Manopoulos
Manopoulos began in Athens in 1970, when 21-year-old art student Costas Manopoulos made his first bronze chess pieces for a university exhibition. The idea had deeper roots, having grown up watching his father George unwind over games of backgammon with friends, and understood early that these games mattered well beyond childhood. That first chess set led to a small shop in central Athens, then a workshop, and eventually a family business that has now been making games in Greece for more than half a century.
What these guys do particularly well is turn familiar games into pieces you actually want to leave out. The backgammon sets are still handcrafted in Greece using olive and walnut, often finished with traditional marquetry. Production takes place in the family’s workshop in ancient Thebes, a city with craft traditions stretching back thousands of years; a fitting home for a brand built around Greek materials, fine carpentry and timeless games of strategy that have occupied minds for centuries. The appeal is much the same as it was at the start: serious craftsmanship applied to games designed to be played, not merely displayed. They’re handsome, substantial and far more interesting than the cheap, factory produced sets most of us grew up with.
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