Q A friend just told me a 12 1/2-inch round wooden plate with a center ”well” and nine smaller carved wells surrounding it is a gaming board, not an oyster plate like I thought. It is decorated with painted playing cards so that might be true. Any suggestions?

A It can’t be an oyster plate. The food and the washing would destroy the painted cards and oyster plates usually have 4 to 6 wells. That is a generous portion for dinner. There is an old English card game called ”Pope Joan” that uses a board like yours. It was known in the 16th century and is still played today by three to eight players. The game was very popular with families in Victorian times and first recorded in the famous book of card and board game rules by Hoyle in 1814. The game uses the 52-card deck minus the eight of diamonds and making the nine of diamonds an important winning card. All antique game boards are selling well today, and a rare round wooden Pope Joan board sold at auction for a little over $1,000 a few years ago.

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