Spear's Games
J.W. Spear & Sons was founded in Fürth, near Nuremberg, Germany, in 1879. - In 1932, the company opened a factory in Britain, and gradually moved their productions from their German factory, which was eventually destroyed during World War II. - During WWII, there was a forced sale of the German branch of Spear's Games to Hanns Porst, owner of the photo shop chain Photo Porst. It was now called Porst-Spiel. …
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April 1939 - Summer 1940: Sale to Hanns Porst 31.12.1940: Spear-Spiele-Fabrik Hanns Porst 09.10.1941: Porst-Spiele-Fabrik (Porst-Spiele) After the war, the company (which has been partially destroyed by the war) was returned to the widows of Hermann Spears and Richard Spear (22.10.1948). The Nuremberg publisher acted as a subsidiary of the main English branch. (Source: Wikipedia) - In 1994, the company was acquired by Mattel, which absorbed its assets and brands into its own line of products. A nice history of the company with many photographs of their games is presented in the book "Die Spielmacher" Miscellaneous Game Book. Spear was known for localising games for European markets - translating their trademark into the local language such as Jeux Spear, Juegos Spear, etc. - source: German Game Archive (see url in links)
Biography and credits from BoardGameGeek.
Published 362 games
Go
Chess
Poker
Backgammon
Rummikub
Pit
Scrabble
Stratego
Othello
Kalah
Mhing
Focus
Go-Moku
Jarnac
Bali
A to Z
Power
Jungle
Anagrams
Sabotage
Dominoes
Stranded
Pipeline
UNO Dice
Electro
Continuo
Quartett
Spoons
UNO
Snap
MindTrap
Memory
Checkers
Pachisi
Old Maid
Trouble
Bingo
Insomnie
fehde