Buying a chess set except i know nothing about chess

Hi chess.com community - sorry if this is the wrong place to post this. I’m looking to buy a chess set for my boyfriend’s birthday, but I know nothing about what’s good in chess. 
My budget is around £40-60. Preferably foldable, made from wood, and has a board and pieces together.
Bonus if it’s engravable but if not I’ll take it into a Timpsons.

I had a look on etsy but a lot of the options seem cheap and not very authentic, I really wasn’t convinced. My boyfriend is interested in the history of chess and vintage items so I wanted to get him something he would be proud to own. I could go just over £60 if its really impressive. 

I’m uncertain of what size but I think no under 10 inches as his hands are pretty big and clumsy. I hope some people on here will know better than myself and be able to help me in the right direction of what would be suitable. 

Thank you for reading:) 

Call the company, House of Staunton, explain your needs and they should be able to accommodate them.

They are one of the foremost dealers in chess and chess paraphernalia.

@1

"Preferably foldable" ++ High quality boards are rigid, not foldable.

"made from wood" ++ 3.1 For competitions organised under the aegis of GSC, wooden boards should be used. In all cases boards should be rigid. Natural wood with sufficient contrast, such as birch, maple or European ash against walnut, teak, beech, may also be used for boards. The boards must not be shiny, and have a dull or neutral finish. A combination of colours, such as brown, or very light tan and white, cream, off-white ivory or buff may be used for the chess squares in addition to natural colours.

"has a board and pieces together" ++ No need to.

"I’m uncertain of what size"
'3.3 The side of the square should measure 5-6 cm. Four pawns should fit on one square.'

2.3 The height of the pieces, in descending height order, is as follows: King – 9.5 cm, Queen – 8.5 cm, Bishop – 7 cm, Knight – 6 cm, Rook – 5.5 cm and Pawn – 5 cm. These dimensions may differ by up to 10%, but the pieces must remain in descending height order.

2.4 The diameter of a piece's base should measure 40-50% of its height.

https://handbook.fide.com/chapter/StandardsOfChessEquipment2022

On "Ebay" there should be shown up unique "Chess wallets". I would like to get one from my girlfriend. Perfect for game analysis or following daily chess format. Even better would be "Correspondence chess book" where every page is consisted from one such wallet. Next possibility would be wooden set with "peg-in" pieces, even better with cover (position stays in place even after commute). Next possibility would be retro dedicated chess computer, "travel" size smaller or big one. The last possibility would be high quality chess book.

Everything noted is within that price range. Finally you could pay him chess.com subscription as "gift" (one of the options under any username)...

Edit: As of book considered, Kasparov's teacher and mentor Botvinik said that "Chess Fundamentals" by Capablanka is The Best Book EVER written about chess!

Edit 2: You could buy painting material, the simplest and paint funny picture but respectfull, of him playing.

Edit 3: Innate to human psychology people despise expensive gifts seeing them as kind of manipulation so definitely me for example, would like to see something simple but from the heart, so you are on the right track.

It depends on how much time you have.. I can say that on everyman's online market places nice vintage folding boards alone (flat or to contain the pieces) are not easy to find, and to have them paired with nice vintage pieces you would need to be lucky. While on etsy and more fancy, you will not find it in your price range.

If you see either board or pieces, that would be a nice gift already, and a motivation to find the other half later.

Sizes: The rule of thumb I picked up is kings should be tall roundabout twice the length of a square- a more massive set on smaller squares will make a more crowded board, so chunky pieces may be chosen smaller on a bigger board for the same effect a more slender set makes on a smaller board.. You can find threads here where that is exemplified with pictures, I believe.

I have collected many Chess sets, though I particularly like to collect smaller pegged sets that also don't take much space.

As someone that has learned Chess using foldable boards, I also always preferred such sets to those that require rigid boards. For my sets with rigid boards, I store the pieces separately from the boards, so it's usually extra pain to retrieve them both, whereas pulling a folded set out means that I can start playing without looking for anything else.

Unfortunately, the only sets with foldable boards that I found are good quality, but not what is typically considered "great quality". I am referring to sets by Polish maker Wegiel; for example, like this one:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Master-Chess-Stylish-OUTLANDER-Wooden/dp/B08KHD3HPM/

Wegiel makes many sets, so if you don't like the style of the OUTLANDER, you can look for other sets. For example, I think this is their more standard "No. 4 Tournament" style set, though the listing doesn't clearly say that:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Large-CLASSIC-TOURNAMENT-Wooden-Chess/dp/B077LH821X/

Another decent set that I found for a low price was made by Lingle, but it seems to be out of stock in UK, though you can still find it in US:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lingle-Travel-Folding-Staunton-Pieces-Mahogany/dp/B09Z7YB4RM/

Note that these sets don't have weighted pieces. They're made of wood, but the wood is not finished as nicely as that of a high quality set. I find their style a bit more rustic but in an endearing kind of way.

I think a set with weighted pieces and rigid board may be just over your budget, unless you happen to find a discounted set or a second-hand set. I purchased some almost-new higher-quality second-hand sets at very nice prices from bargain stores, but I don't know what stores you may have available in your area.

My family owned a set of metal pieces, barbarians for White and Romans for Black. The Roman Pawns (legionaries) tended to have fragile heads and several broke off but I played many of my first chess games with the board.

If the type is still around, I don't know if it would be in your price range. Much might also depend on whether you favour the basic Staunton type because many chess pieces are more stylised, like the board I described.

in the UK.....you might check out / contact these chess equipment retailers.....

https://www.officialstaunton.com/

https://royalchessmall.com/

I hate to sound like a downer, but I don't think you'll find anything interesting/of quality within your budget. There are a lot of cheap and nasty sets out there (my wife kindly bought me a wooden set in a folding board for Christmas and I had to return it because it was just cheap and nasty...and it cost £60!!!). Based on what I've seen out there, I would suggest a different kind of present. What about a really nice book on chess - maybe about the history or about tactics? Polgar's (huge!) book on tactics is a wonderful present - you can get it for within your budget, I think.

@rabbit_droppings, for your budget (£65.00 = €76.02) and ease of shipping, I recommend Chess & Games Shop - Muba, who is highly regarded, and I’ve had positive experience with. Conveniently, they have price adjustments for non-EU countries... w00t, no VAT!

Alas, the following is one of the standard, cost-efficient, and timeless (in my opinion) wood club sets used across Europe:

European Staunton No.6: €20.49

Paired with:

Non-Folding (Engraving Option): €19.00

Folding Rosewood/Maple w/ Notation (Engraving Option): €36.07

Folding Rosewood-Optic/Maple w/ Notation (Engraving Option): €36.89

Bundle:

European Staunton No.6 Non-Folding Set (Engraving Option): €40.49

Piece Storage:

Slide Top Box: €10.65

Feel free to browse their site for additional boards and pieces, as these are merely my personal picks that I feel meet a high standard at each price point, and will age/play well over time. I also recommend paying the €5.00 for extra queens, which is a purchase option listed on their site. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to myself, or the vendor at chessgamesshop@gmail.com.