British Chess Company (BCC)

BCC has been overshadowed by Jaques long storied history. BCC was a Jaques rival for about a dozen years. Nowadays, It terms of rarirty, BCC has the upper hand over Jaques well Jaques has been in business for more than a century and still in business. BCC has a few innovations such as Xylonite for more efficient manufacturing and double collared pawns which one could hypothesise to mitigate cracking. Both are featured in this set, In terms of design, I think BCC is as beautiful as Jaques. 

I don't why pictures of set here have to be paired with a chess clock of the same country of origin. It's so cliche. Let me do something different:

Just kidding, Sutton Coldfield is also an English company. 

I think @cgrau should at least appreciate my table. 

Photos of BCC chess sets  never do justice , More so  the 4.4 king size set .

http://www.fersht.com/The%20British%20Chess%20Company.htm

when you see them for real , As good or even better than Jaques .

@lighthouse: This is actually just a 4 inch set. Nonetheless, I have a 4 inch Jaques right around the same time this set was made early in the 1900s and for me, like you said, BCC is at par or slightly better.

Ok so it was just 4 inch, thanks good to know .

Only ever seen the BCC in a antique shop window for real . was a mighty looking chess set with a high price back then . Also there is FH Ayres Ltd of around that time which also made really nice sets Along with a 4.4 king " Knight on par with Jaques "  & Rare .

Very nice set!

@liml, are those Knights really xylonite? They match the rest of the set extremely well with regards to colour. Xylonite Knights are often markedly different in colour, for example in this photo from John Crumlier's collection:

Did try to post a link to photos of a bigger BCC chess set with Xylonite knights

 Matt: Only the black knights are Xylonite. The white knights are boxwood. 

@lighthouse: I haven't seen a 4.4 BCC yet but I've seen plenty of Jaques. 

That would explain it. I'm guessing the earlier BCC sets had all Knights made of xylonite, and for the later sets only the black knights were - do you know if this is correct?

Matt: That is correct. The latter BCC sets only have Xylonite black knights as per Fersht: 

The white knights are the very rare hand carved upgrades, but the black are Xylonite. BCC had 
difficulty initially in matching the boxwood colour in Xylonite.

Thanks liml, I saw that too - also Fersht says that the BCC sets are really heavily weighted, is that true with your set? Heavy is good!

There's a BCC set, all pieces made of xylonite, on eBay now:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CHESS-SET-BRITISH-CHESS-COMPANY-STROUD-XYLONITE-THE-IMPERIAL-CHESSMEN-CR-1900/382469736776?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649

I've not seen one of these for sale before, it'll be interesting to see what it sells for.

Maybe £500?

Place your bets...

After looking more closely look's as if the set has been painted , Still chess box looks good

I think £600