Board games from the city of Vijayanagara (Hampi ... - Gioco dell'Oca.

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B OARD G AME S TUDIES 6, 2003
to gambling, so it seems quite unusual that a gambling table was made out of such representative
and precious materials. It is also reminded that the games table was made for
a prince-bishop, who might have been more bound to the moral codex of his time.
Considering games and gambling, though, there has always been a hypocrysity – on the
one hand, gambling was condemned and there had been laws against it, on the other
hand it had been a privilege of the court and nobility to gamble. Still, to be represented,
nobility mainly used chess or other tactical games, and not games of chance.
The games tables with war allegories, as well as the board games from Eger prove, that
games not only had a recreational function and served as past-times, but were highly
representative and had symbolical meanings. Chess and other tactical games were part
of the kunstkammer, where the whole world was to be collected. Maybe here we see
another expression of the “microcosm-macrocosm” idea of the time, as a board game
could also be seen as a war battle and express power in the small – opposed to the real
power in a war. But also games of chance could be combined with war allegories. Games
and gambling had been an expression of power – for example at the court of Louis XIV,
where it was the duty of each courtier to be at the gambling tables every day. Even though
in France, gambling was an important part of the court society and served to gain and
represent power, there are no such representative games tables in France. German-speaking
countries in many aspects imitated the etiquette of the French court, also according
to the so-called “appartements”, afternoon or evening meetings at court for gambling.
Those practices of gambling at court expressed the privilege of nobility to gamble, even
though often there were laws which forbid gambling. In most European countries, there
existed more or less precious games tables, but only in the German-speaking courts card
tables and board game tables were combined with symbols of war. Maybe it was the
political situation in Germany which lead to the development of such games tables.
Unlike in France or other European countries, there was no absolutism possible at
German courts, as Germany consisted of many small territorial courts, more or less powerful.
The different sovereigns not only had to claim their power against strong countries
like France, but also had their own rivalries. This might be a reason why games tables as
a type of furniture which represented the privilege of nobility to gamble, but also the
privilege of having the education and time to play board games like chess, were used as
representative means to claim the sovereign’s power. All absolutist sovereigns wanted to
show their power. One means was to have many very splendid “divertissements”, entertainments
like hunts, balls, theatre performances, etc. Board and card games were always
part of those “divertissements”, thus there was a need for representative games tables. The
fact that in German-speaking courts those games tables were combined with symbols of
war to allude to a certain power of their sovereign could be read in the context of their
need to express their claim to an absolutistic power.