Red- and Black-painted Double-sided Baseball Game Board

Red- and Black-painted Double-sided Baseball Game Board, America, late 19th century, one side representing a minimalist baseball diamond with black bases and pitcher's mound and incised lines on an orange/red ground, the other side with a checkerboard, 14 1/4 x 13 3/4 in.

Provenance: Tim and Charline Chambers, Sikeston, Missouri, to a private Massachusetts collection.

Literature: Baseball for Everyone: 150 Years of America's Game, by Janet Wyman Coleman, illustrated.

Exhibitions: The Perfect Game: America Looks at Baseball, American Folk Art Museum, 2003-04, and referenced in the exhibition catalog, p. 119.

Note: This board dates to the late 19th century, and as such is an early representation of the game of baseball.