Draught board

Only the inner sides of the large, open board can be used for playing, which is rather unusual with boards like this. The outside is framed by wavy laths. There is a plain border, using the veins of the wood as a geometrical pattern, surrounding a rococo vase that is placed on a console in a frame of shell motifs. The sides are decorated with asymmetrical oval fields, framed by ribbon inlays. There are holes in the inner ledge to hold the little sticks that showed the number of tricks. The light and dark fields of the double board are twisted columns, with light or dark staining. The columns stand on high plinths and have different capitals: an eagle standing on a ball or a Corinthian capital with a candlestick and a jug. On one board, the broad stripe dividing the two fields is decorated with the coat-of-arms of the Moravian Podstatky z Prusinovic, in a cartouche of shell and leaf motifs, enriched with scroll, symmetrical ribbons. On the other board, we can see the coat-of-arms of the Hungarian Beke family arranged in a similar way. The presence of the two coat-of-arms suggests that the draught board was a wedding present. Due to lack of information neither the identity of the persons being presented nor the date can be exactly identified. The decoration of the board follows different patterns the rococo vase on the outside was not matched successfully with the other motifs. The framework of the coats-of-arms was modelled on one of the series of four cartouches, made by Jeremias Wachsmuth (1711—1779), a painter and engraver of Augsburg. The two coats-of-arms had been unidentified earlier. Several of the wooden discs that belong to the board, are exhibited under Cat. Nos. 2.38., 6.196., 6.197., 6.198 and 6.199.