In Praise of Graeme Anthony - Australian Sculptor

LOVE IT!

Thanks again for your thoughts. I think both of your wooden sets are interesting and beautiful … and certainly more playable than mine! 🙂

I was fortunate enough to run across a listing from an eBay seller in Australia who put this 1975 copper and pewter cast resin medieval Graeme Anthony set up for sale, which I immediately purchased...the set is complete (!) And in great shape. My chess opponent friend is also a woodworker, and made me an appropriate sized board...

Thanks for sharing the same @powerdigit. That's indeed an impressive work to prevent such contributors from being forgotten.

I first got one of Graeme Chess sets in Adelaide back in 1988 and still in my family to this day.
It's a true treasure and I've been lucky to purchase a couple more of his sets.
Enjoyed a few phone call with Graeme and a very nice amazing man !!

Hi @TRAvghan and @nikhughes - thanks for the feedback and contributions. Graeme is indeed a gentleman and I have had many an email conversation with him; he is generous with his time and knowledge - albeit he has transferred the business on to Simon now.

@Powderdigit, very cool and refreshing thread! It reminds me of playing tabletop games with buddies back in the day. I feel like any of these would be awesome to use in a D&D campaign

Cheers @VTVX1V - it’s wonderful to rekindle memories of our childhood in this way. On a related point, I am a fan of the show Stranger Things - primarily because it takes me back to my childhood - gladly scaring myself watching the odd horror show or reading a Stephen King novel… and while I was probably 10 years too old to be swept up in the joy of D&D - the young characters in Stranger Things love D&D and it features widely in the show. Some people may wonder why an ageing gent like myself might watch such stuff and I put it down to joy and nostalgia. :-)

And back to Graeme Anthony and his love of Dragons … this 1kg 16cm high Sentinal Dragon was a recent local find … am I going to collect dragons - no! Will this sit in my bookshelf or in my desk to inspire fun memories - absolutely. Thanks Graeme and people on this thread for keeping the fun alive. Cheers to all. 🍻

Getting back to chess …

What a beautiful set! Those wizard's are so cool. \m/

@PBK_Studio \,,/ (-.-) \,,/

Here’s another example of a wonderful Graeme Anthony design. This one titled Romans vs Britons - designed and carved by Graeme just before the turn of the century. The intricate detail is a joy to behold and with each closer look, new surprises and details emerge. It’s hard to spot his maker’s mark on the pieces but look closely and they emerge. Excellent stuff.

And some more close ups for fun. 🤩
And the drape of the clothes makes static pieces look like they are flowing…

Good to see a presentation of pieces I'd never look at more closely by myself. Interesting to have faces on all pieces, not only the knights. Plus they're unweighted, as I prefer

Ha, that made me laugh. I know your preference is for unweighted … lucky these are… because the set comes in at over 12kg … adding weights would break the board!! 😆

Is it a part of some chess set? Coz that's what I started to think on seeing these dragons here.

G’day @TRAvghan - sorry for the confusion, no the Sentinel Dragon is not part of a chess set, just a stand alone sculpture. Graeme did design and make a purely dragon-based chess set called: Imperial Dragons - an amazing set but not great for day to day play. 😊 Here’s the Imperial Dragons pieces: Imperial Dragons

Here’s an early example of Graeme’s work. This set was designed and created in the mid-70’s and he hadn’t perfected his methods and techniques yet. In this, his second iteration of a medieval design, Graeme changed the castle shape. The pieces lack some of the finesse of later sets and indeed, this set was carved in such that the pieces would pop out of the moulds easily. They were basically seamless and reduced the need for fettling.
This is Brittania metal as it contains pieces of led and thus, needed electroplating - florentine bronze and German nickel silver What’s interesting is that Graeme is still learning here - he’s in the early phase of his metal casting journey and I am pleased to have added this to my collection.
In these latter photos, the board is not matched to the pieces; it is a Selangor board circa 2002.

Here are Graeme’s early medieval pieces matched with one of the vintage boards that Graeme used to make.