toothache.

Stork, c.1910
Germany
mirror on back, tin, glass

Coat on Hook,

Shoes,

C.J. Kenny, Photographer, c.1920
German
Tin, glass, mirror on back

Charlie Chaplin,

Coronation,

Simplon Tunnel,

Smoker, c.1920
German
Tin, glass, cardboard, mirror on back

Frog and The Fly,

Poodle, c.1920
Germany, Souvenir from the Universal Theatres Concession Co. of Chicago Advertisers frequently used dexterity games to sell goods and services. In the 1920s, for example, The Universal Theatres Concession of Chicago commissioned many different penny toys from Germany to be made incorporating their UTCC mark. These toys were sold with candy or given to children as a novelty in movie theatres.

Politics,

Catch the Coconut, c.1920

Dog with Cigar, c.1910
Tin, glass, mirror on back

Who Catches Us?,
Germany
Tin, glass, cardboard

Umbrella,

The Bughouse, 1921
Bar Zim Toy Mfg., New York
Tin, glass, cardboard, capsules w/ball bearings

Greater Panama Canal , c.1930
Dexterity puzzles were made to commemorate events such as the building of the Panama Canal and Charles Lindbergh’s Flight from New York to Paris in 1927. Few flights have been as celebrated as Lindbergh’s transatlantic flight in his Spirit of St. Louis airplane and souvenirs were made to meet the public’s interest.

NY to Paris Aero Race , 1927
Bar Zim Toy Mfg. Co., U.S.A.
Tin, glass, cardboard, capsules

Dionne Quintuplets, 1934
Bar Zim Toy Mfg., New York
Tin, glass, cardboard

Atomic Bomb, c.1940
A.C. Gilbert, USA
Metal, cardobard, glass

Keep 'Em Rolling,

Supermarket, 1940
Colmor, USA
Tin, cardboard, glass

Whirligig, c.1920
The firm of R. Journet and Company of London designed more than one hundred innovative glass-top dexterity games beginning in 1891 and continuing through the 1960’s. At age 22, Robert William Journet (1859-1931) opened a toy and fancy goods shop, and in 1885 installed a workshop upstairs for his father, where to keep himself busy the older Journet made glass-topped puzzles. These would later become the inspiration for a line of puzzles that filled the shop’s inventory when the outbreak of war in 1914 made imports from Germany impossible. The first British Industries Fair in 1918 produced orders for large numbers of Journet’s puzzles especially from the United States and marked the real beginning of the firm’s puzzle manufacturing business and worldwide distribution. The line of puzzles became known as the R.J. Series of Popular Puzzles. The puzzles are usually

The Lone Ranger #4, c.1930
T.L.R., Inc., U.S.A.
Tin, glass, cardboard

Elsie, The Borden Cow, 1941
Tin, glass, cardboard

Girl, c.1940
Japan

Baby, c.1935
Japan

In The Palm Of Your Hand: Dexterity Puzzles - More about the exhibition

modern age, despite, or perhaps because of its sheer simplicity. Soon after the games became popular with the public beginning in the late 1800s, they were produced in large numbers in the United States, England, France, Japan and Germany. The games could be found in doctors' offices, train stations, and in rainy-day game rooms of seaside resorts - in essence, anywhere that required waiting. They were even nicknamed "patience games."

But whether straightforward or tricky, dexterity puzzles are objects of popular culture, as reflections of history, as advertisements, illustrations and graphic design they are a rich and revealing world. In The Palm Of Your Hand features Barbara Levine's collection of dexterity puzzles from around the globe, dating from the earliest fads of the 1880's to the precursors of today's electronic hand-held games. Her collection was the focus of a 2002 exhibition entitled In the Palm of Your Hand: Dexterity Games 1880-1960, presented by the San Francisco Main Pubic Library.

On view in this gallery are a few examples of the different styles of dexterity games. Each manufacturing country tended to use different materials and graphics. French games were typically glass and cardboard boxed sets with ornate patterned paper and lids. German puzzles were round glass-topped with chromolithographed tin and often included a mirror on the reverse. Games made in the United States were usually square and made of inexpensive tin and cardboard. The firm of R. Journet and Company of London designed more than one hundred innovative glass-top dexterity games beginning in 1891 and contuing through the 1960's. Japanese puzzles are usually round and double sided including two games in one. Dexterity games are affectionately known as your grandfather's gameboy and included in this exhibition are also a few of the earliest electronic hand held games.

LET THE GAMES BEGIN!