Dart Equipment Company

According to a 1952 issue of the Philadelphia Evening bulletin, John Pearson fashioned the very first dartboard in America. His son and grandson took up the trade, and worked together as the Dartboard Equipment Company.

That, is a pretty solid start, albeit in the English fashion. They did, however, turn parts of their attention towards manufacturing American Style boards. I have some picts of Deco various Deco boards I’ve found for sale . . .

That board has to be at least 25 years old, and it looks in great shape for it's age. The extra shooting targets in the corners are an interesting feature. I don't remember if the DECO board in my uncle's cellar has the same corner target areas. I know it has a lot more wear.

The two following picts are of a much older board that the seller identified as being made by DECO. There are diferent games on either side of the board. One is the more traditional "innings" face, and the back has a baseball themed set of scoring areas.

Darts

While I had never heard of Deco darts until I saw these online, I guess that's understandable. Darts have a much shorter lifespan than boards do, and since the company stopped producing in the early 80's, expecting to find many Deco dart sets floating around is probably unreasonable.

Here's a picture of some darts that were sold in three-packs and hung on a wire in a retail store.

Accessories

End of Deco, Rise of Darto

Darto is, of course, very much alive and doing well today.