The Carrom Company has made classic wood table-sized game boards for over a century. Carrom boards, often with corner pockets, were to children in the early 1900s what Nok-Hockey was to the teenagers of the 1950s — and the Carrom Company now sells Nok-Hockey as well. A variety of games — sometimes dozens of them, including finger-flicking “Skill and Action” games — could be played on these approximately 28 1/2” square boards. The game of carroms was one of them. The boxed games often came with cue sticks, wooden rings, wood disks, and other pieces that were usually finger-flicked across the gameboard.
The tabletop boards were first produced in 1896 by Ludington Novelty Company, then the Carrom-Archarena Company from 1901 to 1914. The Carrom-Archarena 100-game board had 140 pieces of equipment, including a revolving stand and a “four-surface” gameboard (a smaller board fit inside the larger one) on which you could play such standards as backgammon, checkers, crokinole, and twelve men Morris. The company became Carrom Company in 1914 and Carrom Industries in 1939. In 1961, three employees from Carrom Industries broke away and formed the Merdel Company, spelling their similar products “caroms,” with only one ”r” in the name; lawsuits followed. And so did some buyouts—until 1972 when a then-defunct Carrom Games Division was bought out by Merdel, allowing the company to use the two “r”s to sell their Carrom games. It became the Carrom Company again in 1991.
So, in spite of all the name changes, breakaways, buyouts and takovers, the carrom boards of today are basically still being made by the original company. The 100-game board retails for about $40—up slightly from the $3.95-$4.75 (“prepaid east of Omaha”) of a century ago. And you’re too late to get the revolving stand for free, as that offer expired after a special 1903 promotion.
For photos of carrom boards and two articles by the late carrom board collector and historian Brian Lonsway, click on the game of carroms.
The Carrom Company’s excellent website tells all, from new products to their over 100-year history. For the link that will take you there, click on Carrom.
To go directly to the history of the Carrom Company, click on the link to the Carrom Company website – history.
