Skip to content
Pitt Rivers Museum

1911.29.67

Wooden board with holes for pegs for the game of 'Merry-peg'. [El.B 'DCF 2004-2006 What's Upstairs?' 25/1/2005]


1911.29.67

Digital asset copyright: Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford

Terms and Conditions

If you wish to order a high-resolution image and/or licence its use for print or web publication, exhibition, film, promotional product or any other use, whether in the academic or commercial sector of any print run, then please visit photographic services.

Collection type
Object
Description
Wooden board with holes for pegs for the game of 'Merry-peg'. [El.B 'DCF 2004-2006 What's Upstairs?' 25/1/2005]
Long description
Wooden board with holes for pegs for the game of 'Merry-peg'. The square wooden board is carved on one side with concentric square grooves and linear grooves radiating out from the four corners and four centre points on the squares. All grooves are triangular in section. A hole has been drilled into the points where these grooves cross. At the centre of the board is a carved square depression. The back of the board has rough pencil lines of a partial layout of the game. It also has a large knot in the wood on the right side of the back. [SM (Verve) 8/5/2017]
Cultural groups
English
Person
Maker T.J. Carter
Maker Thomas James Carter
Field collector Percy Manning
PRM source Percy Manning
Date / Period
Date made: 1904?, uncertain
Date collected
By 1911
Acquisition information
Donated: 1911
Materials and processes
Material Wood Plant, Process Carved
Dimensions
Height: max 37 mm, Width: max 312 mm, Length: max 318 mm
Object numbers
Accession number: 1911.29.67
Research and responses

Nine Men's Morris is a boardgame of great antiquity, most popular in Europe during the 14th century and played throughout the world in various forms [Encyclopædia Britannica Online]. [CF 7/2/2000]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine_men's_morris: Nine Men's Morris is a two-player strategy board game with a long history in Europe. The pattern of the board is found twice, as graffiti, in the 1300 BC Egyptian temple, the Ramesseum in Kurna in Egypt. Each player has nine pieces which move between the twenty-four intersections of three interlocking squares. The game also goes under many other English names, including Nine Man Morris, Mill, Mills, Merels, Merelles, Merrills, as well as names in other languages such as Mérelles, Merrills, Mølle, Mühle, Molenspel, Jeu de Moulin, Tria, Malom. The object of the game is to remove all the enemy pieces. Every time a player forms a line of three (a mill) on any line drawn on the board, he is entitled to remove one enemy piece, with the proviso that a piece may not be removed from an enemy mill. [AP 22/09/2006]

Baldon on the green could be ne of the Baldons south of Oxford between Garsington and Nuneham Courtenay but I cannot find it on multimap [AP 29/06/2006]

There is a video on You Tube demonstrating how to play the board game Nine Men's Morris (see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INWIZH1FVx8) and there are versions of this game that have been developed to play online (see: http://www.kongregate.com/games/vensal/nine-mens-morris). [ZM 21/2/2017]

Search terms: Toy and Game, Board Game