Latest Photos
Introduction
GEOFFREY PARKER - The Company
From that first Chessboard, Backgammon was the next obvious game where precise inlaying was de rigueur. By the early Seventies the Company had already established itself as No.1 in The World for luxury board games, this culminated for Chess in Geoffrey being commissioned to make the leather boxes and chessboards for the Boris Spassky and Bobby Fischer’s famous 1972 World Championship battle in Reykjavik, Iceland. While for Backgammon, the Company’s expertise was required for what is widely recognized as the first World Backgammon Championship sponsored by Rothman and taking place the fabulous QEII which sailed for a week between Southampton and New York with the world’s best players in fierce contest.
During this time the Backgammon “boom†demanded “Geoffrey Parker†boards by the hundreds and his group of craftsmen and women expanded to a team of 25, each being trained “in house†to Geoffrey’s exacting standards.
To ensure he stayed ahead of the “gameâ€, Geoffrey sought out the World’s most formidable Backgammon champion, Paul Magriel, to ensure that his boards matched professional requirements – together Geoffrey’s famous weighted leather Backgammon stone (checker) was developed – unlike no other this unique and essential accessory, encompasses all that is at the core of The Company’s persona; precision, skill, craft and dedication to create a perfected balanced playing piece of leather artistry, utilizing the ancient skill of fine edging, burnishing and papier mâché and then to repeat this 30 times per set!
Almost every luxury retailer of note, commissioned The Company to create specialist game ranges, including Asprey, Dunhill, Harrods, Fortnum & Mason, Garrard, Simpson’s, Smythson, Cartier, Fred, etc. Even a “blind†backgammon was made for famous American singer, Stevie Wonder.
In 1977, Geoffrey’s son, Max joined the Company full-time, after many a school holiday being spent “helping†in the now expanded workshops. With the midget classic books still an important part of the Company, Max and Geoffrey traveled to the United States to attend the American Booksellers Convention where their presence amongst the more main stream publishers caused something of a “stirâ€. Numerous small bookshops, to giants of the trade and famous museums and libraries bought book collections and even to this day, collectors seek us out to fill that missing volume.
Through the early Eighties, visits to the States continued with the games and books featuring in famous department stores such as Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, Macy’s, Bloomingdales and Bergdorf Goodman amongst others. A stunning centre piece to Neiman Marcus’ premier Dallas store was Geoffrey’s Design Council award winning solid Sterling silver-gilt chess set, made for the HM The Queen’s Silver Jubilee – still available today (see under “chessâ€) retailing back then for $20,000!
Trips were then made to the Far East taking in Hong Kong and Singapore where the Company’s skills were sought by luxury hotels, where Geoffrey Parker’s work was employed to create specialist menu, wine list and VIP gift giving requirements for such hotel luminaries as The Mandarin Hong Kong, the Intercontinental group, and famous clubs such as the Singapore Polo Club and The Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club. In the US the Willard Hotel in Washington DC and Le Grenouille restaurant in New York added to this side of the Company activities as did such well known names in London’s Mayfair of The Connaught, Grosvenor House Hotel and The White Elephant Club.
Towards the end of the Eighties, a concerted effort was made to offer our work to the corporate sector – commercial giants such as BP, Motorola, Condé Nast and many others commissioned the Company to make specialist items for chairman to chairman gift-giving and or for company incentives. Ranges were also created for famous car marques such as Aston Martin Lagonda and Jaguarmotors.
It was during this time that Max gave the Company its first taste of retail, by opening a Geoffrey Parker store within the world famous “Golden Triangle†of luxury shopping in Beverly Hills. This gave the Company the invaluable inside knowledge gleaned from its customers, of what THEY actually wanted, not what stores wanted to sell them. Many new items were subsequently introduced, none less important than the introduction of our first licensed game, Scrabble®.
During this period our bespoke service was gainfully employed on a number of important projects; from making a facsimile of George Washington’s campaign briefcase for the venerable Smithsonian Institute in DC, a casket for the regalia of an ancient London Livery Company, The Royal Vintners Company to replace the previous one which lasted 350 years; to two giant library tables covered in 8 full cow hides for the Royal Academy to a special photograph album for Her Majesty The Queen, celebrating the moment when The Mall was filled with golden Daffodils on her Golden Wedding Anniversary.
London’s famous gaming houses, sought their “soft gaming†requirements from Geoffrey Parker as well as their VIP/high roller gift giving needs. These great casino clubs included the world’s oldest gaming club Crockfords plusThe Ritz, Aspinalls, Les Ambassadeurs and many others.
