Description
Large Antique Seaworthy Chessboard.
This offering features a Large Antique Seaworthy Chessboard. The chess board squares are 3-0″ Sycamore and Rosewood veneer. The frame is a Coromandel veneer. The Chessboard measures 25-3/4″ square. This is a large chessboard and was designed to allow chess playing while travelling at sea using a large set of chess pieces. There are small drilled holes at the center of each square to secure the chess pieces, which would have been fabricated with pegs. Chess pieces without pegs can equally be used.
A unusual features of this Large Antique Seaworthy Chessboard is the presence of ivory cylindrical inlays, similar to a Cribbage board, to accommodate bone or ivory pegs for scorekeeping. Normally, a match was won by the player whose peg reached the end of the row. Chessboards with this Cribbage feature for scorekeeping were in common use until around 1880. The condition and finish of the chessboard is very good. The chessboard appears to have been produced around 1850. This large Seaworthy Chessboard is designed to accommodate Staunton pattern chessmen with a base diameter between of 2-0″ and 2-3/8″ and checkers with a 2-0″ diameter. A suitable set of new or antique Club-size chessmen can be found elsewhere on this site.
