Wooden Pope Joan Set
About My art
Customer Comment: C. Swanson wrote:Wooden Board Games
All designs © Rose & Pentagram Design.
Also watch this page for limited edition games
like those in our Gallery.
All of the games below are "green" - they are made from wood that is salvaged from the furniture industry,
or "recycled" from items bought in second hand stores.
Wooden Pope Joan Set
New Special!
Buy our wooden Pope Joan Set
and we'll throw in a free deck of our
18th Century English Playing Cards
2 to 6 players. An 18th century ancestor to modern Rummy Royale, Tripoly & Michigan Rummy. The name comes from a Medieval myth that Pope John VIII was a woman. Easy to learn, but fast-moving enough for experienced card players. The board is divided into eight "bowls." Players win markers/coins out of the bowls as they play the face cards of the trump suit, and the first one to get rid of his cards wins the hand. The set also includes the rules for 3 other related card games, and enough glass drops as chips for up to 6 players.
$35.00 + $9.00 shipping.
An oak Hnefatafl ("King's Table") game set with "bone" game pieces inspired by a surviving English bone game piece found in Woodperry, Oxfordshire. The boards are about 1" thick oak and about 14-inches square. These games were played by Norse cultures as early as 400 A.D., and were imported by the Vikings to Iceland, Britain, Ireland, and Wales. They seem to have been the primary strategy games in Northern Europe until the introduction of Chess. Unlike Chess, or Checkers which are fought by armies from opposite sides of the board, Tafl games involve a single king and his defenders in the center of the board surrounded by an army of attackers twice their number. We Include a set of dice and facsimile sheep knucklebones for playing variations on these games which require dice.
Oak Hnefatafl Game $100.00, Shipping: $14.00
Limited Edition Hnefatafl
with Deer Bone Pieces
The same board pictured above but with real deer toe bones as the game pieces. One side is stained red and the the king's "head" is painted metalic gold.
This is a limited edition item and none are in stock at this time.
Hnefatafl with Bone Pieces
$130.00 + $14.00 shipping
These boards are "recycled" from drab old giant cribbage boards and have been given a new life, hand decorated with Celtic bird patterns so they make beautiful wall decorations when not in use. They all come with hand turned wooden pegs and our booklet of 14 variations on cribbage games. They are all priced at $125.00 +$14.00 shipping
Giant Cribbage Board #1
Unknown wood
31" x 8"
The Backgammon game decorating this "recycled" table is inspired by a 4-player game "The Tables of the four Seasons" described in The Book of Games, a manuscript commissioned by Alphonso X of Spain in about 1280. Players used game pieces color-coded to represent the seasons. The knotwork decorating Backgammon board is an original pattern, as are the "Greenman" designs in the corners reflecting the changing seasons. The Celtic bird and dog patterns in the Chessboard, and the birds on the border of the table were inspired by similar designs in the Book of Kells. The table opens in the center to reveal a felt-lined compartment for storing the pieces.
The accompanying Chess set is a reproduction of a 12 century set found in the 1800's on the Isle of. It is considered one of the most important early Chess sets of Europe. The table comes with the Lewis Chessmen, Backgammon pieces, a complete set of our historic dice, playing cards plus booklets with 30 variations on Backgammon games and early card and dice games. The table is about 40" across.
Price reduced now, $1700.00
Includes rules and glass game pieces. Price $500.00
