Green and Gold Checkers Board with Diamonds

Circa 1880-1910: This super folksy 15 5/8" x 13 9/16" homemade checkers game was painted on a single piece of cherrywood by its anonymous amateur maker, who first coated the border with dark blue and then decided to make it Windsor green instead. The artist used gold radiator paint for the game squares and diamond embellishments and added a thin coat of varnish over the board, choosing to leave the remaining set of squares in their natural cherry in order to show off the wood's beautiful color and tight grain. The final move the artist made was to cover the pencil marks and outline the squares and diamonds in green. Note that this is executed in freehand and gives the checkerboard its offbeat folksy quality, which is what makes the board desirable. Over time, the gameboard's surface has developed the fine crazing prized by collectors. As it should, the board also exhibits an extremely minor bit of shrinkage and warpage commensurate with its age. Also, the reverse side of the the board shows us that its naive maker first attempted a checker board on it and then abandoned it for a second try. This is a fantastic example of an early gamboard proudly created with materials that were at hand.