by Albert Steg

Vintage bakelite checkers are currently in high demand among players looking to put together their ideal backgammon set.  Bakelite is a broadly generic term for a novel, highly durable synthetic material developed in the early 20th century, made from phenol and formaldehyde. In 1927 the American Catalin Company began adding new color processes to the formula in order to produce the bright, dazzling species of bakelite that became popular in Jazz-age jewelry and various household items. By coincidence, backgammon enjoyed a major American boom at just that time, and the result was a lot of dazzling checker sets being produced from 1927 through the post-war period, by which time bakelite began to be superseded by other varieties of synthetic plastics, and was eventually phased out due to health hazards involved with its production.

What makes bakelite so desirable? It’s not just the vivid colors, the lustrous beauty and variety of swirling textures, or the added visual interest that a carved pattern might bring to your table: it’s also the unusual density of the material that gives them a satisfying weight in your hand. Pick up a few of them with one hand and an equal number of modern synthetic checkers with the other, and you’ll feel a difference as you jostle them around in your palm.  You’ll hear a difference too — the sound of bakelite checkers in play, tapping against each other or on the hard rails of a board frame adds a further dimension of sensual pleasure to the game. Plastic clicks; bakelite clacks.

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A distinctive feature of bakelite is that it typically acquires a patina that deepens the original colors over time. Experienced collectors of decorative items know to be wary of removing the patina from antiques and collectibles, due to the risk of damaging the underlying finish but also because the distinctive look of a patina built up over decades or centuries contributes to its beauty and is in itself the clearest evidence of age. When the item is particularly rare or culturally significant, so that the owner could be regarded as a steward of history, the decision to clean or restore it takes on an ethical dimension. Though it can be hard to find just the style or size you’re looking for, bakelite backgammon pieces survive in large quantities, so the decision whether to take aggressive measures in polishing them will be mostly a personal and aesthetic preference.

For hand cleaning, you can use Novus plastic polishes or any of the gentler metal polishes like Simichrome without affecting the patina very much. For more dramatic high-gloss / brightening results you’d probably need to use a mechanical buffer unless you have strong hands and a lot of patience. But if you go the mechanical route that substantially removes the patina, be ready for a change that may or may not please you. You can never be sure how bakelite pieces will look when you’re done stripping them down. Opaque checkers can become translucent. You can also wind up meaningfully changing the shape or dimensions of pieces by over-polishing. Carved edges will soften, and a doubling cube may no longer be so cubical.

Below are two doubling cubes I sent to Crisloid for a beauty treatment — a tumble in the proprietary mixture of crushed walnut shells and special wax solution they use for finishing their game pieces. I have found this treatment removes dulling surface scratches without deforming checkers, resulting in sparkling colors. The cubes in the picture show some of the more dramatic changes in color I’ve received from this treatment.

Before & After: Two cubes polished with crushed walnut and wax in the finishing tumblers at Crisloid around 2019.

The larger cube I sent partly as an experiment, as I had another just like it and I thought the contrast would be interesting. I was stunned and delighted by the new light-blond aspect of the cube, finding its mate rather dingy by new comparison. I wondered whether further polishing might bring it to a pure white state, but it’s one of my favorite cubes now as it is so I’m not curious enough to try it. The smaller cube was simply too dark and illegible to be useful over the board, but the polishing (and repainting of the numerals) has transformed it into a green beauty. I sent also a very dark “midnight blue” cube for polishing, but while some of the swirls became more visible, the change in color was not profound. You just never know.

Photo courtesy Jamie Weinstein.

In the picture of a cracked-open checker at right you can see the contrast between the sharp green and white coloration on the interior and the darker, yellowed tones on the surface owing to the patina. It’s hard to imagine this entire checker ever having looked like the interior, or that the ubiquitous yellow bakelite checkers you see in the vast majority of vintage sets were once white — but that appears to be the case.

photo: ebay

The illustrated box of E.S. Lowe checkers at left confirms that these familiar Bakelite checkers began life white, not yellow. It’s anybody’s guess how long it took for the pieces to turn so thoroughly yellow. The typography on the box looks to be from the 1970’s, but bakelite rods and finished pieces can sit in inventory for years or decades before reaching the checkout counter. Just visible on the front flap is the inventory number 854, tying these pieces to perennial Lowe Games catalogue entries for Catalin Checkers dating all the way back to the 1940’s (see clipping below). These catalogues offer “Red and White” as the sole color option.

This ‘854’ entry was discovered in E.S. Lowe Catalogues of 1949 and 1954.

