3 Color Folk Art Chinese Checkers Gameboard

Circa 1930s: This homemade 17 1/2" x 16 5/8" three color Chinese checkers game in robin's egg blue and barn red on a dark brown ground was fashioned most likely during The Great Depression of the 1930s out of a piece of an early 20th century factory made four board poplar tabletop. After sawing the board, the anonymous maker coated it in brown paint right over the varnished wood and then, by eye, hand drilled his holes. Next, our artist, by eye once more, colored three of the star of David's six triangular arms in robin's egg blue and connected all the holes in that color before painting the remaining triangles red and overpainted most of the blue lines with red. Notice that the red in the solid triangles covered the light blue completely and that the artist, for whatever reason, decided not to use his blue over the red. Finally, the maker applied a thin coat of varnish over his work to seal the paint and make it last. The game's wonderful original surface, with its crazed and bubbled paint, was made possible by having the board stored near a random heat source such as a fireplace or a wood burning stove. This well used and well loved gameboard is a terrific example of homemade depression era naive utilitarian folk art and gains its visual power from the fact that neither its holes, its traingles, nor its connecting lines are completely symetrical, thus giving the board its own slightly off kilter movement and truly incredible one of a kind style.