Games

Games, Stone and Bone Chess Sets, Backgammon, and Heritage Board Games

Explore games crafted from genuine stone, bone, hand-carved wood, brass, and other heritage materials — chess sets, backgammon boards, checkers, and traditional board games designed to last generations rather than seasons. This collection includes carved stone chess sets, bone and resin chess pieces, leather-wrapped backgammon boards, hand-finished wooden checkers, themed medieval and Viking game sets, and decorative gaming pieces designed for serious players, collectors, gift-buyers, board game enthusiasts, and anyone who appreciates the timeless craft of well-made tabletop games.

A great game set is one of the rare gifts that combines beauty, function, and lasting value. A mass-produced plastic chess set goes in a drawer; a hand-carved stone chess set with bone-detail pieces becomes a centerpiece on a coffee table, a conversation starter at every dinner party, and an heirloom that gets passed down through families. Chess has been played for nearly 1,500 years. Backgammon traces back over 5,000 years to ancient Mesopotamia. Checkers in some form predates written history. The games are timeless — and the right set honors that history rather than treating these games as disposable.

Our games collection includes designs with hand-carved stone pieces (marble, onyx, alabaster, soapstone), genuine bone and bone-composite chess pieces, solid hardwood boards with traditional inlay (walnut, rosewood, ebony, maple), leather-wrapped backgammon cases with felt-lined interiors, brass and pewter detailing, themed medieval and Viking-style figurine sets, and traditional folding game boards that double as storage cases. Many sets include matching wooden storage boxes or padded carrying cases, making them suitable for both display and active play.

Types of Games in This Collection

Our games collection includes the major heritage board games in materials and craftsmanship that match their age and tradition. Chess sets range from full carved-stone sets with marble or onyx pieces on inlaid hardwood boards, to bone-and-resin themed sets featuring medieval, Viking, Roman, ancient Greek, or fantasy figurines, to traditional Staunton-pattern sets in wood. Stone chess sets in particular offer a tactile weight and visual presence no plastic or hollow-wood set can match — each piece sits with real heft on the board, and the natural variation of stone means no two sets are identical.

Backgammon boards are typically presented as folding cases — leather-wrapped or hardwood exterior, felt or velvet-lined interior with the inlaid point pattern, and matching playing pieces (often in resin, bone-composite, or wood) and dice. Quality backgammon sets are designed to function as both an active game and a beautiful piece of furniture when closed. Checkers sets often appear as either standalone hardwood boards with matching pieces, or as reversible game boards that handle chess and checkers on opposite sides. Themed game sets include Viking-themed chess sets featuring Norse warriors and longships as the playing pieces, medieval knight-and-castle chess sets, Roman legion-versus-barbarian designs, and fantasy themes drawing on dragons, dwarves, and mythical figures. Combination sets include multi-game boards offering chess, checkers, backgammon, and sometimes additional traditional games like nine men's morris or fox and geese in a single hardwood case.

Stone and Bone Chess Sets

Stone and bone chess sets occupy a category of their own. Where standard wooden or plastic sets are meant to be functional first and decorative second, hand-carved stone sets are designed to be both — serious playing sets that also work as standing artwork. Marble chess sets use natural marble for the playing pieces, often in two contrasting colors (white and black marble, or marble and onyx) that give each set its own unique appearance based on the stone's natural veining. Onyx chess sets use the distinctive banded stone for striking visual depth — onyx is harder than marble and takes a beautiful polish. Alabaster and soapstone chess sets offer warmer, more matte finishes and are often hand-carved with significant detail since these softer stones take precise tooling.

Bone chess sets — typically carved from genuine bone or modern bone-composite materials — feature exceptionally fine carving detail impossible to achieve in stone, making them ideal for highly figurative themed sets where each knight, bishop, and king has individual character. Themed stone and bone sets often combine materials: stone for the board, carved figurines for the pieces. The result is a game set that functions as both an active chess set and a permanent piece of décor. Stone and bone chess sets are popular gifts for chess players, milestone occasions (graduations, retirements, anniversaries), corporate awards, and as heirloom pieces meant to be played and passed down across generations.

