Games and Gaming Antiques

Like many of you, we spend much of our time dreaming of idyllic holidays and leisure time but one way to bring a little leisure in to the everyday is through playing games and there have always been plenty of antiques concerned with gaming, particularly relating to cards or chess. We have some fine pieces in stock at the moment and will also be highlighting an item of past stock to show the sorts of gaming antiques that intrigue us. As always, please let us know if we can provide further details about any of these pieces.

Past Stock

We were lucky enough to be able to find an appreciative new home for a particularly lovely high Victorian walnut-cased games compendium, retailed by Frederic Aldis.

https://www.bada.org/object/high-victorian-burr-walnut-games-box

Made c. 1860, this fine box is fitted for cribbage and bezique, also retaining its original ivory counters and beautiful gilt bronze cribbage board, with a brass plaque for the important box maker and luxury retailer Frederic Aldis.

This piece is an excellent way of illustrating not just the sort of items that we stock but also the work that we like to do as we investigated Aldis and his firm and were able to build up an intriguing picture of an important luxury retailer of the period. Aldis established his firm in 1852 and eventually expanded to locations across London-10, 11, 12, 13 Belgrave Mansions, 61, 63, 65 Buckingham Palace Road and 3 Cheapside. The firm issued regular summer and Christmas catalogues of stock and their adverts were extremely charming. An advert in The Queen, dated 21st of November 1891, lists the firm’s areas of expertise as “Brass, ormolu, jewellery, bags, clocks, silver, glass, china, leather cabinet, stationery goods, toys and dolls and dressing bags”. 

Another intriguing advert from summer 1886 showed one of the firm’s “bachelor’s companions”-cards and games sets made for the single wealthy gentleman.

This games compendium is a superb example, beautifully fitted and in excellent condition. We are always on the look-out for similar examples for our clients.

Present Stock

Amongst our present stock, we have three very fine pieces of gaming furniture, including one extremely rare piece which is very out of the ordinary. Beginning with that piece, we have an early 20th century Glenister’s Patent gaming chair.

Early 20th century mahogany ‘Glenister’s patent’ reclining gaming

What looks at first glance to be a relatively typical reclining chair is in fact anything but. The back does recline in the usual fashion and the chair is beautifully upholstered in buttoned leather, including the pull-out foot rest, but the arms hold the key to this piece, opening to reveal playing cards in one and decanters and glasses in the other. This amazing piece, perfect for the bachelor’s pad or “man cave”, as well as in a more traditional library or drawing room setting, was designed by Albert Glenister, the first part of the patent being registered in 1916 but the full design only realised in 1919. Our research then uncovered the original patent drawings and photocopies of these are supplied with the piece. This is an extremely unusual piece of furniture with a real wow factor, combining comfort with hidden metamorphic features. A guaranteed talking point.

Made a century earlier than the Glenister chair, we have a very fine games table, firmly attributed to the important maker Gillows of Lancaster.

A Regency period rosewood sofa games table attributed to Gillows of Lancaster

This fine piece was executed in rosewood of exceptional quality and figure which has faded to a glorious golden colour. It was owned in the 20th century by the Countess of Ranfurly whose husband, the Earl, was a career diplomat. The Ranfurlys were in Cairo with General Eisenhower and wrote extensively about their time there, the Countess’ memoir of that time being published as To War with Whitaker. The family later moved to the Bahamas were the Earl was governor fro 1953-56.

Provenance aside, the table is a particularly fine example of a well-known Gillows design. This piece can function as as a writing table but then the central leaf can be reversed, showing a chess board or backgammon board depending on the requirements of the particular game being played. The table has beautifully observed lyre-form end supports joined by a curving central stretcher and the ormolu mounts used throughout are of fine quality and great decorative appeal. A truly superior large games table.

Of smaller size but equal quality and appeal, we have a marble topped games table also attributed to Gillows.

An unusual George IV specimen marble backgammon table attributed to Gillows

This fine piece has an inlaid marble backgammon and chess board as well as an intriguing combination of British native woods and a Latin inscription, drawn from the work of Linnaeus, that likely refers to the importance of supporting one’s local industry and craftspeople.

This table was in a very important private collection in St John’s Wood, having been acquired from the famous decorator dealer Geoffrey Bennison in the 1980s.

When it comes to gaming furniture, the obvious piece that comes to mind is the card table. We have a vast collection of card tables in stock, singles and pairs, English and French, to suit all interiors and budgets. They are described below in chronological order, oldest to most recently made.

Of beautiful sculptural form, we have a George I period walnut card table, made c.1720.

A George I walnut card table

This piece has graceful cabriole legs, a central drawer for gaming pieces in the frieze and beautifully carved pad feet. This is a very fine example of an early Georgian card table and is a highly attractive and practical example.

