Nobilissimo Gioco della Mea

Nobilissimo Gioco della Mea - Villa Petraia Florence

15th - 19th April 2021

While I was printing off the little tile images, I came across another image I wanted to use. I had gone to Villa Petraia years ago and in the games room I found a board game hanging on the wall.  It is called the "Nobilissimo Gioco della Mea". Basically it has a spinner and each player is supposed to place their bets on one of the figures or symbols and spin. I couldn’t find the exact way it was played but I found it in a list of games that are played even today during parties in Venice organized by a tourist agency and calling the events “Casanova’s Casino Games”.  So, since I will have a board games cabinet, I wanted to hang up a mini version of this game.  Of course, when I took the picture I did not take any notes about the actual game - to understand if it was a functional board game or just a picture of a board game with spinning indicators. But from the picture I took, it looks like there are actual spinners.  So now what. 

The only thing I could do was to pull out all the bits of hardware I have come across or own to fabricate the spinners. I am a broken bits hoarder and have an actual small lid I flipped over to create a container of bits and bobs as I come across them.  Not only, I have small jars in my tool trolly for electrical bits and even mechanical crap - lots from when I built a PC years ago with a friend - and even a watch that I had picked apart.  And that is where I found some of the pieces that could be used to make the spinner.  Course I didn’t have the actual watch hands (they are in the Japanese Dollshouse foyer) so in the end, I printed the spinners on photographic paper which is thicker (even if the colors became quite washed out which was disappointing) and glued them to the piece of lamina and decided to let them set overnite.

Spinners glued to the brass lamina

Anyway, days went by when I couldn’t get upstairs to dedicate some time to playing with things but it gave me time to contemplate how I wanted to make the board game. I wanted the back to be some kind of semi-rigid metal so I decided to cut out a piece of brass lamina and use that as the back. After slitting my hands on the lamina a few times, I finally managed a small plaque and wanted to age it. That didn’t go well.  The only aging methods I found online were for steel type metal and not for brass lamina so nothing worked. I set out, again, to find what others have done to age or rust surfaces. I came across a great one which I will have to try and adopt for molding and aging the brickwork too but what I brought away from all the research was that I could easily simulate the rust on the back of the plaque using normal acrylic paints and a bit of crumbled mortar granules.  So that is what I manged to do - successfully I think!

The lamina after trying the failed chemical treat so resorting to paint

Finished back of the brass lamina after painting.

Next was to find a piece of wood to form a base between the game board and the lamina. I figured I was going to need a way to support the spinners so a soft backing board (balsa wood) to peg the spinners and then attach the rusty back lamina sheet would work well.  I cut a small piece, painted it a dark grey and then proceeded to cut out the spinner arrows. The paper did not glue up entirely to the metal but I was able to cut the spinners out even if they are very approximate. In the end I went with a very fine gauge floral wire as the anchor of the spinners and tiny loops I had on hand as washers - so that the spinners would at least move around even if they won’t spin entirely. I managed to thread everything through (after dropping things many times) and put a drop of glue on the back to hold it together.  I let that dry and then attached the "rusty" metal lamina to the back (using a different kind of glue to insure that it won’t come unattached) and aged the sides and spinners a bit. I must say, I like it. I think it will look good in the games cabinet.

Threading the spinners and "washers". Super tiny!

Finished game board, with working spinners

Rusty back of the game board

Cave Canem (still slightly wet)

To finish off this little project, I made a tile with the “Cave Canem” from Pompeii as a sort of “Beware of Dog” sign for the Orangery. I attached a small hanger so I can place it in the door when the time comes.  He’s not exactly the same as the Roman dog but a nice modern version that was created back in 1955 by Creazioni Luciano I guess. Here is a link to buy one if you like it!

 

(I have no affiliation with anyone or any site for the images or tiles - I just am linking to give merit to who the artisans were or are.)