The Rampant Strawberry Inn

Playing card deck English Tudor Playing Cards                      A&S Fair A.S. 50 (2016)                              Marilyn Holt                            Mwynwen Ysginidd called Strawberry History Playing cards’ existence can be tracked more by the laws around and shipping manifests of them than surviving cards. There are laws banning them within other temperance laws, as well as the taxing on imported and exported cards. Ship manifests are a way we can see the common use and trading of playing cards. From the late 1200’s on, we start to see playing laws popping up on the books in many countries. It is believed that playing cards originated around 1000 A.D. in China. They were narrow slips of paper, essentially dominoes with dots in their 36 combinations possib...

T-Totum, or teetotum Wooden Top -Teetotum                                                                      A&S Fair A.S. 50 (2016) Marilyn Holt                                                                  Mwynwen Ysginidd called Strawberry What: Is it? A Wooden top, a T-Totum. Why would it have been made, what...

Ludus duodecim scriptorum , or XII scripta, was a board game popular during the time of the Roman Empire. It was played anywhere that Rome  controlled. Most boards found are stone. It was so popular that most of the surviving game boards found around cities were professionally carved. it seems like there were plenty of public boards, Like the chess boards in the city park today. It is believed that folks carried playing pieces and dice with them.  The game pieces were called  pessoi,  the name of another game; much in the way a checker piece derives its name from the game Pessoi was also a game. Pessoi as a proper noun implies little round pebbles or pottery sherds.  Eventually, the Boards changed and became a  worded board with tongue in cheek jokes and poems and even menus. It is speculated that this came about because of a Rome-wide ban on gambling with dice. If an official walked into a restaurant and saw a menu o...

Gluckshaus (House of Fortune) This is a photograph of my hand stamped boards they are available for sale they email me for prices I have on cotton or linen or silk Gluckshaus  Is a very simple game there are only 2 known surviving boards from before the 17 century. There are a few theories one from Lady Heather Hall (Heather Rocchi) A Master playing card researcher and reconstruction artist, is that the game was played with just playing cards. This is backed by the concept that some boards from Germany have the Number 10 as a flag bearer, a boar for the number 2, a king or Ober for the 12. this would play into most of the rules of the game.   How to play Gluckshaus All persons wanting to play anti into the 7, then take turns rolling 2, 6 sided dice. On their turn they roll if the number on the board that they roll is empty they play a coin or token on that square if there is something on that square then they take it. EXCEPT for the 3 to 4 special places,...