Backgammon game, France, ca. 1700.

Important backgammon set, France, ca. 1700.
Rosewood box, with interior marquetry in ebonized wood and bone.
With 30 checkers (15 white, 15 black) and two leather cups.
Front handle and side clasps in gilded metal.
They show signs of use and wear.
Measurements: 17 x 53 x 44 cm (open); 8,5 x 88 x 53 cm (closed).

Backgammon set of baroque period and remarkable quality in the materials used and the techniques employed in its decoration. The rosewood box is decorated with inlaid bone and ebonized wood, with which foliate motifs of borders and scrolls are drawn on white (some of them serve to structure the game board). The checkers, both white and black (ebonized), are chiseled with effigies of kings and aristocrats of the time. The cups are covered with leather.

Backgammon was very popular in France, especially at the royal court and among aristocratic circles in the 17th and 18th centuries. During this period, it was part of a family of board games that combined chance and strategy, and included variants such as tous tables.
H. J. R. Murray points out that backgammon has similarities with Spanish laquet, since in both games the opponent's pieces are not captured. Although a version of backgammon known as trictrac was also played in France, this variant was characterized by slightly different rules and a more ornate board, as in this example. The oldest treatise on the game was written in 1634 by Jollivet, a lawyer for the Parliament of Paris, with the aim of standardizing its rules, which until then had been transmitted orally.
During the French Restoration in the 19th century, backgammon experienced a renaissance, although it began to fall into disuse towards the end of that century, being replaced by more simplified versions such as jacquet.