Game Box For Chess, Nine Men’s Morris, And Backgammon

Game Box for Chess, Nine Men’s Morris, and Backgammon

Italy, 19th century
Wood and leather
33 × 33.3 × 11.2 cm

This wooden and leather game box combines three traditional strategy games: Nine Men’s Morris, Chess, and Backgammon.

One face, decorated with an intricate wood inlay, features the board for Nine Men’s Morris, composed of three interlocking squares offering twenty-four intersections. The game, known since antiquity (from the Latin merellus, meaning “game piece”), is played with nine white and nine black counters.

The reverse presents a checkerboard of alternating light and dark wood squares, designed for the game of Chess.

Inside, the leather-lined compartment opens to reveal a Backgammon board, its twenty-four triangular points arranged in four sections (jans), testifying to the enduring appeal of such refined multifunctional gaming objects in 19th-century Italy.