17th century German Wood Gaming Piece- Draught or Checker.

This gaming piece is made of turned and steamed fruitwood. Images were pressed onto the heated wood with a steel die in a similar process to minting medals. It would have been one of many used to play on an elaborate game board for backgammon, draughts and other dice games.
Commonly, images range from European nobles and rulers to pivotal battles in history.
The rarity of this piece lies in its unusual images on both sides - created for an audience of wealthy intellectuals understanding its unique symbolism.

The first shows a man turning a grindstone to which another is applying the large nose of a third. A small boy urinates on the stone as a fourth man admires himself in a mirror. The legend in Latin “NASONIS MALE VASATI I(P)OENA” (Punishment for a big-nosed man, badly equipped). This is a mockery of William III of England(1650-1702) being held “to the grindstone”. An image appealing to his detractors in Holland and Catholic Jacobite sympathizers.

The other side shows a doctor visiting the bedside of an ailing woman. He is checking her pulse and examining a glass of her “water” while Cupid prepares his bow in the background. The legend above: “VVLVA DOLET VRINA DOCET” (Urine teaches us the pains of the vulva(matrix or womb)). This was common “theater” in Dutch 17th c. genre painting, best represented in a series by Jan Steen (1626-1679) of the doctor as “quack” examining an ailing maiden’s “water” to reveal her true malady of love. To the right of the doctor’s foot, an embossed MB for German sculptor and medalist MartinBrunner(Nuremburg, 1659-1725).

Please look for more information in Story Highlights “GAME No. 1”

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