Senet Game Board with carved lid and painted gold base pattern

Both the box and the Senet game board lid are made of pine. The 30-Square Senet board is hand-carved, and the heiroglyphs were also etched by hand.  The box was stained with an ebony wipe-on stain and then sealed. After sealing, the pattern along the bottom edge was hand-painted with gold leaf (the pattern is based on a pattern along part of King Tut's gold death mask).  A 20-Square Tjau board is carved on the flip-side of the lid.

Geese of Meidum-inspired Senet box

Here's our latest box, inspired by artwork from the Mastaba of Nefermaat, from the 4th Dynasty (2613 to 2494 BC) of Egypt's Old Kingdom.  The Geese of Meidum is considered a masterpiece of Egyptian art.  The medium of the original was probably albumen (egg white) or vegetable gum on plaster.  Ours is egg tempera, so the techniques are closely related.  This box is now one of our favorites.  Now we just need to make a gameboard worthy of the box.

Here's the original, from the Mastaba itself.

Gold Leaf Heiroglyphs

We're experimenting with applying gold leaf for the Senet board heiroglyphs.  Here's an example on one of our older boxes.  The outstanding question is whether or not the protective seals over the box will be enough to protect the gold leaf during game play.

Senet Board with side drawer 2

Following up on the last post, here is our side-drawer game board fully assembled and treated with a medium-walnut Danish oil.  I took my time putting this one together-- it was a lot of fun, but I think next time I'll do it a bit differently. Next step will be to apply the game squares (haven't yet decided if this will be a 30-Square Senet board or a 20 Square Tjau board) and the side panel paintings.

Senet board with side drawer

Just for something different, I thought I'd work on a Senet board with a built-in drawer.  Many of the recovered Senet games have a drawer on one of the box ends.  I came across a picture a while ago of a 20 Squares board with a drawer on one of the halves of the long side of the box, which I found incredibly interesting, if only because it was so different from the other, more 'common' boxes.  Anyway, this undecorated box is my first attempt at executing a similar design.  Still needs to be stained, painted, and sealed, and I also want to fix a suitable handle to the drawer.

Here's a picture of the original 20 Squares board, which dates back to the Egyptian New Kingdom.

Oriental Institute, University of Chicago