Assouline The Library Collection: Game Room

Assouline has added a five-piece games suite to its Library Collection, priced from $450 to $2,500. The range covers chess, backgammon, tic-tac-toe, dominoes and cards, all built from walnut, pebbled leather, brushed brass and polysuede, in the publisher's red, camel, brown and stone palette.

The Empire Chess Set is the anchor at $2,500. The board is walnut and brushed brass, inlaid with pebbled leather and lined in polysuede, with removable storage drawers built into the frame. The pieces are heavyweight cast aluminum finished in brass, and the queen's crown is modeled on a Jean-Michel Basquiat motif, which is the one detail here aimed at someone who already owns the art books.

The Pebble Backgammon Set is $2,250: a solid walnut box holding a leather board inlay, with checkers wrapped in leather and trimmed in brass, plus dice hand-painted in the house colors. Below that sits the Library Tic-Tac-Toe Set at $750, walnut and pebbled leather with brass and wood markers, its O pieces shaped like miniature books, a joke that at least fits the publisher it comes from.

The Pebble Domino Set is $650, oversized leather tiles with recessed walnut pips and a pebble-shaped brass handle on the case. The Pebble Playing Card Set is the entry point at $450: two gold-gilded decks set in Didot type, with book-juggling jokers, held in a slide-out leather case.

What changes across all five is material and display value rather than function: walnut and leather instead of plastic and card, a coffee-table object as much as a game. Assouline has priced that difference without apologizing for it.