J. W. Spear & Sons makers of Spears Games

Jacob Wolf Spier was born on the 23rd of April 1832 in Germany. His parents were Jewish and worked as soap makers. His mother died when he was four years old so he was brought up by his father.

At the age of 20 Spier emigrated to America, along with many others who left their native Germany during this period. In 1857 he married the German born Sophie Rindskodft.

Jacob and Sophie Spier were granted American citizenship in 1860 and changed their name to Spear which was more recognised than Spier. They had the first two of their ten children, Ralph and Joseph, that same year.

The Spear family moved back to Germany in November 1861 due to the outbreak of the American Civil.

In 1862 the family moved again from Fürth to the town of Rechendorf near Bamberg, where Spear worked as a manager of Reiß & Co. for four years producing wooden goods.
 
In 1869 Spear moved his family to Sonneberg an area know for toy manufacturing. He joined the firm C. Harwig & Son as a partner. The company was founded in 1825 and had grown over the years. By 1865 it had broadened its range to include goods such as dominoes, money boxes, cribbage, board and racing games.

In 1872 the company was registered under a new name Harwig, Spear & Bergmann. At the time this was seen as a very unlikely partnership as Harwig was a Protestant, Spear was Jewish and Bergmann was a catholic. The new company produced paint boxes, money boxes and games which sold in England, France and Germany.

In 1878 Spear left Harwig, Spears & Bergmann. He and his family moved again, this time to England. He founded J. W. Spear in September 1878 as an import company dealing with fancy goods. His three oldest sons Ralph, Joseph and Carl stayed in London to take care of the company while the rest of the family moved back to Germany. By November 1879 Spear had registered himself as sole proprietor of his new import and export company in Fürth.

The German part of the company started off in an old mirror factory and later in 1883 Spear moved to a Villa on Kunigswarterstraße. Spear built a new factory behind the villa where he had 60 workers producing goods mainly for export to England. His workers turned printed and painted paper and card into games, picture albums, small picture books and place mats. This work was all done on hand presses and some were varnished with spirit lacquer.

In 1884 Ralph and Joseph Spear became partners and the company became J. W. Spear & Sons. Ralph and Joseph left the following year to set up their own company Gebrüder Spear meaning Spear Brothers.

The first advert for J. W. Spear appeared in a toy industry guide in April 1887 using their first trade mark, which was an English pillar box with the words UK Victoria Regina on the front. The advert offered a range of stationary, fancy goods and toys.

The German factory was expanded and modernised in 1888. Hand press and cutting machines were exchanged for steam powered machines. Spear also introduced a new process using oil which involved card being cut, pressed and formed, soaked in raw or boiled linseed oil before being baked in a drying oven on racks at 100°C. The card would then be painted or varnished and dried once more in a drying room.

In 1889 Carl and Wilhelm Spear became partners with their father.

On the 26 May 1892 a major fire broke out at the German factory causing extensive damage to the building and destroying stock. With the realisation that they were not properly insured J. W. Spears & Sons faced severe financial difficulties. But through hard work and determination they had a new, bigger and better factory up and running by Christmas.

In 1893 a second fire occurred in the factory but luckily this time it was extinguished quickly before much damage was caused. Unfortunately this second incident caused local residents to petition against the factory as they believed that it was dangerous and didn't like the bad smell of production during the summer months. Authorities refused to close down the factory as gases were declared not dangerous to local residents. This caused a period of unrest for the Spear family business. J. W. Spear himself was accused of setting fire to his own factory and was later remanded on bail. On the 3rd September 1893 J. W. Spear hung himself in the factory.

In 1894 Jacob's widow Sophie became a partner in the business .

In March 1898 J. W. Spear & Sons purchased three and a half acres of land outside the city of Nuremberg in Germany. The original factory was connected to both Nuremberg and Fürth by the first section of the German national railway. This new site was an industrial area with space for expansion and no residents to worry about. Later in the year Eugen Mayor, an owner of a large printing company, became a partner and the company was converted into a limited partnership.

Production at the new factory in Nuremberg started in 1899. With the printing equipment from Mayor's printing company large runs of good quality print was produced inexpensively. Production was divided into two sections, one being toys, the other card fancy goods.

In 1932 production was moved back to a factory England due to the rise of the Nazis in Germany. The Nuremberg factory continued to produce toys and cards until it was bombed during the Second World War.

In 1953 J. W. Spear & Sons launched the popular game Scrabble in the UK. J. W. Spear & Sons acquired the rights to sell the game in other countries excluding the USA and Canada in 1968.

In 1994 J. W. Spear & Sons was acquired by Mattel.