Holed up at the Wurlitzer Foundation in the early months of the pandemic, another artist taught me the game of cribbage. Cribbage was invented by the poet John Suckling in the early 17th century (you can read a poem here), and was featured in The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens. Today, it continues to be a favorite pastime for sailors, especially on American submarines.

While Cribbage is played with a traditional deck of 52 cards, the cribbage board itself is quite visually striking. The only purpose of the board is to keep score, but it’s necessary because you score throughout the game (unlike, say, Rummy which is only scored at the end of the hand). The board has two rows of 60 holes, and the first to advance a peg to 121 points wins. (You’ll see more rows for games of 3 or 4 players and markers for being skunked and double-skunked.)

What immediately captured my imagination, though, is how a maker would arrange those 60 holes. The possibilities seem limitless! Unlike chess, where a craftsman can reconstruct the pieces into a variety of characters and forms, in cribbage they can uniquely reshape the game board itself. An internet search confirmed the artistic possibilities, and I found that as with any art form, it has been crafted and collected for quite some time. (See Cribbage Boards 1863-1998 and a very nice example by the architect Michael Graves in the top right image above.) I became fascinated with finding the perfect cribbage board… should it be compact like a spiral or wind like a path across a mountain? Contemporary or classical design? Wood or metal? (Older sailor boards could be made of scrimshaw, like this walrus tusk from the Virginia Mariners’ Museum.) What I soon came to realize is that all the various boards are delightful in different ways and that designing a board also makes a fantastic assignment for a variety of art classes. And if you want to design the cards as well, so much the better! Cribbage is a game that reminds us, literally, that the path is as important as the destination.

Cribbage boards top left clockwise to center: Ematulu Saggiak at the British Museum; Board by House of Cribbage; Board by Michael Graves; Travel Cribbage Board by QYHQ; Apex Cribbage Board by Chris Wong; Board by Jeff; Celtic Cribbage Board by Kevin Turgeon; Board by House of Cribbage; Marquetry Decorated Cribbage Board and Box

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: CORWIN LEVI

Corwin is a visual artist working in design, illustration, bookmaking, curating, and writing. As an artist, he has attended over twenty artist residencies. He has also have lived in eighteen cities across twelve states. Along with Michelle Aldredge, he co-created Mirror Mirrored: An Artists’ Edition of 25 Grimms’ Tales. He is currently remixing vintage game boards and making a book from illustrations of Alice in Wonderland.