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Lot Essay
Both backgammon and chess were popular in the Islamic world and were introduced into the Iberian Peninsula by the Moors in the 10th century. The Libro de los Juegos (Book of Games), a manuscript commissioned by Alfonso X in the 1283 and now in the Biblioteca del Monasterio de San Lorenzo de El Escorial, includes many colour illustrations of chess including the versions imported from the Arab kingdoms. Many of the illustrations depict parties engaged in chess on boards of similarly rectangular form to the present example (Jaime I, Rey y Caballero, Valencia, 2008, ms.T.1.6, pno.94, pp.202-03).
Combined boards of the form found here are known at least from the 14th century onwards. An all-wood non folding example is in Granada (Arte Islámico en Granada, Exhibition Catalogue, Granada, 1995, no.181, p.427). Another example is in the Kunsthistorischesmuseum, Vienna. A third, particularly elaborate, example which has been attributed to Italy but dating from circa 1500 and showing very considerable Islamic influence, is in the Victoria and Albert Museum (Türkische Kunst und Kultur aus osmanischer Zeit, exhibition catalogue, Frankfurt-am-Main, 1985, vol.2, no, p.330).
The technique of inlaying, or taracea, was used in decoration throughout Spain and North Africa and appeared in the minbar of the Great Mosque of Cordoba on its enlargement under al-Hakim II in the tenth century. Caliphal marquetry workshops continued to execute court commissions under the Almoravids and the Almohads and contributed to the splendour of the minbars in the Qarawiyyin mosque in Fez and those of the Kutubiyya and the Qasba mosques in Marrakech (Jerrilynn D. Dodds, Al-Andalus, The Art of Islamic Spain, New York, 1992, p. 373).
The most similar gaming board to that offered here sold at Sotheby’s, 24 October 2007, lot 158 and was decorated with almost identical floral panels. That example had exposed areas in the wooden frame which revealed beneath them scraps of medieval parchment that were used as an underlay. The parchment bore traces of verses from a psalter that were printed rather than manuscript. Since printing was only done on parchment in the second half of the 15th century, they were able to date their board very precisely. So similar are the Sotheby’s board and that offered here, that they must be the product of the same workshop and therefore must be of similar date.
Combined boards of the form found here are known at least from the 14th century onwards. An all-wood non folding example is in Granada (Arte Islámico en Granada, Exhibition Catalogue, Granada, 1995, no.181, p.427). Another example is in the Kunsthistorischesmuseum, Vienna. A third, particularly elaborate, example which has been attributed to Italy but dating from circa 1500 and showing very considerable Islamic influence, is in the Victoria and Albert Museum (Türkische Kunst und Kultur aus osmanischer Zeit, exhibition catalogue, Frankfurt-am-Main, 1985, vol.2, no, p.330).
The technique of inlaying, or taracea, was used in decoration throughout Spain and North Africa and appeared in the minbar of the Great Mosque of Cordoba on its enlargement under al-Hakim II in the tenth century. Caliphal marquetry workshops continued to execute court commissions under the Almoravids and the Almohads and contributed to the splendour of the minbars in the Qarawiyyin mosque in Fez and those of the Kutubiyya and the Qasba mosques in Marrakech (Jerrilynn D. Dodds, Al-Andalus, The Art of Islamic Spain, New York, 1992, p. 373).
The most similar gaming board to that offered here sold at Sotheby’s, 24 October 2007, lot 158 and was decorated with almost identical floral panels. That example had exposed areas in the wooden frame which revealed beneath them scraps of medieval parchment that were used as an underlay. The parchment bore traces of verses from a psalter that were printed rather than manuscript. Since printing was only done on parchment in the second half of the 15th century, they were able to date their board very precisely. So similar are the Sotheby’s board and that offered here, that they must be the product of the same workshop and therefore must be of similar date.