The Economic Chess-Board; Being a Chess-Board Provided with a Complete Set of Chess=Men, Adapted for playing Games in Carriages or out of Doors, and for folding up and carrying in the Pocket, without disturbing the Game. Invented by P. M. Roget, M.D.

Scarce, with the only copy located on OCLC at Indiana University, and this a later edition (from the 1870s). N.d., circa 1840s. The slipcase is 15 by 9.5 cm. The board, when open, is 15 by 19 cm, oblong. The design of the game is simple and ingenious, with the pieces made of card cut out into a small wedge shape, the piece identified by an imprint image, and the pieces fitting snugly into sleeves for each of the board spaces, or if a piece is taken out, on the side of the board. This construction allows for an ease of portability superior to many later compact chess boards which use miniature pegs for the pieces, and the bill fold design is also quite handsome. Two pieces, one red castle and one red pawn, are not the original pieces but nearly match them to complete the set. There is a single auction record for what appears to be this version from 2003, at Bonhams in London, and it was missing the very same two pieces. (It is unknown, but unlikely, that this is the same copy that showed up at that auction. The auction estimate by Bonhams was 200 to 400 pounds, and the game sold for 282 pounds, or about $460.) Roget, the original compiler of the eponymous thesaurus, was a trained physician and an accomplished Renaissance man, also inventing a slide rule that allowed for exponential functions, among other things. Wear and soiling to the slipcase, especially the yellow title label. Tear of the yellow background paper of the board itself along the hinge. Some bubbling or blistering of the cloth.…