best chess board

I’ve bought a Jaques chess set which is boxwood and ebony with a 4” king. What would be the best size and colour of board to match it? Thx

You need a framed board similar to the antique Jaques boards 2.25 in

Colour is subjective, but most people prefer constrast. For boxwood and ebony/ebonized, I personally like a board with maple for the light squares and walnut, mahogany, or one the the lighter/redder rosewoods for the dark squares. Regarding size, you might get away with 2.25” squares if the pieces don’t have chunky bases, and if the profile of the upper parts of the pieces is slender rather than thick. But often, people will go for a slightly larger square with a 4” king. When thinking about size, you need to balance between the height of the pieces, the bases, and the overall profile. If you could post a link to the exact set, that could help in getting more focused advice. There’s also personal preference — some people like a slightly closer spacing, and some like it more spread out.

These are the advert pics. I believe its a Harston set so around 1890-1900. Not sure of the base size but the king is 4"

Colour wise I wasn't sure wether its should match either the ebony or boxwood or be completely contrasting?

thanks for the help!

 

 

 

 

Boards of the period were rosewood and a light contrast wood maple or sycamore. Since you are in UK you might find some NOS Jaques boards
I have one with my club sized Jaques
It is 2.375 in with mahogany surround walnut and sycamore squares.

Thank you for the help. I’ll have a look for something similar to that.

One option might be to take some time and draw an 8x8 grid on paper in the square size you think you want, and try it out on that before committing to a purchase.

Nice Jaques set BTW😃

https://kevsbest.com/online-stores-to-buy-chess-sets-in-the-uk/amp/
Here are some 🇬🇧based sellers cut n paste iOS based phones don’t fare well on chess.com for uploading.

Thx guys. I’ll check out those websites. 😀

https://chessantiques.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Jaques_20x20_New02-500x498.jpg
This a photo of the fairly recent chess board I was referring to a Jaques https://chessantiques.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Jaques_20x20_New02-500x498.jpg

Nice set - I recently picked this same set up from the 1910-1915 period.

I also managed to find an antique Jaques chess board from the same period on eBay, although it’s currently in for a slight repair to a couple of the veneers. Once it's back, I'll share some pictures of it with my set on.

My board looks like the below board that was for sale from Tim’s website and complements the set perfectly. This style of board would also look great with your set (although you will want to look at the club size boards):

Thanks. That’s the sort of board I was thinking.

Shaun is that holly/rosewood?

As you are in the UK , https://www.officialstaunton.com/collections/chess-boards/products/22-acacia-and-maple-solid-wood-chess-board

& its a solid wooden board + on sale / Nice chess set too

In the following forum link, see my comment/post relating to ColoradoWoodWorker on ETSY.  He makes nice custom solid wood chess boards at a reasonable price.  Here I posted (#19 currently) a photo of a very nice board which I purchased from him (Brad Borkowski)...

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-equipment/first-nice-chess-set

Many others on Chess.com have purchase boards from him and posted their overwhelmingly (I would venture to say 100%) positive comments, reviews and photos in this equipment forum.

Edit: I posted this before realizing that the OP is interested in a vintage Jaques board to complement his Jaques pieces.

I believe it is satinwood/rosewood.

Love the color of the white side.

Thx for the suggestions and comments 🙏

Chess Set Sizing - Pieces vs Board...

The primary sizing criteria for the set and board is that of square size vs King base diameter...
A good rule of thumb is...
King base diameter = 0.75 * square size
or equivalently....
Square size = 1.33 * King base diameter
Any variation from these ratios, or the size of individual pieces and pawns is a matter of personal preference...

http://blog.chesshouse.com/how-to-select-the-right-size-chessboard-for-pieces/