REMARKABLE
Two-Sided Gameboard
with RARE
Landscape Vignettes    

Found in upstate New York and likely painted there, ca. 1870-1900.

Principally parcheesi with secondary chess. This elaborately hand-painted gameboard shows influence from the Hudson River School, a 19th-century American art movement known for its romanticized portrayals of nature and featuring aspirational European motifs.

Each corner, and home-area, are small painted stories rather than stars or geometrics typically found in parcheesi boards. Clockwise from top left: A maiden in white by a stream, evoking purity and reflection/Three figures in a boat fending off a menacing beast-related to 19th century adventure stories /A rider beneath a palm-like tree, evoking the exotic and unexplored/A dramatic mountainous landscape. The central "HOME" may show the Hudson River, with a castle-like structure, a theme borrowed from European Romantic art to suggest history and grandeur. The outer border also features smaller paintings mixed with geometrics and unusual banding, the border design echoed on the complementary, and itself exceptional, chess board on the back. 

In very dry paint (never varnished) with light craquelure. For those who partially assess gameboards on the number of colors, this one exceeds all, there are simply too many colors to count. The golden areas are in a metallic paint so have a bit of reflectivity depending upon angle and lighting.

Excellent condition with scattered minor abrasions. Surprisingly stoutly made, with deep walnut frame attached via screws, the board weighing about 10 pounds. Never fitted for hanging, yet attachment could be secured to the frame. Frame size about 22 ½ inches square x 2 5/8.

A pinnacle of gameboard achievement created during a time when board games were a vogue of entertainment. From a distinguished Southern gameboard collection.