This games box was likely made in Thatta, in present-day Pakistan,between the last decades of the sixteenth century and the firstdecades of the seventeenth century.1 Made from teak (Tectonagrandis), it is veneered with Ceylon ebony (Diospyros ebenum) andsandalwood (Santalum album) and inlaid with elephant ivory andsadeli (micro-mosaic).Modelled on a prototype akin to earlier Spanish taraceagames boxes, it features, when open, a board for chess, draughts,and Hispanic-style backgammon on one side, and on the reverse(the inside of the box), a board for the Italian-style backgammon,with elongated ‘tongues’ of alternating ivory and sandalwood. Aswith other known boards from this production based in Sind, includingflat reversible game boards and folding game boards, thisgames box features highly elaborate arabesque borders and raisedframes inlaid with eight-petalled rosettes.Among the rarest and most fascinating objects producedin India for export to European markets in the early modern period,game boards epitomise the artistic confluence at work in thesubcontinent during the so-called Age of Discovery, as reflectedin their refined manufacturing techniques and decoration.2 Theseinclude flat reversible boards, flat folding boards, games boxes (flatboards folding into a box), and boards folding into oblong boxeswith drawers. Flat reversible boards represent the simplest form, whereas flat folding boards, including games boxes with interiorcompartments for storing game pieces, were better suited to travel.While there are several examples of flat reversible boards and evenof boards folding into oblong boxes from this production basedin Sind, the present example is the only games box known to us.The production of Indian game boards, typically made fromprecious woods and decorated with marquetry and inlay is inseparablefrom the contemporary tradition of fine cabinetmaking. Recentresearch, integrating contemporary documentary sources with indepthanalysis of surviving objects and paying special attention tomaterials, production techniques, and decorative repertoire, hasilluminated the various production centres responsible for theseremarkable artefacts.3 Linking East and West, chess—thought tohave originated in India around the sixth century—and chessboardswere among the earliest items encountered by Europeansin India in the early sixteenth century. At the Portuguese court,chess was held in high regard, with King Sebastião I (r. 1557–1578)renowned as a skilled player.4When the Portuguese ventured to the Indies, chess undoubtedlyaccompanied them as a favoured pastime. François Pyrard deLaval (c. 1578–c. 1623), in his detailed account of travels to India(1601–1611), observed in 1608 that the Portuguese exhibited ‘agreat fondness for chess, draughts, and other board games’.

HMC

1 Published in Crespo, Hugo Miguel, ‘The Game of Empires: Indian Chessboards and Artistic Exchange in the Age of Discovery’, in Horta-Osório, António, Crumiller, Jonathan (eds.),The Horta-Osório Collection of Antique Chess Sets. Volume 1. India, Lisbon, António Horta-Osório, 2025, pp. 364–424, 371, 378–379, figs. 8–10.

2 For a recent overview of these boards, see Idem, ibidem.

3 Idem, India in Portugal. A Time of Artistic Confluence (cat.), Oporto, Bluebook, 2021.

4 Markl, Dagoberto L., ‘O Xadrez e os Descobrimentos. O Tempo de João de Barros (1496–1570)’, in Oceanos, 27 (1996), pp. 92–98.