AN ANGLO-INDIAN IVORY AND HORN GAMES BOARD

Cf. Amin Jaffer, Furniture From British India and Ceylon, V&A Publications 2001, p. 209, fig. 53 for a comparable folding games box.
The earliest documented games board from Vizagapatam are those bought by Lady Clive during her 1801 visit to India, now at Powis Castle. The Vizagapatam games boards followed a standard pattern, the veneers typically ivory contrasting with horn, ebony or tortoiseshell, laid on a sandalwood carcass. These boards would have generally contained three other conforming boxes, containing chess and backgammon pieces.