This board was another ‘fresh meat’ purchase from the very extra excellent Klittich auctions in Germany. The description is copied in from the catalogue, as many items one collects , that reasonable doubt can exist:-
‘Europe. Rectangular hinged box with playing fields for chess, without game pieces. From the first half of the 20th century. Size 35 x 17,5 x 4,0 cm. The box has minor chips, damages and small defects. The gold – coloured edging is partly rubbed off.‘
Trying to determine what wood type it is made of is not so easy – papier mache came to mind -, but my best guess is that on quite a few auctions the houses rely on the seller of the item for aid with the description.
The decorative carved edges appealed to me and the gold edging being rubbed off was of little concern. I played a little verbal joke with a known Glasgow house by asking a daft question – “do you have egh bunny?” (say it quickly and it sounds like ebony), as I explained to the esteemed gentleman who knows everything about woods!
The cost of this board was pretty reasonable as the commission rate is low when compared to the usual 33%,
but taking into account in the highly competitive shipping costs from Germany for the money spent it represented
great value. The board weighs about 1.5 pounds and on the inside there is glued in dyed red embossed paper instead of a backgammon option. My wife likes this board probably more than myself on a bad day so it is another example of happy wife = happy life.
Here is a link to a subject that can drive me very close to insanity – getting the chess board square size
right, but it is enough to put me off over half of the so-called tourist boards:-
s://www.chess.com/article/view/chess-board-dimensions
Talking of chess/ backgammon boards, check out my ‘fakes’ categories to see what a raging lion (or Lyon in my case) does to created garbage!
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