Why Choose a Heritage Game Set?

A quality heritage game set serves purposes that a generic plastic version can't. It becomes part of your home — sitting out on a coffee table, sideboard, or library shelf as both art and invitation. Guests notice it. People who play sit down for a game; people who don't ask about it. It becomes a tradition in a way disposable games can't — many families have decades-long histories with a specific chess or backgammon set, the same board where grandparents taught grandchildren the game. It holds value — a hand-carved stone chess set or leather backgammon case retains and often appreciates in value over time, where a plastic set is essentially worthless the moment you open it. And it honors the games themselves — chess, backgammon, and checkers are among the longest-lived and most-played games in human history, and a properly made set treats them with the respect they deserve.

Games Uses

These games are popular for home libraries, dens, and offices where the set serves both as active game and as décor, gift-giving for milestone occasions including graduations, weddings, retirements, anniversaries, and significant birthdays, parent-to-child handoffs when a younger family member learns chess or backgammon, corporate gifts and executive awards, themed home displays (medieval, Viking, Roman, fantasy aesthetics), travel and vacation home use where a beautiful game set anchors a guest space, club and tournament play for serious chess players who prefer wooden tournament sets, and as collector pieces for those who appreciate heritage craftsmanship applied to functional objects. Many customers buy game sets specifically for the long-term: a set chosen now will sit on a table for decades and become part of family memory.

Browse the collection to find stone and bone chess sets, leather-wrapped backgammon boards, hardwood checkers sets, themed medieval and Viking game pieces, and combination game boards that bring heritage craftsmanship to your tabletop.

Frequently Asked Questions

What's the best chess set for a beginner? A standard Staunton-pattern wooden chess set is the universally recommended starter — it uses the official tournament piece design, helping new players learn pieces by familiar shape rather than getting confused by themed figurines where the king or queen isn't visually obvious. A 3.5–4 inch king height is the standard playing size, paired with a wooden board with 2–2.25 inch squares. Themed stone or bone sets are beautiful but better as a second set after a player is comfortable identifying pieces by their abstract Staunton shapes. For children just learning the game, a simpler wooden or plastic Staunton set is the best teaching tool.

What size chess set should I get? The standard relationship is that the chess piece king height should be roughly 75–80% of the square size on the board. For a tournament-standard 2.25-inch square, the king should stand 3.5–4 inches tall. Smaller travel sets use 2-inch squares and 1.5–2 inch kings. Decorative display sets sometimes scale much larger — 5-inch kings on 3-inch squares for visual impact. If you're buying a set for active play, follow the standard ratio for the most comfortable playing experience. If you're buying primarily for display, larger pieces create more dramatic presence.

How old is backgammon? Backgammon traces back over 5,000 years to ancient Mesopotamia, where archaeologists have found gaming boards similar to modern backgammon in royal tombs at Ur in modern Iraq. The Romans played a closely related game called tabula. The version of backgammon we play today took its modern form in 17th-century England, but the basic mechanic of moving pieces along a track based on dice rolls has been continuous across cultures for five millennia. It's one of the oldest games still actively played in essentially its original form.

Are stone chess sets fragile? Stone chess pieces are heavier and more durable than they might appear — marble, onyx, and similar stones are dense and structurally solid. The pieces won't break under normal play or careful handling. However, dropping a stone piece on a hard floor can chip it (especially at delicate features like crowns, crosses, or fine carving detail), and stone-on-stone contact during play can chip pieces over many years of use. Use a felt-lined storage case or original wooden box, handle pieces carefully when moving them, and consider felt pads on the bottoms of pieces if your board is also stone or hard wood.

What's the difference between a chess set and a chess board? A chess board is just the playing surface — the 8x8 grid of alternating light and dark squares. A chess set is the complete package: board plus all 32 playing pieces (16 light, 16 dark). When shopping, confirm whether you're buying a set, just a board, or just pieces — quality boards and pieces are often sold separately so players can mix and match (a tournament wooden board with a themed Viking piece set, for example). Combination sets that include both board and pieces designed to match each other in scale and style are most common for gift-giving and standard play.