Pieces for the game of draughts


17th century Pear-wood, forging with the aid of dies, pressing diameter 6.3 cm, thickness 1.5 cm Four wooden disks decorated with pressed rosettes and concentric circles at the edges. On two disks pressed thalers of Rudolph II (1576-1612) and Johann Friedrich (1532-1547), on the obverse with St George and the coat of arms of Saxony on the reverse. The third disc has the Czech medal of Maximilian II (1548-1576) and his wife Maria, with an Atlas on the reverse. The fourth disc has an unidentified bishop's coat of arms with an inscription on the obverse, while the reverse holds a figure of Hercules with a mace. The game originally consisted of 24 discs in two colours, which means that 20 discs are missing. Donated in 1899 by Juraj Dobnik from Zagreb. I would like to thank Dr Ivan Mirnik for identifying the illustrations on the discs.




HPM/PMH-001684