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Pitt Rivers Museum

1915.50.100.10

Gaming pieces carved in mammoth ivory. The piece is carved with a rectangular base with carved design. [FB 25/07/2014]

On display


1915.50.100.10
Collection type
Object
Description
Gaming pieces carved in mammoth ivory. The piece is carved with a rectangular base with carved design. [FB 25/07/2014]
Long description
Gaming pieces carved in mammoth ivory. The piece is carved with a rectangular base with carved design. The design consists of a square hole in the centre and two circular holes above with zig-zag edging. [FB 25/07/2014]
Geographical reference
Siberia
Cultural groups
IAkut
Date / Period
Date made: Before 1914
Date collected
1914
Acquisition information
Donated: 1915
Materials and processes
Material Mammoth Ivory Tooth Animal, Process Carved
Dimensions
Height: max 30 mm, Width: max 25 mm
Object numbers
Accession number: 1915.50.100.10
Research and responses

In the caption to Plate 47 in Chessmen for Collectors, by Victor Keats (London: B. T. Batsford, 1985) there is what appears to be a reference to this set and thus the implication that at least some of the pieces featured in Plate 47 are in the Pitt Rivers Museum: '47... Russian Kholomogory carved walrus ivory chessmen on the theme of Russians in Roman uniform versus Turks (or Persians), seventeenth/eighteenth century (State Historical Museum of Moscow, MMNY, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Moscow State Museum, Leningrad Museum, Pitt-Rivers and Melsen Collections)....' However, none of the pieces illustrated resembles any of the pieces in the PRM collections. I assume, therefore, that the author merely meant to imply that there are examples of Russian chessmen in the Pitt Rivers Museum. (Photocopy of relevant page in RDF.) [JC 21 10 2010, 6 1 2011]

Search terms: Toy and Game, Gaming Piece