The Board No.1

A man's study tells you everything you need to know about him. The books he keeps. The glass he pours. The board he plays on.

There is a particular silence that falls over a room when two men sit down to play. Not the silence of nothing happening — the silence of everything being considered. The Board No.1 was made for that silence.

Hand-carved from oceanic fossil stone and black marble — two materials that have been forming since long before anyone thought to play games with them. The fossil stone holds within it the compressed record of ancient seas: coral, shell, mineral. The black marble says nothing, which is precisely the point. Together they make a set that sits on a desk the way a good watch sits on a wrist — without announcement, without apology.

Thirty-two pieces, hand-carved and hand-polished. Weighted for play. Balanced for permanence. The board alternates fossil and marble in the manner that has not needed improving since the thing was invented. No two sets are identical, because no two pieces of stone are identical. That is the nature of the material, and the point of owning it.

It will outlast the furniture it sits on. It will be played on by people who haven't been born yet. That is the correct ambition for an object of this kind.

Available in two sizes. Supplied complete.
No artificial colouring. No synthetic stone. No two sets the same.