What is a games compendium?

It's a single case fitted to hold several games at once, typically cards, chess, draughts, backgammon and cribbage, with trays and folding boards stacked inside. The word appears in one in five titles on Sellingantiques, and those are the boxes that reach the top of the range. The fully fitted burr walnut examples in particular.

Which woods turn up most often?

Walnut leads, counting its plain, figured and burr forms, at eleven titles. Coromandel and rosewood tie at eight each. Amboyna, olive, kingwood, mahogany and oak also appear. Mahogany and oak sit across the middle of the range, while the exotic and figured timbers recur on the dearer boxes.

Are these boxes always English and Victorian?

That's the dominant form. Twenty-three of 101 titles say Victorian and ten say English, and the decades that carry a clean date bunch in the second half of the 19th century. There's a persistent minority from elsewhere: mah-jong sets in teak and hardwood, Chinese lacquer gaming boxes, Vizagapatam sandalwood and ivory, and Indian specimen woods from Travancore. An Italian Art Deco amboyna and silver card box of about 1935 is the latest sampled piece.

Why do so many listings just say Victorian?

Because that's how the trade labels them. Twenty-eight listings are dated Victorian and thirteen as 19th Century, four in ten of the total. The remaining 45 carry a clean year, and those run from 1800 to 1940. Treat the reign and century labels as approximations rather than research.

What makes one box cost more than another?

Number of games held, casing timber, and applied decoration. Compendiums sit above single-game boxes, exotic and figured woods above plain, and metal or hardstone work above bare veneer. Size is the other lever. Boxes titled oversized or large sit well up the range.

Do tantalus and games cases exist as a type?

They do, though only as a handful. Three sampled titles pair a tantalus or decanters with a games compartment in one case, in oak and in compendium form. The hybrid turns up at the upper-middle of the range rather than at the very top.

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A games box is a lidded case, usually wooden, fitted to hold the equipment for parlour games: playing cards, cribbage pegs and boards, chess and draughts men, backgammon, dice and counters.

A Fine Carved Black Forest Game Box Set Circa:1900.

1900 - 1920

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A Fine Carved Black Forest Game Box Set Circa:1900.

From Koos Limburg Jnr. Scotland

£175

FOR SALE

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19th century

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Mahogany Cribb Box C.1890

From Michael Johnson Antiques

£150

FOR SALE

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A Most Unusual Early Victorian Games Compendium in Rosewood

19th century

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A Most Unusual Early Victorian Games Compendium in Rosewood

From John Beazor Antiques

£1,375

FOR SALE

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Antique Games Boxes

A Fine Carved Black Forest Game Box Set Circa:1900.

Mahogany Cribb Box C.1890

A Most Unusual Early Victorian Games Compendium in Rosewood

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