Posted 14 years ago
makitwood
(1 item)
This board is made of walnut and maple. With walnut being the top layer and maple being the bottom layer of wood. It appears to be home made as it has some pretty rough inlayed initials in it of the letters BVB which stands for the initials of my grand uncle-in-law, Blanchard Beaver Vorse. Also, the holes are not perfectly alligned as they would be if it was machine manufactured.
I inherited it from my mother. Blanchard was her uncle who was born in 1881 and died in 1937.
The board has a cavity in the top with a wooden plug which appears to be a place to store the pegs that probably accompanied it (the pegs are missing). The plug has a hand made wooden knob on it to pull the plug out with.
I assume it was a game of some sort but not sure because I haven't seen a peg game with this configuration of holes. It may have been some sort of English peg solitaire based on the configuration of the top 33 holes but I can't figure out the bottom 32 holes unless that was where you stored the pegs as they were removed since there should be 32 pegs in the English Solitaire game. If anyone has any suggestions for what this board is all about, I would appreciate some suggestions.
If it is one of those "brain-teaser" games where you jump pegs until one is left, you only need 32 holes on the bottom...the 33rd pin stays in the top! Very clever the way he tapered the board to accomidate one less hole. A great family treasure.
http://www.nostalgiagames.net/phdi/p1.nsf/supppages/nostalgia?opendocument&part=5.
This web site shows an English "Solitare" board game with the exact configuration as the top of your great-uncle's board. (Perhaps like the one you mentioned.) It actually makes the game more portable since you don't have a bunch of loose pins to hold on to, they are right on the board. Very clever.
Thanks for your input. I agree that the bottom holes may be for the pegs removed from the top portion but I was just guessing. I had never heard of English Solitaire before I started researching the board on the internet.