Made in Leeds: The story of Waddingtons
It was the Leeds firm which produced playing cards, theatre bills and board games for the world to enjoy.
Waddingtons was founded by John Waddington and the manager, actor and playwright Wilson Barrett.
It started with theatrical advertising circa 1896 on Wade Lane in Leeds city centre and by 1902 the business had also started on Great Wilson Street before the two branches merged in 1920.
By 1905 Joh Waddington Ltd was established and soon Victor Hugo Watson was appointed as lithographic foreman.
In 1913 a plant was established on Elland Road which burnt down in 1915 and Union Mills on Dewsbury Road was bought: it became a plc in 1921.
The four sites of the firm were brought together in 1922 when the business moved into the premises of Conqueror Typewriter Co on Wakefield Road in Hunslet.
It entered into game production in due to a boom in demand for playing cards around World War I with Lexicon produced in 1932 and Monopoly in December 1935.
In 1941, the British Directorate of Military Intelligence section 9 (MI9) had the company create a special edition of Monopoly for World War II prisoners of war held by the Germans. Hidden inside these games were maps, compasses, real money and other objects useful for escaping. They were distributed to prisoners by fake charitable organisations.
Victor Watson, the grandson of Victor Hugo Watson was its chairman from 1977 to 1993. While well known for games, they never provided more than 15 per cent of profit; Victor continued his father Norman's emphasis on improving packaging technology, such as folding cartons and microwave trays. Victor, known as Mr Monopoly, died in 2015 aged 86.
From the 1970s, the popularity of video games hurt game sales, and after Victor's retirement, the company was bought by Hasbro in 1994.
Beginning in 1994, Christmas-themed jigsaw puzzles were released annually until 2007.
The first twelve in the series depicted a scene from a Victorian-era Christmas. The final puzzle depicted a scene from the fairy tale Cinderella. The small number of puzzles, combined with them being limited editions, has made these puzzles highly collectable.