Drueke “Pocket Clapper Game” No. 154, Walnut Dice-and-Peg Game with Original Rules and Case, Grand Rapids, c. 1965–1983

The Piece

A pocket game cut from a solid block of walnut, small enough to close a hand around. The face carries nine drilled holes in a row, numbered 1 through 9 in crisp cream lettering, with POCKET CLAPPER GAME and the model number set around them in the same type. The wood is close-grained and warm, finished to a low sheen that shows the figure without gloss.

The clever part is underneath. The block is hollowed into a long oval cavity that holds the two dice and the full set of pegs, and a fitted wooden panel slides across to close it. Everything the game needs lives inside the game itself — no box to lose, no bag to tear. The pegs are turned plastic in yellow and blue with rounded heads, and they seat into the numbered holes with a click.

It still has its original printed rules slip, and the clear hinged case it was sold in.

History & Provenance

Drueke is a name that means something to people who care about games. William F. Drueke & Sons of Grand Rapids, Michigan spent most of the twentieth century making chess sets, cribbage boards, backgammon, and pocket games in hardwood, and they built a reputation on the same thing this piece demonstrates: real wood, tight tolerances, and a design that solves its own storage problem.

The game itself is the old tavern game of Shut the Box, translated into pegs. You throw two dice and peg out holes summing to the total — nine and six can close the 9, or the 6 and 3, or the 3, 4, and 2 — and you keep throwing until you cannot use a complete total. Your score is what is left unpegged, and low score wins. Simple enough to teach in thirty seconds, and genuinely hard to play well.

The rules slip dates it fairly closely. It carries a five-digit ZIP code, which puts it after the ZIP system began in 1963, and no ZIP+4, which points to before that format arrived in 1983.

Product Details

Why It Belongs in Your Home

This is the object you want in a coat pocket, a glovebox, a carry-on, or the drawer of a side table. It takes two minutes to learn, it plays in five, and it works across a restaurant table, on a plane tray, or on a porch step with a drink beside it. Children pick it up immediately, which is not nothing, and it does arithmetic on them without their noticing.

Left out, it earns its place too — a small block of figured walnut with nine holes and crisp lettering reads as an object rather than a toy, and it sits comfortably on a bar cart, a desk, or a stack of books. A note on care: keep the pegs and dice in the cavity rather than loose in the case so nothing goes missing, and store it away from heat and direct sun, which will fade the printed numbers before they wear off. A little clear paste wax once a year keeps the walnut fed; skip oils and anything silicone-based.