Occasionally salvage dealers acquire old pub games such as bar skittles. These seem to have been a favourite in Victorian times or even earlier, possibly as a parlour game. But the strange thing is the name that was given to mini skittles in England - 'Devil Amongst The Tailors'.
 
Diabolo is a horizontal spinning top which came from China c 1790 and is named for two joined bells forming a yo-yo. In the English expression 'nine tailors maketh a man', tailors is believed to be a corruption of tellers - the traditional name given to a tolling bell at a funeral. The teller was tolled three times for a man, twice for a woman and once for a child - and this was repeated three times - hence 'nine tellers maketh a man'.
 
So it seems that ninepins was named devil amongst the tailors as a combination of Chinese spinning tops and an English method of counting.
 
Salvo has listed two of these devil amongst the tailors games - both quite old and both in the West Country.
 
Marcus Olliff of Olliffs Architectural in Bristol has a Victorian wooden cannonade for sale at £140 which is divided into compartments where the skittles or tailors are knocked down with a spinning top or devil which bounces around and gets caught and ejected from gates in the corners.
 
The Ragged Cot in Minchinhampton asked Masco (now Vintage & Architectural) to sell its devil amongst the tailors aka a bar skittles or ninepins knocked down by a ball attached to a post by a length of string or chain and an ad was duly placed on SalvoWEB - and is still on the website.