Games-Makers 2 the Empire

Roberts Bros. of Gloucester is a company which was between the two World Wars reckoned to be the largest of its type in the country, manufacturing family games and toys. In Gloucester it was one of a handful of major employers, with S.J. Moreland and Sons and the Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Co. Roberts Bros. exported around the world but was poor at self-promotion through universally badging its products. "Glevum Games" and a Roman soldier's head was its main trademark, but neither was used consistently, and no record of the registration of either has yet been identified.

As a result, and because the company sold through wholesalers and large retailers such as the Army and Navy Stores, Harrod's and Gamages, the name did not achieve the widespread familiarity of competitors such as Spear's or Jaques, or even the company with which Roberts Bros. eventually merged, Chad Valley. It is fair to say that for much of the first half of the 20th century almost every home in Britain probably had something made in the Glevum Works factory at Gloucester, but that most owners will have had no idea that it was a Roberts Bros. item. That factory, opened in 1902, was state-of-the-art and used as a model by Government inspectors and advisers.

The company survived World War I and the Depression, and even came through World War II, but the costs involved in reopening the Glevum Works (taken over for war work) and the loss of old buyers proved to be insurmountable. In 1954 the company formed a voluntary merger with Chad Valley of Birmingham, and in 1957 the Glevum Works was finally closed, ending an era which employed up to 750 local people in its heyday.

The first book on the company was published in 2013.Games-Makers to the Empire: Roberts Brothers of Gloucester 1890 - 1957 included hundreds of plates and revealed what at the time the author had pieced together about the firm. In the years since more evidence has come to light and further examples have been recorded. This second volume brings the new information to a wider audience.

Students and collectors of board and table games hailed the first book as a model for books on other makers of games. This smaller volume will prove to be as valuable.