crashbelt

I thought it would be fun to continue with micas from last week. So I gathered up the different colours I could think of from my boards and elsewhere, using Paul Baumann's great book as a reference. So here set on a Victorian pine Spin Jenny board are random sizes of micas - some photograph better than others unfortunately. There's blue, clear, aqua, blue/green, brown, yellow, turquoise, purple, amethyst, green, yellow, amber and of course my only red one. First time I ever put the different colours together and a lot of fun. It would be cool if fellow mica collectors post colours I'm missing - I saw a light pink one once on an auction site!!

I'm pleased to say it is a red one. Out of maybe 5-600 micas on my solitaire boards or loose its the only red one I have!

Micas were often chosen for Victorian solitaire boards. I've posted a few of my mica sets before. Sometimes it's nice to get some from my jar of loose micas out for a picture. Not sure the idea of putting them on my piano keys is the greatest artistic setting but hey...........

Nice colourful Bennies - didn't realise anyone was making knock-offs! I'm not sure about your half and half. I have blue and brown Bennies but the colours are more patchily distributed rather than two fairly distinct 'hemispheres' and I can't see any characteristic 'eyes'. But I'm no expert on Benningtons so maybe disregard my thoughts!

A rest from the solitaire boards this Thursday. A nice box of 70 unglazed lined chinas (11-12mm) and a larger painted rose china.

Great shelf full of Germans Chad - just beautiful.

Wow that's a very rare bird - ribbon onionskin I think. So beautiful its tempting to polish it because its core is so obscured, although I'm usually in the 'leave it be' camp.

I've posted this board this week as it shares many similarities with last week's. Glevum Games, boxed, pine or fruitwood board, ground pontil mibs but quite intricate designs - same as last week but very different mibs - no black glass for example. Wish I had greater knowledge about the makers as my guess is that Glevum sourced these mibs from a different maker from last week's. I've highlighted my favourite 4. A red latt, a tri-level light blue solid core with inner white latt cage, two blue jelly cores (sorry they don't photograph well) - one a tri-level with an inner white latt cage.

Love yours too Chad!! I've seen several sets over the years with this kind of combination of 'English' colour swirls so I'm as confident as I can be that our sets are original.

Here is a Chad Valley set. Boxed, cheap looking 2 tone board - probably painted/stained plywood. Ground pontil mibs. Looks very late period to me, perhaps early 20th Century. The stars are the lovely simple 'English' colour swirls, especially the single colour solid cores.

It's Thursday so here's another board. Glevum Games boxed, pine board. very clear glass with bright colours. Rough ground pontils despite quite intricate Swirl design. I'm guessing very late period maybe early 20th C? I highlighted my faves - 2 same cane single ribbons in black/yellow/white and their double ribbon sibling. Unusually nearly all the mibs have some black glass which is very unusual.

Here's a board with onions and Indians. Boxed - Chad Valley. Ground pontils so later period.

Another Thursday solitaire board. A mix of swirls and Josephs in bright colours. I'm pretty sure this too is an original set as the colours are consistent between the Josephs and the swirls as are the ground pontils.

This Thursday here's one of the first boards I collected 30 years ago! Blue/white onions, some in less than perfect condition, but all original to the set except two I had to add to make up the numbers. Its nice to have the instructions so well preserved on the base of the board - so often torn or removed.

I do agree that if you can't display them properly its best to sell some, although that's easier said than done! My solitaire board collection was over 100 boards, with around a third of them stacked on top of each other😕. So as a lockdown project I catalogued and reviewed the collection and sold 15 through a UK auction house and Ebay. The selling decisions weren't difficult (duplicates, superseded place-holders, poorer quality mibs, non-original sets) and I've no regrets and can display some retained boards better. I still need to off-load maybe another 20 boards, which I rather like, so the next stage of downsizing will be tougher.

Here's another of my boards. Beautiful 9" mahogany board with 17mm finely faceted mibs, so from the older period. 14 micas, including a pale yellow, and 2 deeply coloured dark blue/grey, 17 onions including some same cane and a lefty or two, and a single cloud - all wet mint. I'm pretty convinced this is an original set and its an interesting example of the decisions the UK game manufacturers made in choosing which imported German handmade for their best sets.

Years ago I bought this very ordinary looking Chad Valley 6"x6" board with German pee wees. It was poorly photographed on eBay so I took a chance as it was very cheap. I was delighted when it arrived to find two same cane alternating blue/white latticino swirls and two red latts in 3 divided ribbon form. Its funny the craftsmanship that went into the glass designs of those mibs but with very crude ground pontils for a roughly made board. I have the original box and I've not seen another.

The pride of my collection of boards are both complete Jaques Magic Number Squares with glazed ceramic numbered marbles on beautiful turned mahogany boards. Both have lozenge shaped marks dating the game copyright to the 1850s although they could have been made in the 1860s too. I am very lucky to have found these many years ago.

I like simple one colour solid cores - I've heard them called candle cores but not sure if people still use that term. The small ones are from a Chad Valley solitaire board.

Some of my favourite boards are the simplest and smallest - 7 1/2" mahogany board with bun feet 12-14mm pink/green onionskins. Nothing to indicate the maker. Pontils are ground but very finely so I'll hazard a guess at some time around the end of the faceted period and the early ground period. Again my bet is that this set has always been together.

Very nice set - exceptionally clean box too. I have a couple of these in my Solitaire Board collection. Made by Jacob Wolf Spear and Son, a toy manufactuer established in a small town near Nurenberg in the 1870s, and in business until being bought out by Mattel in the 1990s. The Jewish Spears fled to the UK in the 1930s and famously made the very popular Scrabble game. The board is beech I think and the mibs for these sets are usually transparent banded swirls, although one of my sets has latts and solid cores. You can see from the instructions on the inside of your box lid, reference to placing the 'red man' in the centre hole. My sets have a dyed red clay marble with the 32 glass handmades - presumably the 'red man', and the centre hole is marked with red dye from years of being stored that way. Great to see such a fine example!!

I'm lucky enough to have been collecting German handmades and solitaire boards in the UK for over 30 years! They were a lot easier to come by in flea markets and junk shops all those years ago, armed only with the Everett Grist and Paul Baumann books!

Oops just missed Thuringen Thursday. Oh well since there's a bit of a pee wee theme, here's one of my favourite boards with tiny Benningtons - 10-11mm. Since these cheap fruitwood swivel-tray boards usually came with cheaper non-glass mibs I'm assuming this is an original set.

Here's another of my solitaire boards - 11/16" onionskins on a beautiful board with bun feet. The marbles are all nicely faceted, so its from the early period, and it sure looks like an original set. The onions are a mix of 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 panels. No sign of any mica but a really pretty set.

Since we've mentioned brown micas here's a solitaire set with 19mm micas - I'd describe as dark amber grading through to dark brown. An early set as very finely finished pontils - none are cased in clear of course. Not an unusual colour but I'm rather fond of it!!