Abbatt Animal Families
Abbatt Toys Animal Families, c.1970.
Abbatt Toys was founded in 1932 by Marjorie and Paul Abbatt whose aim was to make toys with a focus on education and design more► Their innovative and practical products were enjoyed by generations of children. The company continued trading until 1973. Marjorie died in 1991.
The overall design and beautiful illustrations in this Animal Families game with birds, fishes, mammals and reptiles from around the world is very special. See the Rules►
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Above: Animal Families by Paul & Marjorie Abbatt Ltd, 94 Wimpole Street, London W.1. c.1970. 52 cards (13 sets of 4) plus instruction sheet in box.
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Further References
Design Week: Meet the Abbatts►
Margaret Howell: Abbatt Toys►
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By Rex Pitts (1940-2021)
Member since January 30, 2009
Rex's main interest was in card games, because, he said, they were cheap and easy to get hold of in his early days of collecting. He is well known for his extensive knowledge of Pepys games and his book is on the bookshelves of many.
His other interest was non-standard playing cards. He also had collections of sheet music, music CDs, models of London buses, London Transport timetables and maps and other objects that intrigued him.
Rex had a chequered career at school. He was expelled twice, on one occasion for smoking! Despite this he trained as a radio engineer and worked for the BBC in the World Service.
Later he moved into sales and worked for a firm that made all kinds of packaging, a job he enjoyed until his retirement. He became an expert on boxes and would always investigate those that held his cards. He could always recognize a box made for Pepys, which were the same as those of Alf Cooke’s Universal Playing Card Company, who printed the card games. This interest changed into an ability to make and mend boxes, which he did with great dexterity. He loved this kind of handicraft work.
His dexterity of hand and eye soon led to his making card games of his own design. He spent hours and hours carefully cutting them out and colouring them by hand.
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