Opus Antiques has dated this Antique Bone Teetotum Collection to the 19th Century.
The box also contains four small some bone dice.
Captives carved these detailed multi-sided gaming pieces out of leftover beef or ox bone to pass the time and sell to guards or locals for money.
One of the teetotums is a Put and Take example- see below for the game
One is an 8 sided teetotal stained red.
There are two slightly different teetotums with dots instead of numbers, these would have been used as dice, spinning rather than shaking the dice.
A teetotum was a many faceted spinning top usually 4,6,8 or 12 sides marked with distinctive numbers or letters, many were made by Prisoners of War. They were used for playing games, mostly of the gambling variety and serves in place of dice.
A common gambling game played was called Put and Take. This was played with the examples which had the letters on P, T, H and N. The players either had to put money in the pot or take it out.
One of the Teetotums is for playing Put and Take game.
Every player starts with an equal number of game pieces, counters, or coins (such as tokens, chips, or small coins). All players place an agreed-upon starting stake into the middle to form the "pot".Taking Turns: Players take turns spinning the teetotum. The Action: When the top stops, read the letter or symbol facing up.
P = Player puts and agreed stake in the pot eg 1 or 2 counters.
T= The player can take an agreed amount out from the pot.
H - The player takes half out of the pot
N The player takes nothing.
If the pot becomes empty each player puts in an agreed new stake.
The game continues for a set number of rounds, the winner is the one with the most winnings.
Opus Antiques has dated this Antique Bone Teetotum Collection to the 19th Century.
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A Collection of Antique Bone Prisoner of War Teetotums
