Gaming Counters—Cabinet | A wood cabinet, Eger, mid- 17th century, with fifteen gaming pieces

A Bohemian carved walnut and ebonized wood cabinet

Eger, mid-17th century

the doors each with a male figure standing depicting the four seasons, opening to a total arrangement of seven drawers around a central hinged door, above a further long drawer 35 cm high, 38.5 cm wide, 23 cm deep

Together with: a total of fifteen relief-impressed maple and ebonized wood gaming counters (spielmarken):

(i) two pieces with fruits and simply turned to the reverse, 5.7 cm diameter

(ii) six pieces with a flower to one side and a portrait in profile to the reverse, 4.8 cm diameter

(iii) seven pieces in ebonized wood with a flower to one side and a portrait in profile to the reverse, 4.8 cm diameter

This cabinet fully embodies the technical finesse and aesthetic vocabulary associated with Eger craftsmanship, distinguished by their intricate low‑relief carving and the subtle interplay of differently coloured woods. From the first half of the 17th century, the city of Eger in Bohemia (now Cheb in the Czech Republic) became renowned for producing highly elaborate furniture and decorative panels executed in this distinctive technique. Commonly depicting a wide range of mythological and historical subjects circulated at the time via prints and engravings, this art was carried on in the same family across generations and some of the most popular workshops were those of Johann Georg Fischer (1587–1669) and Adam Eck (1604–1664). 

Several cabinets and panels attributed to Eck, preserved in public and private collections, show close stylistic and thematic similarities to this piece. See for example two smaller caskets with a combination of florals and figures illustrated in Reliefintarsien aus Eger: für die Kunstkammern Europas, Stekovics, 1999, p.243 and p.254 and a larger cabinet from the Hohenlohe Museum within Schloss Neuenstein on p.261.

A group of counters made in Eger and from the E.W. Pasold Collection is illustrated in Heribert Sturm, Egerer Reliefintarsien, 1961, p.113, fig.3 and p.241, fig.97. Gaming equipment from boards to counters is further discussed in the same book pp.204–236.