Earthenware gaming pieces for Fivestones/ Jacks. Some are simply painted; others have been glazed and coloured blue, white, black, green and red-brown (far right, bottom). One way to play this game was to toss the stones in the air and try to catch them on the back of your hand. The easier way to toss them in the air from the back of your hand before catching them normally.
Fivestones/ Jacks
Childhood and Education
What you describe are the two phases of the endgame.Before that are a whole sequence of moves, starting with ones where the stones are spread closely on the ground. One stone is selected and thrown into the air. Another stone must be snatched from the ground before the first stone is caught in the same hand. This is repeated for each of the remaining three stones. This is then followed by twos and then threes. In the simplest version threes is followed by the end game.