| Description | Three letters from Edward Falkener [architect, F.R.I.B.A. 'and writer on Asia Minor, etc', 1814-1896]
Scope and Content
One written from St. Dunstan's Hill, E.C., all to E.W. Cooke [Edward William Cooke, R.A., 1811-1880, marine painter - see DNB]. Refers to his friend Captain Oliver of 38 Grove End Road, St. John's Wood, 'a very talented artist', hopes Cooke will come to Chepstow where 'you will find most beautiful subjects for your pencil', mentions a cast of Minerva to be used for a drawing, and explains that he is preparing a drawing to be used as a frontispiece for an essay he has written on ancient sculpture. |
| AdminHistory | Edward Falkener (1814-1896), an architect and draughtsman wrote widely about the Ancient world, reflecting his passion for Greek architecture.
His father was Clerk of The Ordnance Department at the Tower of London. Falkener the younger declined a nomination for the Civil Service in the East India Company. Instead, he elected to take up an apprenticeship with an architect. He entered the Royal Academy in 1836. In 1839, he was awarded its gold medal for his design of a cathedral church (1).
Falkener discovered the delights of ancient board games, as played by the ancient Egyptians and the Romans. The ancient Egyptians engaged in 'various games, some of them of the most gambling character, and others closely resembling chess and draughts' (2). Success for the player was related to chance and skill. Numberless ivory dice 'which are sometimes of beautifully adorned porcelain and often loaded' had been discovered in ancient tombs (3).
Falkener's findings were encapsulated in a book 'Games, ancient and oriental, and how to play them' (5). Several editions have been published between 1892 and 2015.
Sources of information
1. royalacademy.org.uk
2/3. 'How They Gambled in Ancient Egypt' : p.3 in The Globe, Wednesday, 13th April, 1892 (British Newspaper Archive)
See also, 'Ancient Games and Oriental Chess': Edward Falkener in The Spectator, 1st October, 1892.
4. 'Games, ancient and oriental and how to play them, being the games of the ancient Egyptians, the heira gramme of the Greeks, the ludus latrunculorum of the Romans, and the oriental games of chess, drafts, backgammon and magic squares': E. Falkener (Edition published in 1961) |