Purchased by the Museum from an antique shop in rural Ontario in 1982, this wooden box of dominoes is considerably older. It is a handmade box with a "tongue-in-groove" sliding top. There is no maker name associated with the box, but because it is so well made, the maker was probably a skillfully carpenter. The shop did not know how old the set was, only that it was found by a "picker" in an old farmhouse.
The box is soiled and dirt encrusted as may be seen in the photograph at the left.
Within the box are 27 handmade bone dominoes. For a complete set, there should be 28, so obviously one piece has been lost. Each tile is hand carved of bone, the source of the bone has not been determined and might be ivory if the set is very old. Each tile is slightly smaller than a contemporary wooden domino. Rather than a raised bar between the sections, the bar is inscribed and stained red. The pips are inscribed as well and stained black.
Last update February 4, 2010