(If you've gotten here by accident and don't know what's going on, click WHAT THE HELL IS A WHIST COUNTER? If you don't know the difference between a Whist Counter and a Whist Marker, click WHAT THE HELL IS A WHIST MARKER?)
Whist counters have been made in many different kinds of materials including gold (see the bottom of the page), silver and other metals, ivory, lacquer, cardboard and every kind of rare wood imaginable. Here are a tortoise shell pair, complete with leather presentation case.
Also interesting are counters that vary from the Goodall and De La Rue designs. Many of these were invented to accomodate the American version of whist. Short whist counted points to five, but the American version of the game counted points to seven. We have already seen a De La Rue design that catered to this point arrangement:
Naturally the Goodall design could be adapted for seven points, too (though probably by a manufacturer other than Charles Goodall & Son):
But Americans are notoriously irregular and apparently began bending the rules about scoring. How else do explain this counter, which is undoubtedly for American Whist (the caption on the front read "American Whist Counters"):
Perhaps the above American Whist counter really could score games to seven. There are seven pegs at the bottom; maybe the other pegs were for tricks. Or treats. However, the Anderson Whist & Game Counter, given a U.S. Patent on July 8, 1884, clearly had higher ambitions -- the pegs here are numbered up to 180.
Here is another American invention, the Gem Whist Counter by F & Co. Art Specialties, patent pending. The metal beads slid around the track to keep score, and the trump suit could be indicated at the bottom. Notice there are ten beds on the top track and five on the bottom. But why are some beads in a different color? Manufacturer's problem or vital clue?
And what could the thing below be? We know it's American because it's made of Bird's Eye Maple -- not a wood that is found in Europe or the Orient.
Needless to say, the classically simple and elegant Goodall design registered in 1888 sent attempts like the Anderson, the Gem and others into oblivion, but homemade whist counters never lost their charm. A numbered ribbon pulls through a painted cardboard body on the ones below. "What shall I play?" asks the little girl with a banjo. What indeed? One counter is numbered to seven points and games, the other to nine:
Then there were counters that are inscrutable. Japanese counters were fairly common, but here is a Chinese pair -- we can say so definitively because they still have their original boxes marked "Hoaching, Canton." These counters are both made of ivory -- the red is a dye that was brushed on (you can see the brushstrokes). At first glance these counters seem to be like the first kind of counters that I found, but a closer glance reveals that they don't have this type of counter's characteristic ten peg configurement -- they have nine pegs. What game was this?
Also of worthy of comment with these strange Chinese nine-peg counters is the workmanship. Clearly the Chinese hadn't perfected their knock-off skills as well as the Japanese. The backs of these counters are fastened with screws, while the manner of attachment in the Japanese counters is invisible:
Finally there are counters in a class by themselves such as the one below in lacquer, decorated with solid gold by the legendary Russian jeweler Carl Fabergé. If you've read the Great Peg Count Mystery, you'll know that I used to believe that this kind of counter was for Bridge Whist but now know they are for the game of Piquet. I'm not the only one that was confused. In "Antique Gold and Enamelware in Color," by Howard Ricketts (Barrie & Jenkins, Ltd, 1971) where the illustration appeared, these are identified as Bezique counters, 4 1/4 inches wide.
Fabergé didn't work exclusively for the Tsars, of course, so it's impossible to know whose hands held these counters (or what game they were playing). However, whist was a favorite game of the Russian royal family,
Catherine the Great, legendary among ferocious tyrants, was also a devoted whist player (like many other of the crowned heads of Europe). According to William Mill Butler's "Whist Reference Book," the best and the definitive book on the subject, Catherine one day rang for a page who was at a critical stage of whist game in the anteroom and couldn't tear himself away. Catherine rang again, and still receiving no answer, she stormed off to wreck vengeance upon the luckless servant. Apparently her anger gave way to sympathy (which she was rarely guilty of) when she found what had delayed him. Rather than having him sent to Siberia, she sent the man on his errand and played the hand for him until his return.
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Copyright by Charles Mathes. All rights reserved
