Cosi Tabellini

Old board games

toys The first board games were almost certainly of a religious nature. The oldest one, now at the Musèe du Cinquanténaire in Brussels, dates back to between 4000 and 3500 b.C. It was discovered in a predynastic cemetery at El-Mahasna, eight miles north of Abydos in Upper Egypt, together with a large number of objects in ivory and clay. The archaeologists who discovered the tomb thought that its occupant was a wizard or a fortune teller and that the game helped him to predict the future or was used for divinatory purposes.

The often supernatural aspect of board games derives from the idea that the gods control "fortune" and the outcome of throws of dice. According to the ancient Greeks, Palamedes invented dice as a pastime during the ten-year siege of Troy. But dice are older than the war of Troy. The first dice were probably pieces of wood, broken twigs, with two faces, one rounded face and one flat. They were based on the "heads or tails" system which was complicated by the number of twigs used. The present-day shape, in which the opposing faces always total 7 when added together, dates back to 1400 b.C.

We have three board games: Ludo, introduced in England in 1896 as a simplification of the Indian game "Pachisi", Pope Joan which originated in England in the early nineteenth century and dice, the origins of which are both very ancient and common to more or less all geographical areas.

Our board games have a solid appearance and a particular patina which is never dark and you only need water and soap to give them again their original shade. They are accurately manufactured in order to seem "antiqued". The alloy used satisfies all EEC and USA regulations governing containers for alimentary use.



pewter old games



board game LUDO
board game
Code: 10090
Measure cm: 24X24
Price display:

pope joan board game PAPESSA GIOVANNA
pope joan board game
Code: 10080
Measure cm: 25x25
Price display:

dice-set board game TACITO
dice-set board game
Code: 10050
Measure cm: d. 24
Price display:

dice-box FORTUNA
dice-box
Code: 10051
Measure cm: 6,5x6,5
Price display:


(Old board games)

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