The company J.W.Spear (later J.W.Spear & Sons) was registered in Fuerth, a small town near Nuremberg, Germany by Jacob Wolf Spear in 1879. It manufactured a variety of 'fancy goods', such as table mats, photo frames and albums, waste-paper baskets, flowerpot covers and papier-mache handkerchief boxes as well as some games, in a purpose-built factory at the rear of Jacob’s home.

A german Jew, Jacob Wolf Spear had lived in the USA and UK before finally returning to his native Germany and many of the company's early products were designed in the UK and/or aimed at the english-speaking market. Jacob's two eldest sons, Ralph and Joseph, ran an importing and wholesaling branch in London for some years before starting their own venture.

After Jacob's premature death in 1893, his next two sons, Carl and Wilhelm Spear, both still in their twenties, took over the management of the company. Six years later, with financial assistance from the printer Eugen Mayer, they built a new 'modern' factory on a greenfield site near Nuremberg.

Games had by then become the main product, and Spear's was one of the first to use steam power in their manufacture. Over the next 30 years the brothers gradually expanded the company to become one of the best-known international manufacturers of games and children's activity kits, employing up to 600 people.

Great emphasis was laid on exports. Germany was, in those days, still the main supplier of toys and games to the developed world, and most Spear's Games were offered in at least five languages - german, english, french, dutch and spanish. The first world war (1914-1918) of course put a stop to international trade, but games production for the german market continued on a reduced scale.

Two smaller companies were purchased in the ten years following the end of the war. The first, around 1919, was C. Baudenbacher, a manufacturer of wooden products, conjuring sets and outdoor games, established in 1830. The Archive has a very beautiful hand-painted catalogue of Baudenbachers products, thought to date from the 1850's.

The second company, purchased in 1927, was G. Neiff, who produced dolls trousseaux to be sewn and embroidered, and other girls handicrafts. Some of Neiff's staff joined Spear's and designed new handicraft kits, some of which remained in the range right up to the 1990's.

The UK had long been Spear's main export market. However, in 1930 this trade was badly affected by newly introduced customs tariffs and the pound's worsening exchange rate. To combat these problems, a UK subsidiary was established, and in 1932 Carl's son Richard Spear set up a small manufacturing unit at Enfield near London. Richard was assisted by two managers from the Nuremberg factory and 20 local workers were recruited. With this small staff and a capital of £8000, the Enfield subsidiary began to produce games for the english-speaking market.

When the Nazis seized power in Germany in 1933, making life intolerable for people of Jewish descent, Richard emigrated to the UK with his family. Richard's brother Hermann Spear, who had a non-Jewish wife, stayed in Germany to run the Nuremberg factory. This task became ever more difficult, until in 1938, the family were forced to sell the business to 'aryans'. The purchaser was a well-known photographic dealer named Hanns Porst, who continued to produce games under the Spear name, and later under his own. A formal sale 'agreement' was drawn up but no money was received by the Spear family until after World War Two (1939-1945). Hermann, still in Germany, was deported by the Nazis, and eventually killed in Auschwitz.

After the war, Richard Spear, assisted by Hermann's widow and a pre-war manager, began the legal formalities to have the Nuremburg business returned to its rightful owners. The buildings had been partly destroyed in an air raid, the machinery was in a bad state and raw materials were in short supply. It was not until 1951 that a range of games could again be offered. The Nuremberg factory continued as a semi-independent unit producing german language games until its closure in 1984. It never again reached its pre-war eminence.

In contrast, the former UK subsidiary which had been on government work during the war got off to a quick start as soon as peace came. Machinery acquired for war work was put to good use in the manufacture of games. Sales at this time were still mainly to english-speaking markets, including substantial exports, and they grew steadily right through to the late 1970’s.

This success was no doubt partly due to the fact that in 1954 Spear's was appointed UK licensee for the highly successful american word game Scrabble®. Licenses for many other countries were obtained in the ensuing years, until in 1969 the rights for all countries except north America and Australia were purchased. Scrabble® became by far the best known Spear's product, and gave a huge boost to sales both at home and abroad. In spite of this however, it was the company's policy to maintain the extensive range for which it had become known.

The company had been able to buy freehold land adjoining the original rented factory in Enfield, and constantly modernised and expanded the production facilities. These focussed increasingly on the manufacture of rigid boxes, playing boards and other cardboard game components, as well as injection moulding and vacuum forming of plastics.

In 1970 Spear's purchased G.J.Hayter & Co.of Bournemouth, manufacturers of the highly-regarded Victory Jigsaw Puzzles. These hand-sawn plywood puzzles were produced under under the Spear's banner until 1988, when sadly the labour-intensive operations involved made their production uneconomic.

In the 1980's and early 1990's sales of many traditional Spear’s 'budget priced' items dropped off, partly because many of the small independent retailers, who had sold these products so successfully, had closed down. These were replaced by higher-priced, heavily advertised products. In line with the trend in the toy trade at that time, some new products were sourced complete from the far east. However, Spear's were proud of the fact that right to the end, 85 percent of sales (by value) were still, to some extent, processed through the Enfield factory.

In 1994 Spear's, which had been a public company since 1966, was purchased by US toy giant Mattel, after a protracted take-over battle with rivals Hasbro. The following year the Enfield factory was closed and the production transferred to another Mattel-owned factory in the north of England. When this in turn was closed, the games were sourced from Europe. Mattel continues to supply Scrabble® and a variety of other games, but many of the traditional Spear's items are now unobtainable. However, you can still see most of them at the Spears Games Archive.

In 1996, Francis Spear founded the Spear's Games Archive Trust. Its aim is to conserve J.W. Spear & Sons games, kits and memorabilia. For more information click the orange button.

Admission to the Spear's Games Archive is by appointment only. To arrange a visit, please click the orange button.

In 1997, the Nuremburg Toy Museum held an exhibition of J.W. Spear & Sons products. The accompanying book 'Games We Play' is beautifully illustrated and contains a detailed history of the company. This book is now extremely rare, but you can still buy copies online from this site. For more information click the orange button.