Featured Age and Origin of Cribbage Board

Someone suggested I ask for help on age and origin of an old wood cribbage board with inlaid ivory. Unsellable unless time frame supports pre ban. Open board measures 16 3/4" long and is 1" thick.

 

That depends on where you want to sell it. In some parts of the world it is impossible even if pre-ban.
It is best to check the legislation in your state. If it is OK to sell pre-ban ivory there, and the board is actually pre-ban, you can try to sell it locally.

 

Thanks Any!

 

It's nice. I see there is a missing strip under the arc on one side... It's the kind of thing that a cribbage aficionado would like anyway, as the missing area wouldn't interfere with using it to play. And it's unusual. There are some people who collect old cribbage boards. Your question pertains to its age, and unfortunately I have nothing helpful to say about that.

 

I keep trying to have a flash of insight about the standing figure. Except for the spear, puts me in mind of Japanese diving women, 'ama.' I see her as wringing out her hair.

 

She looks... um... like she's packing something in the loincloth...
(Or she's a he with a heck of a set of moobs!)

 

That was vexing me too, but can't help seeing a breast up top, so writing the bulge off as tummy fat. If the figure is male, I have no idea what activity he is engaged in.

 

" Yep.......keep on walking ladies...nothing to see here (sweeps hair back)"

 

It’s fantastic either way. This is definitely a major collecting niche. There was a cover article in one of the printed antique digests about them a year or two ago. There is a huge resurgence of people working in exotic woods recently. They are all over the internet. I bet it would pretty dang easy to find one to cut you a couple replacement pieces that would match reasonably well.

Some better pics of the inside and construction of the box might helpful for dating. I’d have a hard time imagining it’s not at least 100 years old. Maybe as much as 150-175 years old.

 

I thought of Boudicca.

 

The presence of machine-made screws places the object after the point when screw production became mechanised, generally meaning it cannot predate the late 18th century and is more likely from the 19th century or later.

 

Screws can be replaced, but to me the general look is not before early 20th century.

 

You make a fair point. While screws can of course be replaced, the overall construction, symmetry, and the machine-made brass hinges give the piece a distinctly late-19th to early-20th-century character. Taken as a whole, it’s difficult to see this as earlier than the 19th century, and an early-20th-century date does seem entirely plausible based on the general look rather than any single detail.