Undated ad found on internet. (Click for larger view)

Now, none of this is to say that all yellow bakelite pieces started off as white — just that virtually all bakelite pieces that started out white have yellowed to some extent. When the Catalin company began producing their decorative bakelite applications, the whole point was the dazzling array of colors possible beyond the drab black and brown of the original, largely industrial, bakelite product developed by Leo Baeklund at the turn of the century. Yellow was of course among them, as we can see in the original ad for Catalin products at right. There’s simply no way to tell for sure what surviving bakelite pieces looked like right out of the factory, or to say for sure whether a particular doubling cube was “born yellow.” Unless of course, you break it open or polish it down.

Image found on internet.

The ad also usefully illustrates the production method that would have applied to backgammon pieces. The bakelite  material was cast into rods formed into shapes that could be sliced off in appropriate thicknesses into buckles, brooches, napkin rings, or backgammon pieces. Deluxe checkers would be individually carved on a lathe to deliver the  various ringed patterns we find in old sets — they were not cast individually via injection molding or any other process that would leave behind telltale seams.

The collection of uncut bakelite rods displayed in an antique store at left shows plenty of shade variation within color groups. Given that rods would not have been cast in lengths yielding perfect multiples of 15, it stands to reason that some checker sets would have been made up of pieces from different rods of material. This might explain the substantial color variations we often see among checkers in vintage backgammon sets.

Searching for “bakelite backgammon” on eBay will turn up plenty of bakelite, but also a ton of items made of more modern plastics. Some sellers have no idea what bakelite is and are just copying the wording from successful auctions, while others knowingly misrepresent items hoping to get top “collectible” prices for more commonplace items. One of the most common misrepresentations is of later Crisloid checkers, as you see in the trio of checkers on the left in this picture. (Note that Crisloid is the name of a company/brand, not a material — Crisloid has produced checkers of various compositions, including bakelite, over time).

The yellowy residue on the Q-tip shows that the green cube is bakelite.

There are several popular tests to ascertain whether an item is genuine bakelite by confirming the presence of a patina, which more modern plastics and resins do not develop. Many Bakelite connoisseurs can detect a telltale chemical odor when rubbing a thumb along the piece hard enough to generate some heat, or running ti under hot water, but this writer is not among them. The most reliable test is probably to dab a bit of Simichrome polish on a Q-Tip or cloth and rub the surface of your item (make sure it’s clean first). If it’s bakelite the pink Simichrome should turn yellowy.

An artisan named Nick Peterson at Save The Gammon is hand-crafting doubling cubes with a modern resin that approximates the colors and variations of classic bakelite cubes, with impressive results. As you can seen the image at right, his yellow cube does not produce the discoloring of simichrome polish that the green one does. (The aforementioned density of bakelite is also reflected in the fact that the 1.5″ green bakelite cube weighs 64 grams, compared to the 52 gram weight of the similar sized modern cube – a difference of 23% that you can feel in your hand.)

The trio on the right are bakelite, the trio on the left are a later plastic.

It is generally understood that black bakelite pieces usually do not yield a positive Simichrome test, and neither do certain ivory colored pieces, which pose a minor mystery. However, this caveat needn’t open the door to silly claims that just any old plastic checker is bakelite, and experienced collectors can generally separate the wheat from the chaff simply by looking at pictures, and so can you. Just look at the  examples in the image below. The chalky white swirls in later Crisloid checkers are quite easy to differentiate from the warmer tones of bakelite, and the texture of the swirls in later plastics tends to be louder, more patterned than the mysterious, murky variations in bakelite. With practice you’ll be able to spot the differences in edge patterns as well.

There’s nothing wrong with modern acrylic or plastic checkers, and if you have difficulty telling whether backgammon pieces are bakelite or not then you should ask yourself whether it really matters. If a doubling cube doesn’t exhibit the attractive color, texture, and weight that make a bakelite piece distinctive, is a Simichrome test really going to make it more desirable?  If you can’t tell whether it’s bakelite or not, what does it matter whether it’s bakelite or not? If you find two glasses of wine equally agreeable, does one become suddenly superior if you’re told it costs five or ten times as much?

One thing’s for sure — you don’t want to pay bakelite prices for plastic pieces.

Test your judgment on these seven items harvested from an eBay search.

1930’s backgammon boards employed very simple color schemes. A neutral tan cork field provided natural contrast with points in black & white or perhaps using just one of the checker colors as an accent — so at least one of the point colors is invariably black or white. A good color scheme provides a quiet stage for the checkers to dazzle, rather than competing with them for attention — so to show off your bakelite to best effect, you’re best off keeping the color scheme simple, and closely matching a single accent color to one of the checker colors.