Quite old, quite unusual, and to my eye just strikingly beautiful. I've seen playing card dominoes, but these are not those; too many different shapes. And too many different shapes to form even a double nines type set of dominoes, too, even if some of the tiles were long since lost. So, maybe made for a game of the makers own invention! The mystery I think makes them even better, as if a sort of dictionary of symbols to be arranged to communicate coded messages! At least some of the shapes seem to have been shallowly carved into the wood before inking/painting black, and that black is a rich, deep, black black. One can treat them as building blocks too; they stack well like a wall of bricks. Yum.
Each block 2 1/2" x 1 1/4" x 5/8". Set of 22. I think 19th century, in beautifully aged condition, rich black and rich patina to the dry wood.
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