Auction bridge was first form of Bridge where players bid to declare a contract in their chosen trump suit or no trumps. It was first recorded as being played in Bath around 1904. The Bath Club and Portland Club met in 1908 and issued a super-set of rules for Bridge that covered the bidding and penalty for failing to make a contract in Auction Bridge. Early forms were rudimentary and unbalanced and the British and Americans could not agree over the bidding ranking and use of artificial bids, resulting in The Whist Club of New York and The Portland Club issuing competing sets of rules.

By the 1920s "Royal Auction Bridge with the New Count", had fixed most of the problems. After books on the new game were published by leading Bridge authors it quickly became popular and  replaced what remained of Whist and earlier forms of Bridge. It also replaced 500 in much of the US, after that game died out around 1920. 

In 1925 on the Finland, Vanderbilt play tested his version of Contract Bridge, which has the same rules of bidding and play as Auction Bridge, but completely new Non-Vulnerable and Vulnerable scoring tables designed specifically for contract. After quickly becoming popular in Southampton and Newport, Vanderbilt's Contract Bridge was adopted by the Whist Club Of New York in 1927 and The Portland Club in 1929, by the end of that year was only game being played in the clubs of NY and London. 

Now known as just Auction Bridge, the game  continued to played socially for many decades.

History
It is not certain to whom auction bridge should be credited. A letter in The Times (London), January 16, 1905, signed by Oswald Crawfurd, describes auction bridge as first played in 1904.

Bidding was not common in England, but had been used in Dummy Whist, Quadrille, Solo Whist and Five Hundred. 

A book by "John Doe" (Francis Reginald Roe), published in Allahabad, India, in 1899, puts forward auction bridge as an invention of three members of the Indian Civil Service stationed at an isolated community, designed as a three-handed form of bridge to compensate the lack of a fourth player. Their key contribution was the concept of competitive bidding for the declaration.

In the earlier superseded Auction Bridge rules, the dealer opens the bidding and must declare to win at least the odd trick in a trump suit or at No-trump. The penalty for a 1S opening was capped at -100, even if it went 7 off doubled; The bid was treated as forcing though. 

In UK Auction Bridge, as it was a gambling game, bids were ranked by point value of the contract then level So 1 (8 points) beats 3 (6 points) but 4 (8 points) beats 1 (8 points) because it is a higher level. This mean an overbid couldn't reduce the value of the contract at stake. Americans sensibly ranked bids by level then suit, as in modern Contract Bridge which is a much better card game. 

During WWI a variant called Plafond (ceiling) was created in France by adding the idea of "contract", where only tricks bid and made counted towards Game or Slam, over-tricks were bonuses scored above the line. Plafond was successful in France, and parts of Canada among expert players, because accurate high level bidding was required. It was played by Vanderbilt but  Plafond failed to gain acceptance in NY.

Play
The bidding and play are the same as Contract Bridge.

Scoring
Auction Bridge New Count scoring is as follows:

Tricks (below the line)
 Each trick made over six scores: 
 No-trump: 10 points
 Spades:    9 points
 Hearts:    8 points
 Diamonds:  7 points
 Clubs:     6 points
 Game is 30 points, and only odd-tricks count towards game or slam. 

Bonuses (above the line)
 The first side to win two games ends the rubber and scores a 250-point bonus.
 Each under-trick is worth 50 points to the opponents.
 Small slam is worth 50 points; grand slam is worth 100 points.
 Honours are scored as follows:
 Four trump honours in one hand: 80
 Five trump honours (or four aces in No Trump) in one hand: 100
 Additional honour in partner's hand, or for three plus between both hands: 10 each

Doubles
 A doubled contract scores double the normal score. Additionally when a doubled contract is made there is 50 point bonus for the insult and 50 points per over-trick. 
 A redoubled contract scores double the doubled score.

See also
Russian whist

References

External links

Rules of Card Games: Bridge
THE LAWS OF AUCTION BRIDGE (1908)

Contract bridge
Card games introduced in 1904