The Gift of a Game: Manopoulos for the Holidays
A game is an unusual gift. It is an object, but it is also an invitation: to sit down together, to learn something, to spend an evening that would otherwise pass unnoticed. Give someone a chess set and you have also given them the games they will play on it, and often the person they will play against.
This is the December story in the Manopoulos Journal, and the last of the twelve. It gathers the range into a short guide to giving, from the small gift to the milestone one.
Why a game makes a good gift
Most gifts are used alone. A game almost never is. That is the idea at the root of the house. In 1968, Costas Manopoulos watched his father, George, play backgammon with friends after long working days, and saw how a game took the stress of the day away and brought people together. More than half a century later, it is still the best argument for giving one.
A well-made game also lasts. A wooden board or a metal chess set, looked after, will be on the table for decades, and it gathers stories along the way: who taught whom, who won the long game one Christmas, which set came from which grandparent. Few things bought in December are still in use, and still talked about, twenty years later. A good game often is.
The milestone gift
The set in the photograph is the Limited Edition Metal Staunton Chess Set with pearl elements, the top of the Manopoulos metal range. The chessmen follow the Staunton pattern of 1849, the design that became the standard for chess around the world. They are finished in brass and pewter, with mother-of-pearl elements and a 10 cm king, and they stand on a handcrafted 44 × 44 cm brass chessboard, hand-patinated and fitted to a wooden case. The board comes in brown, red, green, or black and white; on the black and white set, the pieces are finished in gold and silver.
It is a limited edition, cast, finished and inlaid with pearl by hand in Greece — fitting for a house whose founder began, as an art student, by making chess figures in bronze. It is the kind of set given for a retirement, a significant birthday, a partnership, or to a player who has earned it. In the same spirit are the limited-edition backgammon boards, in natural burl with pearl elements and in walnut tree trunk, described in the story on the limited editions in this journal.
For the chess player
Not every chess gift needs to be a limited edition, and the range offers a set for most kinds of player.
- The traditionalist. The Wooden Chess Set in a Luxury Wooden Box is the full-size Manopoulos set: an inlaid board in walnut, olive burl or walnut burl, with weighted, felted Staunton chessmen in their own wooden box, in 40 cm and 50 cm board sizes.
- The reader of history. The Byzantine Empire and Spartan Warrior sets replace the Staunton forms with cast metal figures — emperors, empresses and Byzantine soldiers on one board, the hoplites and kings of Sparta on the other — each on a brass chessboard set into a wooden case.
- The designer. The Bauhaus-style set follows the idea of Josef Hartwig’s 1924 design, in which each piece’s shape shows how it moves, with wooden chessmen matched to a vegan-leather board.
- The traveller. The suede roll-up chess set has metal chessmen and a board that rolls around its tube, light enough to go anywhere.
For the backgammon player
In Greece, a backgammon board is often a family object, played for years and handed down. The Manopoulos backgammon replicas in walnut, wenge, oak and walnut, or mahogany are traditional Greek tavli boards that fold into a case, with the checkers and dice inside. Someone who learned tavli on a Greek terrace will recognise one at a glance. For a player who is always on the move, the suede roll-up backgammon set unrolls flat on any table. And for a household that wants both games, the combo set carries chess on the outside of one case and backgammon on the inside.
For the host
Some people are the reason everyone else gathers. For them, a poker set, with 200 or 300 chips, two decks of cards and dice in one hand-finished case, is a gift that pays back every time the table fills. Smaller cases of playing cards and dominoes, in wood, leatherette, leather or walnut burl, make good gifts on a more modest scale, as does the mahjong set.
Beyond the games, the same workshop in Thebes makes wooden trays, boxes and single-bottle wine boxes. They are thoughtful presents for a host, a client or a colleague — and the wine box in particular turns a good bottle into a gift that is kept long after the bottle is gone.
A few practical notes
- Order early. December is a busy month for couriers across the country. Allow time for delivery before the holidays.
- Expect natural variation. Every piece is natural wood or hand-finished metal, so grain and shade vary from one to the next. That is the proof of authenticity, not a fault.
- Include the care. A short note with the gift — keep the wood out of direct sun and away from heaters, dust with a soft, dry cloth, no water or household sprays — will help it last. The story on caring for a wooden game board in this journal covers the basics.
Twelve stories ago, this journal began with a young art student making chess figures in bronze for an exhibition in Athens. Since 1970, the house he founded has put its pieces, and the boards beneath them, into homes in more than 25 countries. The full Manopoulos range is supplied in Canada by El Laguito Cigars and delivered anywhere in the country, in time, we hope, for the first game of the new year.