By now Geoffrey had passed the reins over to Max for the day to day running, whilst still bringing his considerable design knowledge to new projects that Max was introducing, due to Geoffrey’s “retirement†Max decided to close the Beverly Hills store, so as to concentrate on the core manufacturing business.
At this time new items were introduced such as a luxury version of the eastern game of Mah Jong, with playing pieces sourced in the deepest Orient. Iconic family board games; Monopoly® and Trivial Pursuit® were added to our luxury gaming licenses.
Dr Aldo Gucci commissioned the Company to produce a range of games for his famous luxury design house – something of a coup for a non-Italian producer. Tiffany turned to us for a range of travel games, as did the most luxurious modes of travel, the celebrated Venice Simplon Orient Express train.
Many other special commissions have followed, such as a few years ago when the Company produced the World’s most expensive Monopoly®, encrusted in jewels, bound in exotic Alligator and inlaid in precious metals and a special solid gold and Diamond Backgammon for a private jet.
Recently Cluedo® (Clue® in the U.S.) has been added to our traditional game range. Even giant carpet dominoes and inlaid leather Frisbee® have added to an already amazing range of products.
Super and giga-yacht owners seek Geoffrey Parker’s expertise to create games for their luxurious salons with our award winning 25 Game Cube a particular favourite. Alpine ski chalets look for items to amuse the Après-ski crowd. Formula One™ and its teams ordered items made in super-car leathers as did former World Champion, Michael Schumacher when seeking to send Christmas presents to his personal and business contacts.
Collections of these wonderful pieces have been combined to create compendia, par excellence – our 12 game “Ultimate Game Table†and 33 Contemporary Game Table; illustrate that we do not compromise on compendia as so often found in so many other lesser collections available. Currently under construction is a giant Casino Games Compendium bringing the luxury of the Salôn Privé to the home.
Geoffrey sadly passed away in December 2000, but his ethos, perfectionism and demand that each product be both elegant and excellent is instilled in each member of the Company who will not waiver from these core values. It is hoped that we may continue to find customers who appreciate the same in a World so full these days of mass produced “throw away†items.
From that first Chessboard, Backgammon was the next obvious game where precise inlaying was de rigueur. By the early Seventies the Company had already established itself as No.1 in The World for luxury board games, this culminated for Chess in Geoffrey being commissioned to make the leather boxes and chessboards for the Boris Spassky and Bobby Fischer’s famous 1972 World Championship battle in Reykjavik, Iceland. While for Backgammon, the Company’s expertise was required for what is widely recognized as the first World Backgammon Championship sponsored by Rothman and taking place the fabulous QEII which sailed for a week between Southampton and New York with the world’s best players in fierce contest.
During this time the Backgammon “boom†demanded “Geoffrey Parker†boards by the hundreds and his group of craftsmen and women expanded to a team of 25, each being trained “in house†to Geoffrey’s exacting standards.
To ensure he stayed ahead of the “gameâ€, Geoffrey sought out the World’s most formidable Backgammon champion, Paul Magriel, to ensure that his boards matched professional requirements – together Geoffrey’s famous weighted leather Backgammon stone (checker) was developed – unlike no other this unique and essential accessory, encompasses all that is at the core of The Company’s persona; precision, skill, craft and dedication to create a perfected balanced playing piece of leather artistry, utilizing the ancient skill of fine edging, burnishing and papier mâché and then to repeat this 30 times per set!
Almost every luxury retailer of note, commissioned The Company to create specialist game ranges, including Asprey, Dunhill, Harrods, Fortnum & Mason, Garrard, Simpson’s, Smythson, Cartier, Fred, etc. Even a “blind†backgammon was made for famous American singer, Stevie Wonder.
In 1977, Geoffrey’s son, Max joined the Company full-time, after many a school holiday being spent “helping†in the now expanded workshops. With the midget classic books still an important part of the Company, Max and Geoffrey traveled to the United States to attend the American Booksellers Convention where their presence amongst the more main stream publishers caused something of a “stirâ€. Numerous small bookshops, to giants of the trade and famous museums and libraries bought book collections and even to this day, collectors seek us out to fill that missing volume.
Through the early Eighties, visits to the States continued with the games and books featuring in famous department stores such as Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, Macy’s, Bloomingdales and Bergdorf Goodman amongst others. A stunning centre piece to Neiman Marcus’ premier Dallas store was Geoffrey’s Design Council award winning solid Sterling silver-gilt chess set, made for the HM The Queen’s Silver Jubilee – still available today (see under “chessâ€) retailing back then for $20,000!
