Title: Inlaid Mother of Pearl Syrian gaming table
Shipping: $500.00
Artist: N/A
Period: 19th Century
History: N/A
Origin: N/A
Condition: Museum Quality
Item Date: 1880
Item ID: 3401
This unusual and intricately inlayed mother of pearl gaming table is an exquisite example of its genre. Featuring a swivel folding top with a hidden compartment for gaming pieces. It comes complete with a green felt top for card playing, majong etcetra and an inlayed compartment for backgammon fichas storage. From Damasus, Syria and dates from the late 1800's.
Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_of_pearl
Nacre pronounced /ˈneɪkər/[1] or "NAY-kər", also known as mother of pearl, is an organic-inorganic composite material produced by some mollusks as an inner shell layer; it is also what makes up pearls. It is very strong, resilient, and iridescent.
Nacre is found in some ancient lineages of bivalve gastropod and cephalopod. The inner layer in the great majority of mollusk shells is porcellaneous, not nacreous, frequently resulting in a non-iridescent shine or less commonly in non-nacreous iridescence such as flame structure (e.g. conch pearl).
Pearls and the inside layer of pearl oyster and freshwater pearl mussel shells are made of nacre. Many other families of mollusk also have a nacreous inner shell layer, including marine gastropods such as the Haliotidae, the Trochidae and the Turbinidae.
