antler six sided dice

One pair of antler six sided dice

There have been laws banning dice games on the books throughout history and many a royal account listed for paying off debts of losses from dice and other gambling. Gambling was outlawed in Rome, however it didn’t stop people at all. Henry VII banned dice and gambling among his servants because he felt the poor couldn’t control themselves. This is ironic because there are accounts in both Henry VII’s and his son Henry VIII’s  expense books of the payment of gambling debts from all types of gambling including cards and dice.[4]   During times of prohibition I am sure people made dice at home or in wood shops with wood working and jeweler tools, or even just a whittling knife, for making them is not hard at all.

Lady MwynwenYginidd is the wife of a sailor and the proprietor of a brewpub. She passes her time with games of chance that can be played with her patrons as well as with her husband when he is in port. There are many documents of dice games that were very popular during the Tudor time. Games of chance played with dice such as Hazzard and 31, along with race games such as Goose and Backgammon, all used six sided dice. These dice are intended to help create a Tudor gaming set for my Fifty year goal which is to make my persona and my kit more solid and more period correct.

These dice are designed to be in a Tudor gambling set. As such I looked toward the Mary Rose find for reference and examples.

“Eleven bone dice were recovered, the smallest measuring just 4.8mm across. The largest, at 7.8mm, wasn't significantly larger. Why were they so small?

Well, it could have something to do with gaming legislation brought in in 1541 - The Unlawful Games Act, which forbade pretty much any gaming pursuits that weren't archery. Since this clearly includes dice games, which at the time were essentially used for gambling, their small size would have made it easier to hide them. (How this allows the carpenter to own a Backgammon board is another question.)

Of course, it could just be that the bones they were using to make the dice were only between 4.8mm and 7.8mm in diameter.[7]

[7][8][9][10]

There are six sided dice found all the way back to as far as Mesopotamia (7000 years ago).[2] It was in Medieval Europe that the popularity of dice games soared, starting in the 1100s with a game called Hazard (the precursor to Craps) that was played by both aristocrats and commoners. “They dance and play at dice both day and night,” wrote Chaucer in The Canterbury Tales. These games were so popular that over the ensuing centuries dice guilds and schools formed all over Western Europe. That didn’t stop the Catholic Church from attempting to ban all gambling games, though. Over the next few hundred years, dozens of popes, bishops, and priests instituted bans against dicing games. And just like in ancient Rome, the bans didn’t stop people from playing them.[5]

Most unearthed medieval dice are made of bone, antler, jet, clay or wood. In medieval and Tudor times the positioning of the pips could be found in two different configurations which are different from Roman or Modern times. The second system, only found during the middle ages, was 1 opposite 2, 3 opposite 4 and 5 opposite 6 (instead of the opposite sides totaling 7). Medieval dice are small, compared to modern ones;sizes between 5-12 mm exist, while modern dice tend to be 12.5mm or larger. False medieval dice used for cheating also existed. A London find contained a whole set of false dice; some were weighted, and some had more sixes or ones [1].

I choose to use antler because I like the texture, weight, workability, and availability of it. Most dice found are listed as bone even if they are antler because dice are not considered such a rare thing to find. As such, they are not tracked as well as rare antiquities. Most of the Dice I could find before the 1600’s that were listed as Antler were Viking time period between 790’ and 1066.

[Photo 1. is the antler with the beginnings of the first cut being made.]

On the British Islands, Red Deer, Fallow Deer, and Roe Deer were all common in the royal forests. The forests of England were normally owned by the reigning monarch, only the monarch or his servants hunted in the forests. Permission could be granted by the granting of a royal license. However, while Fallow Deer don’t shed their antlers, the Red Deer and Roe Deer stags have antlers which start growing in the spring and are shed each year, usually at the end of winter. The shed antler could be gathered to make dice.

[Photo 2. is the chunk of antler cut out but not even or cut into the two cubes yet.]

I used hacksaw blades to cut the material holding it in a vice for control. I then marked and pipped the dice, Pips on Dice though out the ages could be made simply as small holes as I did, which is how the dice on the Mary Rose are.Or a center hole with concentric circles.

