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This Exceptionally Rare Charles Darrow 23 Inch Board with Box Monopoly Game was manufactured in late 1933 and was purchased in February 2021 by Dan and Anita Fernandez on eBay from Anna Bauer. This game was found in the attic of her family home in Haddonfield, NJ. She is the great granddaughter of the original owner Minnie Antoinette Moore Tatem.

Special Note: As of this writing (5/2021), this is the only known complete game with the Box (Restored), Board and nearly complete set of game components (missing 3 houses). There is a partial set (Board, Components and Cutout Instructions) in the Strong Museum of Play in Rochester, New York, and the 23" Board originally in the Fernandez collection has been sold to another noted collector. It is also estimated that between the Oilcloth sets and the 23" Board Sets only 100 were made.

The following is an edited version of the Game's Provenance provided by Anna Bauer.

"My great grandmother bought this house (pictured) in 1926 as a widow with young adult children. She would have bought the game, so it has ALWAYS been in this house in Haddonfield, NJ.

Her name was Minnie Antoinette Moore Tatem (pictured). She married J. Fithiam Tatem and had five children. Her fourth was my grandmother.

Minnie lived 1867 - 1963. She inherited a good bit of money from her parents and her husband J. Fithian Tatem who was an attorney. J. Fithian Tatem died in 1921 at the age of 52. Minnie went on to finish raising her children who were mostly teenagers at the time, and then grandchildren starting in 1930's, then great grandchildren in the 1950s.

She was pretty well-to-do back then and had a circle of friends in Philadelphia and South Jersey. It's even possible she knew Charles Darrow. It has been told to me that she loved games, Scrabble, Mah Jong and Parcheesi. During summer, she would go up to a family lake in Maine for the entire summer. From the looks of the box, this game may have come and gone back and forth to the lake with her.

She would have been widowed by 1933 for some 12 years and her youngest child would now have been 23. I'm imagining it was a gift to Mrs. Tatem (a 54 ish widow), who liked to play games, in Haddonfield, NJ. Since she had a car, she could easily travel to Philadelphia or Atlantic City (one hour). She also was quite generous in philanthropy so maybe she did help him (Charles Darrow) out.

My great grandfather would have worked in Philadelphia as an attorney. Also having gone to UPENN. Maybe he ran in similar circles... with Darrow.

She passed away in 1963. Her house contents were divided up, disposed of or left in the attic. My parents purchased the house and contents in 1968. She died much before I was born, but I've heard many stories.

There is no sales sticker on the box, so it could have been a gift (from Darrow?). My grandmother was Presbyterian but our town - Haddonfield, NJ, is very Quaker and she would have had plenty of Quaker friends."