Medieval Games From Gothic Green Oak    
   
 
 

 

Authentic period games for museums and re-enactment

Dice and Dice Games

Dice, due to their portability, and their unpredictability when rolled, became the essential tool of the medieval gambler. Numerous dice games, from the simple and silly to quite complex games of strategy are known from the medieval period.

Modern dice have the six opposite the one, the three opposite the four and the five opposite the two. Some medieval dice also had this pattern but many were apparently random in the pattern of the faces. The six-sided dice here are random such that some will follow the modern pattern but others will not.

 

Wooden 6 sided dice
approximately 1”sq oak – £1 each
approximately ½ ”sq oak – £1 each
approximately ½ ”sq box - £2 each

 

Ceramic 6 sided dice
approximately 3/8”sq - £1 each

 

Bone 6 sided dice

Approximately 3/16” sq - £3 each or £10 for a small leather pouch with three dice

Antler Dice

Made from solid antler with ring and dot pips about half an inch square.

Price £5 each

Lead dice

Made from lead free pewter similar in weight and size to lead dice made from hammered musket balls during the Civil War

Price £3 each

Bags of dice

Three oak dice in a leather pouch with the rules for Hazard, Half Hazard and three easy medieval dice games - £5

 

Medieval Games - Oak wood dice - seven and eight sided dice - Other dice
These follow the pattern described in the Alfonso manuscript of the late 13thC, and were used in playing variants of chess and tables

Seven-sided dice £2
Eight-sided dice £3

Medieval Games - Dice cup/boxDice cup/box
leather with a wooden base - £5

Medieval Games - TeetotumTeetotum
Commonly used to play the game Put and Take the four-sided teetotum or spinning top displays a number when it stops spinning. Each player places a coin in the pot and then take turns spinning the teetotum following the instructions when the teetotum stops spinning. When the whole pot has been won the round is over and the players start again.

1 Take a coin from the pot
2 Do nothing
3 Put in a coin in the pot
4 Win the whole pot

Teetotum in a leather pouch - £5

Medieval Games - Gluckhaus - House of FortuneGluckhaus - House of Fortune
Gluckhaus or Gluckshaus is High German for ‘house of fortune’ and is a simple gambling game. Money is lost and won on the roll of two dice. Coins are placed on a grid of ten numbered squares. Rolling the number of the square wins you the coin on the square but if the square is empty you lose a coin by placing one there. The game was normally played with Jettons. The King, The Wedding, The Lucky Pig all make life interesting as does the mysterious number 4 (there isn’t one!).

Price £10
Two dice in a leather pouch £3.50
Forty 15th C Jettons in a leather pouch - £30