[photo 3. The dice cubes cut and pips drilled in it with one of the dies having the pips filled withbee’s wax that has been blacked with carbon soot.]

I bought a box hacksaw blades for this project and changed blades often at the advice of Master Philippe because of the hard nature and therefore dulling properties of the antler on the blades.  I have been advised that working antler and bone wet cuts down on dust.  Saws existed period e bows would have been wood were as today they are metal, as did drills also mostly wood. A simple nail pounded flat could work to make a drill bit to make pips. I used a metal caliper to make sure all sides were the same size. I rolled them 100 times to get a fair sampling for there being true to a fair roll.

 I have seen a rare example of pips that have the remnants of metal in them. I feel this would be bad because side 6 would have more weight than side one. I made the decision to put blacked bees wax in mine for the practical purpose of being able to read them better especial in low light of the camp tables. Lamp black and bees wax was available during the time period as such I think this is not a far leap of practicality.

Finished products are a little less than 8mm in size.

Finished dice with pips blacked with bees wax.

Sources

1.Thomasguild.blogspot.com

Left; Bone dice from Amersfoot, the Netherlands dating from the 14^th Century. Right; Two systens of arranging pips from 12/13^th century dice made of jet from York, UK. 11079 is our current systen, 11078 uses the alternitive medival system.

2. Swiss Museum of Gameswww.museedujeu.ch/

3. The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer

4. The Privy Purse Expenses of King Henry VIII from November MDXXIX, to December MDXXXII, www.gutenberg.org

4A. http://www.susanhigginbotham.com/blog/posts/some-privy-purse-expenses-of-henry-vi/

5.http://www.neatorama.com/2014/08/18/Rollin-Bones-The-History-of-Dice/

Rollin’ Bones: The History of Dice, Miss Cellania • Monday, August 18, 2014

6. Master Philippe de Lyon

7. http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/simon-m-clabby/five-tiny-things-recovere_b_8176306.html (Photos of Dice)

8. http://www.theunbrokenthread.com/blog/2014/05/17/sightseeing-in-england-mary-rose-and-dyrham-house/(Photos of Dice)

9.http://photographersdirect.net/buyers/stockphoto.php?image=2631282

10.http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-hampshire-22639505(Photos of Dice)

T-Totum, or teetotum

What: Is it?

A Wooden top, a T-Totum.

Why would it have been made, what use is it?

            A teetotum is a top that has been squared. They were used by children and adults for games of chance for entertainment and gambling. It has gone through other names depending on region. The Latin word totum means all and is represented on English tops with the letter T, hence the name T-Totum. Modernly written teetotum.

Why am I choosing to make it?

My Persona is an ale wife who runs a brewpub. Being the fiercely proud Welsh woman, as well a fine and good Godly woman, she felt it was blasphemous to use Latin (God’s language) on the teetotum, and so in her house the teetotum was carved with Welsh.  And as such, this is my reasoning for choosing to whittle, carve, and make a wooden top called a teetotum. I, felt this creative addition worked, for the languages of the teetotums in different countries have reflected the languages of those countries, and as such, so should a Welsh teetotum.

This also helps to round out my 50^th year project, a handmade middleclass tutor gambling/gaming set, which further makes my kit more period, a 50^th year goal of mine.

When: What time periods were they made and use it?

            It told that the T-Totum got its start in Rome as an emperor commanded his wisest counselors to come up with a fresh game to amuse him.  Theses tops had four sides and the letters A,D,N,T,  A take “ane” is the eyes of the emperor, D is “Donoto alium” was the disaponted remark of the day in Rome, N was a negative quantity “Nihil”, T  success could go no further “ totum” [9] Whether this is the truth is hard to say But it makes a nice story.

The Elliott Avedon Museum identifies this as a gambling game that dates back to ancient Rome. Each side is marked differently and players wager on which side will end up when the teetotum is spun.

