PAUL SIEVEKING unearths German rainbow cups, a rare backgammon set and some fishy remains
BACKGAMMON FIND
We realise this report is three years late, but the discovery was so extraordinary that we thought better late than never.
Back in the 1960s, a young girl found a 16th century backgammon set on a scrapheap in south-east London. After taking it home, she realised its counters were missing, so went back and managed to retrieve all 30 of them. Each of the stained boxwood counters 2in (5cm) in diameter, is engraved with male and female classical and biblical busts conforming to those on the case, engraved in the manner of Virgil Solis (1514-1562), a prominent print maker in Nuremberg. Crafted from rosewood, the board is 2ft (61cm) wide. The unnamed finder kept it under her sofa for half a century before taking it to an auctioneer’s valuation day. Experts believe the set was made in Augsburg, southern Germany, in about 1590, possibly for a rich merchant or someone in the Habsburg court. The exterior of the hinged
