POW Monopoly sets

[GrauGeist]

You know, when I was a kid, we played Monopoly on a real old set...and I distinctly recall seeing the red dot on the board.

 

[Airframes]

Hope you weren't in a wooden hut Dave, whistling the theme tune from 'The Great Escape' !

 

[GrauGeist]

lol Terry...close...at that age, I was notorious for escaping!

There were rolling hills, orange groves and all sorts of places in need of exploring, so the moment the folks looked away, I was out the door!

 

[s1chris]

Great finds people!

Terry - with Waddingtons in ww2 apparently they we're the only company in the England that had the technology an were capable of printing such detail onto silk. It may be the case that they made all of the maps?

I'm going to take the plunge and buy a vintage set and recreate this . Confirmed.

Cheers Chris

 

[Airframes]

I'm not sure if Waddington's would be the only company, at the time, who could print small details on fine fabrics. The technology had been around for some time, but was fairly involved and relatgively expensive, where consistent, accurate detail was required.
I now live in Macclesfield, which was the center of the European silk industry, at the end of the 'Silk Road' from Asia, and some of the older, original 'home grown' residents I know, have told me about the production of silk for parachutes being a major production requirement during WW2, even allowing for the introduction of the Du Pont 'Nylon' fabrics which eventually replaced silk. I've also heard mention of silk map production, and a large print works in the town, now closed, might have been printing these also, according to the locals.

 

[s1chris]

Hi Terry, my thoughts exactly (hence the apparently lol) it's just another statement that makes me doubt there existence.
On the other hand if the map was required to fit inside a monopoly piece then I assume it would need to smaller than the standard type/size silk map, this requiring a fine type of print and detail that maybe only Waddingtons possesed.

Cheers Chris

 

[pattle]

I' pretty confident although not certain that silk maps were also used by other groups during the war, I think it could have been SOE, Commando's or Paratroops or perhaps all of these?

 

[GrauGeist]

Didn't the AVG pilots have silk maps sewed into the liners of their flight jackets?

 

[s1chris]

Yeah that's plenty of examples of these silk maps for sale on auction sites but I suspect that those types wouldn't have fit inside a monopoly piece .

Silk for a couple of reasons -

Water proof because of material (compared to paper)
Zero noise when unfolding (unlike paper)
No creases when unfolding allowing clear viewing

Hopefully some documents or photographs of these items will surface soon.

Cheers Chris

 

[GrauGeist]

Hopefully some documents or photographs of these items will surface soon.

Cheers Chris

Check my post with the links I posted a little ways back in this thread...there's a couple that have images of the set

 

[s1chris]

I'm bad. I didn't check the Forbes link.
That's excellent.

I am going to make a repro of this.
I can feel a probing email to Waddingtons (or whoever owns it now) coming on for further info.

Interestingly the escape map looks to be the same size as the readily available ones on auction sites.

Cheers Chris

 

[pattle]

It is a good job that these pow's weren't sent the cd rom version of monopoly.

 

[s1chris]

Or they should have used the game "Risk" instead. At least the board and playing pieces would have doubled up as a strategic planning board.

 

[Airframes]

Maybe a tools catalogue from B&Q would have been useful .....................