Duplicate Bridge for the Home

New York: Bard Bridge Bureau, 1935. Fine. A beautiful vintage, arguably antique, duplicate bridge set, with eight duplicate sleeves, each with their four hands already set up with cards inserted into their slots, these sleeves the type still in use except these, instead of an aluminum composition are made of bakelite and epitomize Art Deco design. N.d., circa 1930s. We know little at this time about George Bard, other than he was an active tournament player in the early days of modern bridge -- the 1920s, into the early 1940s, and he certainly had to have been a Grandmaster. We also know that the "Bard Bridge Bureau" was in business in the 1930s. We would infer that this business, besides selling duplicate kits such as the one here, had a mail order business of sending out duplicate hands, and almost certainly accompanying the hands would be commentary so that the players could learn from their play afterward. The kit was intended to be one that supplied all one needed to play duplicate, other than the tables and chairs. It came with eight sleeves, ours with the eight decks also already dealt, a 14 page booklet with the nuts and bolts of duplicate laid out, scorecards and other paraphernalia. We can comfortably represent that ours is essentially complete -- we can not say we have all the scorecards that were originally in the kit, but we certainly have everything that really mattered, and also we have at least a sample of the other less critical things. The box is about 4 lbs, or 1.6 kg, and it measures 26 by 22 by 4 cm. We think our kit is in Fine condition, with a few minor caveats. The box has two small pieces chipped off from its lid side. One of those pieces, the larger one, we have, and thus can be re-attached. The cards show signs of use. One envelope has penciled numbers.