Pepys Dominoes

All Pepys dominoes now have an individual page on Collecting Pepys.

Pepys produced a total of eight picture domino sets over the course of roughly thirty years: Dingbats Dominoes, Picture Dominoes (Nursery Rhyme Favourites), Rhymo Dominoes, Nursery Rhyme Favourites (A reissue of Picture Dominoes), Disney Dominoes, Noddy Picture Dominoes, Little Grey Rabbit Dominoes and Woodland Dominoes.

All Eight Pepys Dominoes Games

All Pepys' dominoes games are boxed in the same way, a colourful outer cardboard sheath (15.5 x 8 x 1.3 cm) contains an inner cardboard liner that slides out holding four rows of tiles.

All the games have 28 tiles except Rhymo Dominoes which has 24 regular tiles and 2 double-sized tiles.

The inner liner containing the tiles, in this case Disney Dominoes.

The domino backs are either the marbled design used in many other early Pepys games or the repeated banner "Pepys Quality Games" in purple ink.

Tile backs: Red - Dingbat Dominoes, Brown - Picture Dominoes (Nursery Rhyme Favourites), Blue - Disney Dominoes, Repeated Banner in Purple - used in all other sets.

All except Disney Dominoes are described on the box as "Pepys Series". Disney Dominoes is called "A Pepys Game". No mention of Castell Brothers is made on any of the boxes and none bear any address.

The games were produced for very young children. Most sets that have survived show signs of rough handling, chewing and general grime. The inner liners are very often torn as are the ends of the outer boxes. Sellotape repairs are common.

The overall quality of the tiles can be poor. Almost every set I have seen suffers from poor cutting, print defects or both. Very often tiles from the same set can be noticeably different in size.

Examples of badly cut tiles, borders of uneven sizes, truncated images and slivers of images from adjacent tiles.

The backs as well as the fronts often show a lack of attention to detail.

Examples of tile backs with flaws, unevenly matched patterns and poor cutting.

Sometimes the print registration is poor.

Examples of tiles with poor quality printing.

Only Woodland Dominoes is dated, 1967. Dating the others is difficult but by comparing the Pepys device/logo, the tile backs and the overall style of the game it is possible to put them into a rough chronological order. Some press advertisements and other clues help to give some approximate dates. As new information comes to light the publication dates below will be revised. Each game has an individual entry, click any link for more details.

• Dingbats Dominoes, Ern Shaw, circa 1939

• Picture Dominoes (Nursery Rhyme Favourites) "Successor to Dingbat Dominoes" circa 1946

• Disney Dominoes circa 1949/1950

• Rhymo Dominoes circa 1951

• Nursery Rhyme Dominoes ( A reissue of Picture Dominoes) circa 1950/1951

• Noddy Picture Dominoes, Enid Blyton, 1962

• Little Grey Rabbit Dominoes, Margaret Tempest and Alison Uttley, circa 1967

• Woodland Dominoes 1967