I recently purchased this English books board from Hansons auction house and am mighty pleased with the transaction plus the service. These boards were being made by Thomas Ayres in the 1860’s, and I rather like these items, but getting these in good condition is far from easy and way beyond restoration or tender loving care cannot save them. The playing surface of 12x 12 inches is fine for smaller bone sets. With this purchase a small wooden St George chess set, and crystalite backgammon counters.
the issue of SCA is a piece of nonsense as the excellent work of Keith Middelton does not need SS treatment = seller scorn abuse on eBay as this seller was offering AYRES WOODEN SETS AS BCC on his website on 2005 without a scrap of evidence!! Hence this attempted mockery by using the term ‘so called Ayres‘, beggars belief.
These book boards usually contained a selection of games – chess, backgammon etc, but in my early collecting years, I swallowed the nonsense that these were made for the clergy as when the Bishop was away the priests could play away all through the day. Made up fiction by a dealer who stitched me up big time!
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