From Pieter Brueghel's "Children's Games", painted in 1560. A child is holding a teetotum in her left hand. Brueghel would most likely have been familar with the French version of the game. Each player contributes a certain number of coins to the pot. The Oxford History of Board Games by David Parlett states the sides were marked as follows: 'P' for "pillar" or "plunder", the player wins the same number of coins he wagered; 'R' for "rein" or "nothing", the player loses his wager and his turn; 'J' for "jocque" or "game, the player loses his wager and must add the same amount of his wager to the pot again; and 'F' for "fors" or "out", the player wins the entire pot and the game ends. Players ante in again to continue playing. [2][8][13][14] The model the child holds has a long spindle requiring two hands to spin it. Modern versions have short spindles which can be spun in the fingertips.[2]

The game is described as being played by English children at Christmas time. Readers may note the game is remarkable similar to Dreidel, a game that's traditionally played by Jewish children during the Hebrew festival of Hannukah which takes place at approximately the same time of the year [10][13][14]

 “According to the David Parlett, The Oxford History of Board Games, 1999, pages 29-30, states that the Teetotum was originally a cubic die threaded on a spindle so that only one of its sides were capable of showing after it was spun” Source: Virtual Museum of Games [7][8]

How (methods) did they make it? What differences are in these two things and why?

There has been lead pewter, wood, clay, ivory, bone, & horn teetotums found. They were made many ways, but whittling a wooden one would be child’s play for a youth or their parent in medieval times. Carpenters and jewelers made and sold some toys during the times especially around the Christmas and Jewish winter holidays when these were often quite the toy of choice.

How did I make it?

I used wood, a chunk off a 2X2. I visually gauged the size I liked for the handle, took a straight edge and marked around the four sides. I then put a circle on the top end for the finished size of the handle. I sawed into the corners ½”, then chiseled along the same path, and then I alternated and did that again on the sides. I did this until I got down to about 1/16” inch of the final size of the top handle. I then smoothed the handle with carving tools. Next, I marked the bottom of the top by marking triangles on the sides towards the bottom of the block of wood. I centered the point of these triangles to the bottom center of the block. I then put the block in my vice with corner side up. I cut, using a hacksaw, at an angle along the triangle lines down to the point, taking off the corners. I did this for all four corners. I then cut on the flat sides along the lines at an angle toward the center bottom point. Next, I cleaned up the bottom with carving tools. I drew the letters on the sides of the block and carved them with carving tools. When these were made out wood in period, they would have used the same tools I did.

            Markings of teetotums though history, and my choice of markings.

The tradition in England is to use Teetotums marked on the four sides with Latin letters. The letters A (Lat. aufer, take) indicating that the player takes one from the pool, D (Lat. depone, put down) when a fine has to be paid, N (Lat. nihil, nothing), and T (Lat. totum, all), when the whole pool is to be taken.

(Roman) Latin

A - ane

D - donoto alium

N – nihil

T - totum

(English) Latin

A – aufer (take)       

D- dpone (Put down)

N- Nihol (nothing)

T- totum (all)

Welsh

C- cymeyd (take)

R- rhoi (Put)

N- nim (nothing)

G- gyd  (all)

Other accounts give such letters as P, N, D (dimidium, half), and H or T or other combinations of letters. Other combinations of letters that could be found were NG, ZS, TA, TG, NH, ND, SL and M, which included the Latin terms Zona Salve ("save all"), Tibi Adfer ("take all"), Nihil Habeas("nothing left"), Solve L ("save 50") and Nihil Dabis ("nothing happens"),

The four sides of a Dreidel are marked with the Hebrew letters 'Nun' which stands for "Nes" meaning "miracle"; 'Gimmel' which stands for "Gadol" meaning "great"; 'Heh' which stands for "haya" meaning "happened"; and 'Shin' which stands for "sham" which means "there", a reference to Isreal.[10][17]  

·         If נ (nun) is facing up, the player does nothing.

·         If ג (gimel) is facing up, the player gets everything in the pot.

