#317 OF FABRIKMARKE – KEGELSPORT AUF DEM TISCHE (Around 1930)

This board game was quite a surprise for me. My father bought it for me, and after some checking and reading, we can say, it’s complete and in very good shape. It is surely one of the oldest toys at home, since some Internet websites date it from 1930 or even the 1920s.

This Bowling game consists of 9 bowling pins and a ball. The pins are place on a table forming a square with 3 pins on each side. In the centre of that square it is placed the 9^th pin, which is blue instead of red.

Now, players must push the ball while spinning so that the ball takes kind of a curved direction, and you drop all pins, or a certain combination of pins. I can imagine this game is quite difficult and requires a great skill with the ball. To get that spinning effect, the ball is made of two halves: one of them is made of metal (maybe lead), while the other part is made of a lighter material, wood. There are other versions in which the second half is made of cork.

The game was made by OF FABRIK-MARKE, that’s Otto  Fischer Fabrikmarke, located in Glaubitz, Germany. The game was patented by Rektor Sperl. It was first sold about 1910, and it was available probably up to the 1950s.

To my surprise, I found a page that it’s dedicated exclusively to this game: http://www.mi-me.de/weitere-spielideen-2.html

Here I discovered that the game was made in several versions, and sold in different boxes. Mine seems to be the last one made of this series, and also the “poorest” one. There’s a “Fine” version, a “Luxe” version, and some others, which can be identified by a letter in the cover of the box. Original balls are marked: D.R.G.M. 1020211.

The instructions are depicted in the next two pictures. In one of the sides we can see some of the combinations that brings points to the players, for example: Herz (Heart), Lübeck, Hamburg…

In the box was also included a promotional leaflet for another game by the same company: the famous “Mikado”.

FACTS AND FIGURES

• Name: KEGELSPORT AUF DEM TISCHE!
• Year: Around 1930
• Company: OF Fabrik-Marke (Germany)