Next we have probably the finest pair of card tables in our collection. These wonderful tables were once in the collection of the great Belgravia dealers Jeremy Ltd. 

A very fine pair of George III mahogany and plum pudding mahogany concertina action card tables

Made c.1780, the tables have a concertina action meaning that they open from the centre and there are no stray legs in the centre of the frieze when in use which make gateleg tables hard to sit at for more than two players. The tables are made of the finest plum pudding mahogany and have signed H. Tibats hinges, found on a variety of the finest card tables from this period and always a sign of quality in themselves. Many fine pieces of 18th century furniture, particularly card tables, bear the stamp ‘H. TIBATS’ on their hinges. The stamp almost certainly refers to Hugh Tibbatts, ‘hinge and sash fastening maker‘ of Bell Street, Wolverhampton, listed relatively late in the 1781 Pearson & Rollason Directory for Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Walsall, Dudley, Bilston and Willenhall.  A concertina-action card table, circa 1755-60, with quadrant hinges stamped ‘H. Tibats’ is in the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum (W.65:1-1962). 

Pairs of card tables are always particularly desirable and these tables are of rare form and truly outstanding quality. Highly recommended.

At the turn of the 19th century, card table designs were developed that incorporated a central stem rather than four long legs. We have a particularly interesting example in our current collection.

A George IV Anglo-Chinese amboyna card table

This piece has a baluster turned stem with three short legs and is veneered principally in amboyna wood, a very exotic timber. This, plus the form of the table itself, suggests that the piece may well have been made in China for the English market. The table is inlaid with bone and ebony parquetry and is an extremely interesting and highly decorative example.

Moving in to the Victorian period, we have a high Victorian Goncalo Alves table almost certainly made by Gillows of interesting form.

An early Victorian Goncalo Alves card table attributed to Gillows

Susan Stuart’s landmark book on the firm illustrates other tables of this model which belonged to Miss K. M. Newstead of Liverpool. The form of this table, with its hinged rectangular top and oval-shaped inset baize, is very interesting in and of itself and this is a fine quality table by one of the great makers.

The remaining card tables in our stock are all of French rather than English origin. We begin with an exceptional Napoleon III period example by Paul Sormani.

A Napoleon III parquetry card table by Sormani

This piece is decorated throughout with parquetry formed of small diamond-shaped pieces of satinwood, kingwood and tulipwood, all profusely mounted with ormolu. The effect is rich and luxurious but the pale colours of the timbers mean that this table is also surprisingly contemporary in feel.

Paul Sormani (1817-1877) was Italian born, establishing his first workshops in Paris in 1847, finally settling in Rue Charlot in 1867 and offering works of ‘a quality of execution of the first order’. His specialty was copies of furniture in the style of the ‘Ancien Regime’. The firm exhibited at the Paris Expositions Universelles of 1855 and 1867, and London 1862 and won several medals for excellence. 

Next we have a pair of walnut concertina action card tables, c.1880.

Walnut Antique Card Tables

Although unsigned, these tables are of exemplary quality, combining carved and parcel-gilt elements with diaper work. This is an unusual model of table and not simply a reproduction of a Louis XVI model which was common at the time. These tables combine features of earlier designs to create something quite new and exciting and they are extremely attractive and usable pieces.

We end our card tables section with this exceptional pair of late 19th century tables.

A pair of kingwood card tables by G. Durand

Executed in kingwood by G. Durand, each tables has a shaped folding top above a serpentine frieze and elegant cabriole legs with gilt bronze foliate mounts, edges and sabots, decorated overall with superb marquetry panels of cross-grained foliate scrolls against a counter-cube trellis ground. Stamped ‘G. DURAND’ and bearing the paper label ‘E. MOUGIN, 6 Rue Castex, Doreur sur Cuir – Gainier – Garnisseur pour l’Ameublement, Paris’ who would have supplied the ormolu mounts. Circa 1890.

A similar side cabinet by G. Durand appears in Denise Ledoux-Lebard’s ‘Le Mobilier Français du XIXe Siècle.’ In rosewood and purple-heart, it displays the same distinctive use of dark wood to create a silhouette effect in the floral sprays and the same cube-trellis in which the play of light is accentuated by the juxtaposition of cross-grained and counter-inlaid woods.

These are outstanding tables, rich and luxurious and by a very fine maker. Highly recommended.

We complete this little survey with something very different-a wax diorama of two Chinese gentlemen playing cards.

A rare Anglo-Chinese Regency polychrome painted wax and wood group of two Chinese card players

Made in China for the English market, this is a charming piece which illustrates the craze for chinoiserie in the “Brighton Pavilion period” in England. The model illustrates one player attempting to cheat the other, reading from additional stacks of cards on the floor beneath his chair. A charming and highly amusing model and perfect for placing in the centre of a card table.

We do hope you have enjoyed this selection of stock and look forward to helping you with your antique gaming needs in the future.