crashbelt

Can't beat cobalt blue micas on an Ayres compendium board. Just over pee wee size.

My pleasure to show some detail of the contents of the Compendium Box. I've shown the reverse side of the game board which is a horse racing game. The other side is hand-tooled leather for chess/draughts and backgammon. The cards are very ornate and in perfect condition. Im guessing Swiss from the Red Cross motif. That would fit as Ayres imported the marbles from Germany so why not the cards from Europe too. The pee wee marbles are very well made for later period swirls so I guess Ayres specified high quality for what must have been a quite up market product in Victorian times. And the lock still works perfectly!! Thanks for asking - always fun to take a closer look at items from the collection.

Here's a F H Ayres games compendium including a square solitaire board with pee wee swirls - late 19th Century. Rare to find one completely intact.

Here's another board with swirls - nice 20mm size. Most were original to the board but I had to add a few to complete it - can't remember which now!!

Beautiful marbles - nice way to display them too!!

Here's a board I bought from a Canadian collector decades ago! Basic fruitwood or pine board with nice set of 9/16" swirls and onions with many same canes. I like these simple examples just as much as the rarer boards with spectacular mibs.

A couple of aqua mica boards this week. 15mm with ground pontils and 18mm faceted. The English Board makers had a strong liking for German micas - second only to swirls in my experience of (probably) original sets.

The marbles in pic 1 look very like the ones on my octagonal board (above). I have other boards with these marbles and I'm guessing same maker. I'd love to have any leads on the maker.

Here's a crudely made (looks to be cut from veneered blockboard) octagonal board with a set of rather nice clear swirls. No idea of the maker - I would have guessed homemade if I hadn't seen a few of them elsewhere. I've resisted the temptation to transfer the mibs to a better board as I think it may be an original set. Later period of course.

Nice green/white alternating latt

Thanks - I've never seen these before or heard about their manufacture!!

Here are a couple of boxed sets by W S Spear which are found fairly commonly in the UK. Spear set up in England in 1888 so these will be late 19th or early 29th Century. This set is often found with banded transparents and sometimes as with the second set with swirls. The instructions refer to removing the 'red man' from the centre hole to start the game. Both of these sets came with a red (now faded) dyed red clay marble, and both boards show red dye rubbed off in the centre hole. So I'm fairly confident these are all original sets.

I had some of these as a child in the 1960s. I keep them in a Victorian apothecary's measuring jug.

Great information in this thread - thanks.

An 8 hole Star Puzzle probably John Jaques c.1870. 5" finely made mahogany board. Non original 3/4" swirls.

Fascinating stuff - an area I know nothing about so thanks for sharing the knowledge.

Love a candy cane solid core!

Let's do another solitaire set this week. Colourful 5/8" pinch pontil Josephs on a plain pine board. My guess is quite late - end 19th or early 20th Century?

All the numbered ceramics on the Jaques' Magic Number Squares (c.1855-70) were dried on what we call trivets. They were placed so that the three small marks were on the back of the marbles. In this 16 hole set there was an error and the number '12' was dried on the numbered side (as you should see if you look carefully - one mark is on the lower end of the '1'). I always found that rather cool. My 9 hole set was all done correctly.

Great score!!

This is my pocket pal! Always with me so I can show dealers in antique places etc what a German handmade looks like. 11/16" faceted caged divided swirl - totally beaten up but I've got a soft spot for this one!!

Are these called lined crocks Ric? I've never seen one in the flesh.

Incredible size and condition Chad!

Time for a solitaire board this week. Its a late 19th Century boxed Jaques set with 9/16" onions. Jaques must have thought these blue pink and green onions looked good on their mahogany boards and bought lots in from Thuringen. I've had three sets with this combination and one all pink and one all green.

Beautiful examples Chad.