Personalized Gluckshaus Board

 

Personalized Gluckshaus Board

 

Gluckshaus is a stake and board game from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. There have been several versions of the boards over the years. The common themes being the numbers 2-12 with four often omitted, and if ornamented a pig at two, rings or a wedding at seven, and a king at twelve. The numbers can be in any order. However, the name Gluckshaus is mundane, and appeared in the game collection Schöne Alte Spiele in 1963.

Extant Gluckhaus board which served as the basis for my version. Dated 1583.

  Finished Gluckhaus board.

I was inspired to make my own board after an excellent medieval games class taught by Mistress Étaín O'Rowarke. I did take it as a chance to set some personal challenges. These were to have the images based on marginalia, to have most of them be meaningful to my life thus far, and to only have animals and items as the subjects. As the project was to focus on the imagery, I selected a cutting board to be the canvas.

With so many elements the images each need a note. Followed are original board images, inspiration for the changes, and my final painting.

Piggy!	fol. 31r of the Hours of Mary of Burgundy, 1477	Since spinning is one of my favorite hobbies, a pig with a spindle had to make an appearance.
Dancers. Dancing is fun.	The Taymouth Hours’, England 14th century	These guys were just too fun as they were.
Spears, for when you want to reach out and touch someone.	Breviary of Renaud and Marguerite de Bar, Metz ca. 1302-1305	Piggyback jousting (bunnyback?) with an Oerthan shield.
Picking flowers.	Corpus Christi College Parker Library, MS 53 (The Peterborough Psalter and Bestiary), folio 190v	Tough call between a gryphon and a hippogryph. Hippogryph won due to being less common. Sunflower for Ukraine.
Wedding.	Romance of Alexander; Folio: fol. 130r, 1338-1344	Wedding! My own heraldic critter, and the one we are working on for my partner.
Hold your banner high.	Ms 107, Bréviaire de Renaud de Bar (1302-1304), fol.-89r-129r, Bibliothèque de Verdun	The call of Oertha.
Whip it.	Pontifical of Guillaume Durand, Avignon, before 1390. Paris, Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, ms. 143, fol. 232	Wielding a weapon comes naturally to a unicorn.
You have my heart.	Manuscript illustration from The Romance of Alexander, MS. Bold. 264, folio 59r, Bodleian Library, Oxford, England.	Maid Marion comes from my favorite of the mouse house cartoons. A staple since I was very young.
Walkers	Book of Hours of Charlotte of Savoy created in Paris, France, in the 15th century. New York, The Pierpont Morgan Library, Ms. M. 1004, fol. 82v	A tribute to the two rescue hedgehogs I have had.
Long live the king!	Crown of the West, as worn by Miles FitzRolf, Rex	What other crown than that of your kingdom.
Biblia del siglo XIII	Foxes return with another nod to the favorite vulpine archer. This crossbowman wards off a viscous snail.
La Somme le Roy, France ca. 1290-1300 (British Library, Add. 28162, fol. 12v)	What marginalia is complete without vorpal bunnies?
Peterborough Bestiary, Peterborough c. 1300-1310	A nod to our rescue voids.
Source unfortunately not found.	Happy little magpies were part of early mundane memories.
Horae ad usum Briocensem Source: gallica.bnf.fr Bibliothèque nationale de France, Département des manuscrits, NAL 3194, fol. 116v	Pretty flowers to fill the border.
Battle in the Margins (from the Gorleston Psalter, England (Suffolk), 1310-1324, Add MS 49622, f. 193v.	Pretty vines for more border fill.
The favorite mundane animals feature in the name for our mundane house.	Anno Societatis for both the painting of the game board, and also of our marriage.

This was a really fun piece to paint. Additionally it looks great hanging on the wall, and is a lot of fun to play.