Glocke und Hammer: The Bell and Hammer

5 cards, just over 5 x 3.5 inches: color lithographs laminated to buff paper, text in English, German and French. In original slide-top box with litho label, 6 x 4.5 x 2.5 inches. With auctioneer's hammer and 8 stone cubes (dice) marked on single sides: numbers 1-6, a bell, and a hammer. Faint pencil to the "hammer" card, and a 1/2 x 3/4-inch loss to the bottom edge of the "schimmel."  The #5 die is heavily worn but is the same material as the others. This example has all of the pieces unique to the game, but does not include any chips. Llikely produced in the late 19th century, it's remarkable for the inclusion of text in English and French, as well as German, a testament to its spread. "Concor[d?]" appears on the bell, no manufacturer's markings.

Either invented or merely popularized by Viennese art dealer Heinrich Friedrich Mueller (debate persists), the game was very popular and produced in copious editions. It was a staple of entertainment in Jewish communities, played during Hanukkah celebrations and essentially disappearing after WWII. Players began with equal numbers of chips and the five cards representing a bell, a hammer, a bell and hammer, a man on a gray horse, and a merchant’s hall were auctioned off. Instructions from The Young Folk's Cyclopædia of Games and Sports (New York, 1890) are copied below:

One of the players is chosen as cashier who distributes an equal number of counters to each. He then sells by auction to the one who bids the highest number of counters the five cards, separately. The counters thus paid are placed in the middle of the table to form the pool, to which each player pays four counters more. The players then throw the dice in order, the cashier first and then the others in any order he may choose, but the same order must be preserved during the game. If any one throw all blanks, each player must pay one counter to the holder of the White Horse, but if with the blanks Bell or Hammer or both be thrown, the holder of the corresponding must pay one to the White Horse. When numbers are thrown with the Bell or Hammer, the cashier their sum in counters from the pool to the holder of the card; when numbers and blanks are thrown, the cashier pays the amount of such numbers from the pool to the thrower. Where the sum of numbers thrown exceeds the number of counters in the pool, nothing is paid from the pool, but the player who would otherwise have received pay pays the excess to the holder of the Inn. After the Inn has begun thus to receive, if all blanks are thrown, the players do not pay as before but the White Horse pays one to the Inn. If Bell or Hammer, or both, be thrown with blanks after the Inn begins to receive, the holder of the corresponding card pays one to the Inn. The game is won by the player having the largest number of counters at the close of the game. The game ends when some player takes all the counters in the pool, and such player acts as cashier for the next game. Bell and Hammer is much played in Germany where it is called Glocke und Hammer Bell and Hammer or Schimmel Horse.