Trips were then made to the Far East taking in Hong Kong and Singapore where the Company’s skills were sought by luxury hotels, where Geoffrey Parker’s work was employed to create specialist menu, wine list and VIP gift giving requirements for such hotel luminaries as The Mandarin Hong Kong, the Intercontinental group, and famous clubs such as the Singapore Polo Club and The Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club. In the US the Willard Hotel in Washington DC and Le Grenouille restaurant in New York added to this side of the Company activities as did such well known names in London’s Mayfair of The Connaught, Grosvenor House Hotel and The White Elephant Club.
Towards the end of the Eighties, a concerted effort was made to offer our work to the corporate sector – commercial giants such as BP, Motorola, Condé Nast and many others commissioned the Company to make specialist items for chairman to chairman gift-giving and or for company incentives. Ranges were also created for famous car marques such as Aston Martin Lagonda and Jaguarmotors.
It was during this time that Max gave the Company its first taste of retail, by opening a Geoffrey Parker store within the world famous “Golden Triangle†of luxury shopping in Beverly Hills. This gave the Company the invaluable inside knowledge gleaned from its customers, of what THEY actually wanted, not what stores wanted to sell them. Many new items were subsequently introduced, none less important than the introduction of our first licensed game, Scrabble®.
During this period our bespoke service was gainfully employed on a number of important projects; from making a facsimile of George Washington’s campaign briefcase for the venerable Smithsonian Institute in DC, a casket for the regalia of an ancient London Livery Company, The Royal Vintners Company to replace the previous one which lasted 350 years; to two giant library tables covered in 8 full cow hides for the Royal Academy to a special photograph album for Her Majesty The Queen, celebrating the moment when The Mall was filled with golden Daffodils on her Golden Wedding Anniversary.
London’s famous gaming houses, sought their “soft gaming†requirements from Geoffrey Parker as well as their VIP/high roller gift giving needs. These great casino clubs included the world’s oldest gaming club Crockfords plusThe Ritz, Aspinalls, Les Ambassadeurs and many others.
By now Geoffrey had passed the reins over to Max for the day to day running, whilst still bringing his considerable design knowledge to new projects that Max was introducing, due to Geoffrey’s “retirement†Max decided to close the Beverly Hills store, so as to concentrate on the core manufacturing business.
At this time new items were introduced such as a luxury version of the eastern game of Mah Jong, with playing pieces sourced in the deepest Orient. Iconic family board games; Monopoly® and Trivial Pursuit® were added to our luxury gaming licenses.
Dr Aldo Gucci commissioned the Company to produce a range of games for his famous luxury design house – something of a coup for a non-Italian producer. Tiffany turned to us for a range of travel games, as did the most luxurious modes of travel, the celebrated Venice Simplon Orient Express train.
Many other special commissions have followed, such as a few years ago when the Company produced the World’s most expensive Monopoly®, encrusted in jewels, bound in exotic Alligator and inlaid in precious metals and a special solid gold and Diamond Backgammon for a private jet.
Recently Cluedo® (Clue® in the U.S.) has been added to our traditional game range. Even giant carpet dominoes and inlaid leather Frisbee® have added to an already amazing range of products.
Super and giga-yacht owners seek Geoffrey Parker’s expertise to create games for their luxurious salons with our award winning 25 Game Cube a particular favourite. Alpine ski chalets look for items to amuse the Après-ski crowd. Formula One™ and its teams ordered items made in super-car leathers as did former World Champion, Michael Schumacher when seeking to send Christmas presents to his personal and business contacts.
Collections of these wonderful pieces have been combined to create compendia, par excellence – our 12 game “Ultimate Game Table†and 33 Contemporary Game Table; illustrate that we do not compromise on compendia as so often found in so many other lesser collections available. Currently under construction is a giant Casino Games Compendium bringing the luxury of the Salôn Privé to the home.
Geoffrey sadly passed away in December 2000, but his ethos, perfectionism and demand that each product be both elegant and excellent is instilled in each member of the Company who will not waiver from these core values. It is hoped that we may continue to find customers who appreciate the same in a World so full these days of mass produced “throw away†items.
Contact Info
Address:
Piglets Corner. Top Road
Wimbish, Saffron Walden
Essex CB102XJ
United Kingdom
Wimbish, Saffron Walden
Essex CB102XJ
United Kingdom
Tel:
01799599100
Website:
http://www.geoffreyparker.com
Offering
- Backgammon
Hours of operation
| From | To | From | To | From | To | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | Open | 9 | 5 | ||||
| Tuesday | Open | 9 | 5 | ||||
| Wednesday | Open | 9 | 5 | ||||
| Thursday | Open | 9 | 5 | ||||
| Friday | Open | 9 | 5 | ||||
| Saturday | Closed | ||||||
| Sunday | Closed | ||||||
SIMILAR BUSINESSES NEARBY
