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Collections

Gaming Pieces13th century

Not on view
Three small barrel-shaped glass beads with charcoal-black surfaces decorated with raised wavy cream-colored horizontal stripes, shown side by side
Three rounded glass beads with dark gray-black grounds decorated with white zigzag and parallel stripe patterns, arranged in a loose triangular grouping against a white background.
Three small glass beads with dark navy bodies decorated with applied white wavy and horizontal stripe patterns; rounded barrel forms arranged side by side against a gray background.

Unknown, Gaming Pieces, 13th century, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Madina Collection of Islamic Art, gift of Camilla Chandler Frost, photo © Museum Associates/LACMA

Title
Gaming Pieces
Place Made
Egypt or Syria
Date Made
13th century
Medium
Glass, marvered and combed thread decoration
Dimensions
Height: 7/8 in. (2.22 cm); Diameter: 11/16 in. (1.74 cm)
Credit Line
The Madina Collection of Islamic Art, gift of Camilla Chandler Frost
Accession Number
M.2002.1.516a-c
Classification
Glass
Collecting Area
Art of the Middle East: Islamic
Curatorial Notes

According to legend, chess was introduced to Iran from India in the sixth century AD and spread throughout the Islamic world after the seventh century. A strategic war game, it was made up of a king, his vizier (queen in the West), and four army branches: chariots (rook), elephants (bishop), cavalry (knight), and infantry (pawn). These small round glass pieces may be pawns. Glass pieces of different shapes, such as a king, but of similar style exist in other collections.

Selected Bibliography

  • Lo Terrenal y lo Divino: Arte Islámico siglos VII al XIX Colección del Museo de Arte del Condado de Los Ángeles. Santiago: Centro Cultural La Moneda, 2015.

  • Komaroff, Linda. Beauty and Identity: Islamic Art from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2016.