·         If ה (he) is facing up, the player gets half of the pieces in the pot. (If there are an odd number of pieces in the pot, the player takes the half the pot rounded up to the nearest whole number)

·         If ש (shin) or פ (pe) is facing up, the player adds a game piece to the pot (often accompanied with the chant "Shin, Shin, put one in"). In some game versions a Shin results in adding three game pieces to the pot (one for each stem of the Shin).

In Israel, the fourth side of most dreidels is inscribed with the letter פ (Pei) instead, rendering the acronym, נס גדול היה פה, Nes Gadol Hayah Poh—"A great miracle happened here" referring to the miracle occurring in the Land of Israel. Some stores in Haredi neighborhoods sell the ש dreidels which are imported from Israel. Dreidel has not any manifested evidence that it pre dates 18c.and that it is just a Jewish vision of the teetodum.[common Jewish knowledge]

How to play T-Totum

Welsh

C- cymeyd (take)

R- rhoi (Put)

N- nim (nothing)

G- gyd  (all)

(English) Latin

A – aufer (take)       

D- dpone (Put down)

N- Nihol (nothing)

T- totum (all)

Each player who wishes to play places an ante in to the pot.

In turn each player takes a turn spinning the T-totum. The side that lands face side up determines what that player does.

If the top lands with:

C : The player take 1 coin.

R: The player put 1 coin into the pot.

             N: Nothing is done.

G: The player takes the whole pot. Then everyone antes again.

Once the top has been spun and the action taken accordingly, the top is passed to the next player for her turn.

Sources: (Bibliography)

1. http://digregardless.blogspot.com/2013/03/spitfires-teetotums-and-crumbling-spires.html

 A fascinating little spinning top engraved with old-fashioned capital letters was identified by John Clarke at the Museum of London as made of ivory and a 17th Century 'teetotum,' a piece for playing 'put and take' games with

2. A girl holding up a four-sided teetotum on Brueghel, Pieter "Children's Games" 1560. 46-1/2 x 63-3/8" (118x161cm) Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

3.  http://cadw.gov.wales/docs/cadw/publications/150923Tudorgames.pdf  © Crown Copyright 2014 WG20762

4. British Museum http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=55081&partId=1&people=13829&peoA=13829-3-18&page=1

5. The Elliott Avedon Games Museum -- http://www.ahs.uwaterloo.ca/~museum

6.Sports and Pastimes of the people of England, Strutt, Joseph (1903) [1801]. Cox, J Charles, ed. The Sports and Pastimes of the People of England. London: Methuen. p. 305. https://archive.org/stream/cu31924029932575#page/n441/mode/2up

7. Games Museum, Waterloo, http://www.gamesmuseum.uwaterloo.ca/VirtualExhibits/Tablegames/Dreidel/index.html

8. Parlett, David The Oxford History of Board Games (Cary, N.Carolina; Oxford University Press; 1999; ISBN: 0192129988 )

9. History of Glenbervie By George Henderson Kinnear Year 1895

10. Gomme, Alice Traditional Games of England, Scotland and Ireland (London, Eng.; Thames and Hudson; 1894; 2 vol.; ISBN 0-500-27316-2; $18.95)

11.

Date 17thC (early) Production place Made in: Germany

12. History of Glenbervie By George Henderson Kinnear, 1895 edition, p. 88

13. Portman, Paul Pieter Brueghel's Children's Games (Berne, Switz.; Hallwall Press; 1964)

14. Game of the Month: Teetotums and Dreidels, by Dagonell the Juggler (http://www-cs.canisius.edu/)

possibly post medieval example .

Possible wood solection Juniper

Juniper (Juniperus communis) is one of only three native conifers in Britain. A member of the cypress family, it has short, spiky leaves and distinctive blue-black berries. Once a common plant, it was traditionally used in medicines and to flavour food and drink, perhaps most famously gin.  http://plantnetwork.org/

Trees considered native to Wales, include a range of broadleaved species found in woodland situations (eg oak, ash, birch, willow, alder, etc) or hedgerows (eg hawthorn, hazel, blackthorn, field maple, etc).  nativetrees.org.uk/

Master Avery Austringer

Master Guillaume dela Sudeterre