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Game piece with two noblemen in profile

mid-16th century
Not on view
This piece originally belonged to a much larger set of counters, made to be used in courtly pastimes such as backgammon and the goose game, on a board like that displayed nearby. Exceedingly fine workmanship singles out this game piece as one made for the highest end of the market: the slight difference in color between the uppermost boxwood and the base of walnut would have been more marked when new and may well have identified the player, with the woods inverted on the opponent’s counters. The detailed design of two portrait-like overlapping heads in profile is particularly unusual.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Game piece with two noblemen in profile
  • Date: mid-16th century
  • Culture: German
  • Medium: Boxwood, walnut
  • Dimensions: Diameter: 1 7/8 in. (4.8 cm)
  • Classification: Sculpture-Miniature
  • Credit Line: Gift of Mrs. Edward S. Harkness, 1930
  • Object Number: 30.135.16
  • Curatorial Department: European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

More Artwork

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Barbara Reihing, Hans Kels the Younger German, Boxwood, German, Augsburg
Barbara Reihing
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1538
Allegory of Virtues and Vices at the Court of Charles V, Hans Daucher German, Honestone (Jurassic limestone), traces of gilding, German, probably Augsburg
Allegory of Virtues and Vices at the Court of Charles V
Hans Daucher
ca. 1522
Shield Bearer with the Ducal Arms of Saxony, Hans Daucher German, Honestone (Jurassic limestone), partially polychromed and gilded, German, Augsburg
Shield Bearer with the Ducal Arms of Saxony
Hans Daucher
ca. 1520
Chapel from Le Château de la Bastie d'Urfé, Fra Damiano da Bergamo (Damiano di Antoniolo de Zambelli) and his workshop Italian, Walnut and intarsia of various woods, Italian, Bologna
Chapel from Le Château de la Bastie d'Urfé
Multiple artists/makers
ca. 1547–48
Lucretia, Daniel Mauch, Boxwood (Buxus sempervirens); pedestal: various pieces of dark colored wood, including pieces of ebony (Diospyros sp.), German
Lucretia
Daniel Mauch
1530

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