Rose & Pentagram Design 2229 East 34th St., Mpls, MN 55407 U.S.A.(612) 729-4585 E-mail us
Machine-washable fabric boards: Fidchell, Pope Joan, Morris, Backgammon, Ringo, Checkers, Cribbage
Historic & Modern Novelty Dice: Put & Takes, Lord & Lady Dice©, Dragon Dice, Nightmare Dice©, Knucklebones
Period Cards, Early Card Games, Visconti Tarot, Tarot of Marseilles, 16th century German cards, Solitaire cards
Hnefatafl, Cribbage, 17th Century Dominos
Wooden Checkers, Game rule bookets
Our own original Tshirt Designs
Large One-of-a-Kind works of Celtic Art
Gallery of past Knotwork Designs
New works in Progress, or products coming soon.
How we got started/Company history.
Links on history of Games, or for historical reenactors.
Art Shows, Renfaires or reentactments we are attending.
Links to other historic games.
Download our catalog in PDF form to order off-line
View the contents of your shopping cart

Coming Soon!

Leather Dice Cups!


Includes a set of six wooden dice		 

"Vice Pouches"
Canvas wallets with four pockets for carrying a multitude of "sins!"
Inspired by simple period wallets, but sized-up with pockets to fit our game rule booklets, playing cards and dice (or a pipe and tobacco, a flask, or "French Letters") They measure about 6.5 " x 10" and come trimmed in red. OUT OF STOCK IN BLUE.

Also great for more innocent uses like period sewing kits.

$15.00 + $3.00 shipping

Qty:Red Vice Pouch

Vice Pouch
Vice Pouch
Period Doubloons for Gamingdoubloons

Whether you're a pirate, privateer, or land-bound soldier these replicas of Spanish reales and doubloons will make great props for use along with our period dice and card games. Spanish mints sometimes used the same molds to make both gold and silver coins. The sets include equal numbers of the "gold" and "silver" coins and a plain cotten drawstring pouch to keep them in. They are about the size of a modern quarter and are made out of zinc just like a modern American penny, so they have an authentic sounding "clink" as well. We include 10 coins each of the two styles in the graphic.

20 coins for $10.00+ $2.50 shipping

Order 100 coins and we'll give you a
FREE Put & Take gambling top
The 100 coin set includes 25 of each of the four styles pictured
100 coins + Put & Take $40.00 + $6.55 shipping

These would be a great way to show off your booty on a pirate coat
-Drill a couple holes through them and use them for buttons!

Renaissance Cooking

A collection of 27 recipes by "Alice the Cook" (AKA Anjila Olson) All have been tested in her kitchen, and as well as cooked over open fires in front of the public at Renaissance fairs throughout the midwest including events in Iowa, South Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin. The booklet features family recipes some of which she has discovered in her research on cooking to have historic ancestors.

More info about "Alice the Cook" at
her web page

$10.00 + $1.00 shipping

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Renaissance Cooking II
Visiting the Silk Road

The latest collection of historic recipes by "Alice the Cook" (AKA Anjila Olson) This edition offers more vegetarian / vegan friendly options, as well as several dishes influenced by Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cuisines.

More info about "Alice the Cook" at
her web page

$15.00 + $1.00 shipping

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Game Rules
New!
"Rules for Games of the Past" CD-rom
Newly Updated!

We have updated the rules for all of the games we sell and burned them on to CD-roms in PDF format.

Includes histories and multiple variations in rules for:

Backgammon (32 variations) Checkers (20 variations)
Cribbage (14 variations)Dominos (19 variations)
13 Early Card Games18 Early Dice Games
Mancala(20 variations)Tarot Card Games
Pope Joan (and two related games)
9-Man & 12-man Morris (plus two other variations)
plus rules for Hnefatafl, Fidchell, and Ringo

Mac and Windows compatable.
$20.00 + $2.00 shipping

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Game rule bookets.
These are the same booklets we include with our games
$5.00 Each
Early Card Games
We have written our own booklet of games to accompany our period playing cards. We tried select games that do not appear in most standard collections of card games, and are fairly easy to learn -even for non-card players. We have come up with a dozen games that are all documented in Europe prior to 1700, and included a brief history of playing cards in Europe.
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Early Games of Dice
Newly Updated in 2003: We recently added several dice games translated from Alphonso X's "Book of Games (circa 1280 A.D) Includes a look at the history of dice, rule for dicing with sheep knucklebones.
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Mancala:
Dating to the reign of Pharoh Seti I (1366-1333 B.C.), Mancala was spread to the east by Islamic peoples, and west by African slaves. It is a deceptively simple game that is now played all around the world. We have collected 20 variations in rules ranging from the West Indies to the Phillipines.

Tarot Games and History
Tarot cards were used for playing card game long before they were used for divination. So we've written A booklet with a short history of them and included six games including the earliest surviving tarot games dating to the 17th century.
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Cribbage
The earliest precurser to modern Cribbage is called "Noddy" and dates back to the 1500's. We've included this plus several 17th cenury variation, as well as modern version for solitaire Cribbage and up to 6 players. 14 versions in all!
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Backgammon
Variations of Backgammon or "Tables" that were played on a recognizable board go back as far as first century Rome. Our booklet contains 32 variations on Backgammon games ancient to modern.
Checkers
Sure, everyone knows Checkers, but try playing it with a die to tell you how many spaces you can move. Our sales of our portable Checkers game doubled when we started including our booklet of 20 variations on Checkers games.
Dominos
Dominos seem to first appear in Europe in the late 17th century, although they go back much further in time in the Orient.

New!
"An Informal look at Wood Turning Through the Ages " CD-rom

This is a collection of the various illustrations on early turning that I have found over the last ten years and is intended to assist others who are interested in experimenting with these machines of the past. My interest has been in pre-industrialized turning, so there is little here about the commercially manufactured lathes, and nothing about modern motorized turning.

Included on the disk:

All 86 plates from Denis Diderot's  L'art du Tourneur (1775)

Selected plates from Charles Plumier's D'art de Tourner (1706)

All turning-related plates from from Joseph Moxon's Mechanick Exercises (1678)

Dozens of other illustrations I have collected, as well as notes that I have made on the history of turning from various primary and secondary sources.

Simple plans for two of the lathes I have built and experimented with.

Mac and Windows compatable.
$20.00 + $2.00 shipping

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Game Pieces

Also see our Other Games page for game accessories

Wood Checkers

These are the same checkers we include with our fabric checkers games. They're about 1.25" in diameter. We'll send you 26 (13 light & 13 dark) so you have a full Checkers set, plus an extra of each color. $7.00 for 26 checkers + $1.00 shipping

Other Products

Keepsake Ornaments
Mousepads
Tote Bags
Tshirts & Sweat shirts