Jaques of London

Jaques of London, formerly known as John Jaques of London and Jaques and Son of London is a long-established family company that manufactures sports and game equipment.

Staunton pieces designed by Cooke for Jaques, 1849.

History

Dating itself from 1795 when Thomas Jaques, a farmer's son of French Huguenot descent, set up as a "Manufacturer of Ivory, Hardwoods, Bone, and Tunbridge Ware",[1] the company gained a reputation for publishing games under his grandson John Jaques the younger.

The popularity of chess during World War II helped MI9 construct escape item hidden in chess games sent to British and American prisoners of war. Because the chess sets were made of wood, especially the Staunton chess sets by Jaques of London. The inside walls of the chess pieces box were hollowed out "...to secrete maps, currency, documents, hacksaw blades and swinger compasses." The large chess boards were perfect for supplying to prisoners "...counterfeit documents, maps, currency and other contraband." The chess pieces themselves were hollowed out and used to hold messages, compasses, maps and dye to help turn uniforms into civilian attire. The base of the piece was often screwed in with a left turn screw, so any attempt to unscrew the base normally would only make it tighter.[2]

The company moved its offices and showroom to Edenbridge, Kent, in 2000.[3]

Products
A Jaques and Son Parcheesi/Ludo board
gollark: Hello! As you may know, I am (barely) staff in old esolangs. For transparency purposes I also share some of the staff discussion which goes on there. They recently complained about this; palaiologos apparently wants me to post *full* context for staff discussions instead of my somewhat small screenshots, including retroactively in the case of the rules change discussion since apparently people have been led to believe that the staff weren't mostly in favour of this. Thusly, here you go.
gollark: And also the permissions system, via [REDACTED] beeonic incursions.
gollark: Well, you are in our hearts.
gollark: Baidicoot is a staff however.
gollark: It would have been nice if the original server was okay, but palaiologistry palaiologizes with increasing metapaliologistics.

See also

References
  1. "About Jaques London"
  2. Froom, Phil. Evasion and Escape Devices: Produced by MI9, MIS-X and SOE in World War II. 2015. Pages 281-283.
  3. http://www.jaqueslondon.co.uk/contact-us
  4. A Jaques set was used by Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky in the 1972 World Chess Championship (Edmonds & Eidinow 2004:163).
  5. Berkeley, Authorized by Lewis Waterman (1890). Reversi and Go Bang. Frederick A. Stokes Company.
  6. "Golf Games Rules". Jaques. Archived from the original on 16 September 2016. Retrieved 18 August 2016.
  7. "Jaques' Happy Families" Archived 2011-08-12 at the Wayback Machine


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