Leather Scrabble Set

History of Scrabble

Alfred Mosher Butts, an architect who wanted to combine the features anagrams with the challenge of crossword puzzles, originally created the game of Scrabble. He initially named it Lexiko, then Criss Crosswords. By meticulously studying the letter frequency in everyday newspapers, he came up with the set number of letter tiles that are still seen today.

Initially rejected, Alfred’s game finally got trademarked in 1948 with entrepreneur James Brunot, who then renamed it Scrabble, which means “ to grope frantically”. Now anxious to produce the game, Brunot recruited family members to hand make the game tiles in an old rented schoolhouse. They produced about 12 sets per hour, which were then sent to a factory for assembly, boxing and shipping.

The popularity of Scrabble did not take off until the 1950’s , when the president of Macy’s discovered the game while on vacation and ordered it for his store. After this point, the game could not be kept on the shelves. By 1952, James Brunot and his family could not keep up with the high demand of the game and turned to Selchow & Righter Co. to market and distribute the game in the US and Canada.

In 1986, the Selchow & Righter Co. was then sold to Coleco Industries. Three years later Coleco went bankrupt and the rights to Scrabble were then sold to Hasbro. Today, the game still retains its popularity as tool for education in schools with national championships in the US and Canada being held annually.

The Rules of Scrabble

The classic game rules are the same regardless if it is a leather Scrabble set or the simple plastic travel variation. Fun for all ages alike, the game can be played with 2 to 4 players.

Play is simple. Each player forms words with letters that have varying point values. Like a crossword puzzle, each word placed must fit with the existing words in play in a horizontal or vertical manner. All letters of the alphabet are used along with a couple of blank tiles that can be played as any letter you choose.

The first player that starts the game must place a word over the center square. During each turn everyone has 7 letter tiles until the pieces run out. The board is laid out with bonus tile spots that can give a double or triple word score. However, you must be the first player to use the bonus tile in order to get the benefit of the extra points. You can also get an extra bonus for using all 7 of your word tiles during your turn. After placement of a word, other players can challenge it if they feel it is invalid. If the challenge has merit, the player must remove the word and their turn is forfeited.

The game ends when all tile pieces are played, or when no one can create any more words. With a good vocabulary, and some clever strategy, you can be a winner at this classic game.

Leather Scrabble Set

The leather Scrabble set is a custom made and can only be found by select distributors. LTK was fortunate to find a couple of sources that produce or sell it:

• Zontic Games.com – The custom made board is bound with Dauphin calf hide. The letter racks and bags are also made of leather. The entire board is built like a Lazy Susan and can be turned around in any clockwise or counterclockwise direction. Price is $3,995.

• Geoffrey Parker.com This UK based website offers beautiful leather set is custom made by the Geoffrey Parker Co. Contact them specifically for current pricing and export to the US.

If you are looking for leather accessories for your Scrabble set, there are a few sites that do sell them.

• Domestic Leather.com – Buy leather Scrabble bags for your tile pieces at $15.95 each.

• MySimon.com- Find Milton Bradley’s Game Folio Edition of Scrabble with a leather pouch for tile pieces. Average price: $12 to 21 dollars.

• eBay.com – Always a winner to finding items of an unusual nature, eBay is another site you may want to check out for a leather Scrabble set or accessories.

by Sheila Robinson