Library Size Chess Sets

There was a thread at some point in this forum about 4,4 inch king chess sets from Jacques or reproductions thereof, so I thought it would be a good idea to start a small thread about the 4,4 inch's younger cousin. One of the reasons for this thread is that, from what I've seen, there seems to be a nearly wide-open market for well-crafted, library- size chess sets.

Let's consider House of Staunton first. HoS has a selection of very nice sets available at its website. Indeed, it's where I got my Player's Series, which I still think must be one of the nicest sets available in that price range (about 250 euro including shipping and handling to Europe). However, the options at HoS for nice, yet affordable, 3,5 inch king sets are scarce indeed. HoS does have a very nice Cooke Series and New Cooke Series available, almost perfect I would say, but the 300 US dollars price tag is misleading, because that is for lacquered wood, whereas the base prices for HoS sets are usually for ebonised or sheesham. Interestingly, there are no versions of the Cooke Series with ebonised black pieces, and the boxwood/ebony version costs over 500 dollars, and well over the initial $ 300 you find on the website. This is the set I am speaking about:

Regency Chess UK does slightly better than that, with its Old English Elite, Chessmen. This set in boxwood and ebony will set you back around 350 euro plus shipping and is quite well crafted:

ChessBazaar does not do much for the player who would like a library size set either, with only a handful of options to actually consider. The most viable seemed to me at least to be The Staunton Series (Jacques Pattern), in boxwood and ebony, at just over 150 euro, taking advantage of the current discount:

Now I, myself, would like a nice 3,5 inch king chess set, either in ebony or ebonised, antiqued or natural, but I find the choices available a little disappointing, especially the best that HoS and CB have to offer. When there's such a myriad of options in the 3,75 inch up until 4,4 inch king range, shouldn't there also be some more sets for the player who likes a smaller set?

Official Staunton will reportedly come out with a library size set also, one of the first, I think, for that company. The pictures from that set looked quite promising:

So my question to you is: what do you guys think? Have you in the past purchased some really nice 3,5 inch king sets that I haven't included here? The 200-400 euro range is what I would be looking for. I hope to induce some insightful responses here but also to give a brief overview of what is available at the moment. All the best!

I have the Paul Morphy sets from Official Staunton.  I own both the Ebonized and Sheesham versions.

https://www.officialstaunton.com/collections/staunton-chessmen/products/paul-morphy-ebonised-chessmen

Nice post. I own the HoS Cooke Series set you mentioned and I think it's a really beautiful set.  Just for accuracy's sake, though -- library size (using the Jaques size categories) refers to sets w/ a King 3" and smaller (usually around 2.75")... 

@ Eyechess: I've seen and admired the 3,5 inch king Morphy from Official Staunton. Thanks for pointing that one out, since I could have included that one in my short list.

@ FrankHelwig: The HoS set seems really nice, I just think that perhaps they could offer it in ebonised also to keep the cost down a bit so as to provide such a nice design to a broader range of clients. I'll keep the meaning of library set in mind, thanks for that.

The thing is that, despite Eyechess' addition, the original claim I make in this thread still stands, namely that I think there is a lack of good quality 3,5 inch king sets between 200 and 400 euro. And the thing is that I don't see why this has to be so. Just to name an example: I've seen and admired, just like many others, the classic lines of the various 1851 repros posted elsewhere on this site. The Official Staunton offering I liked the most from those and I think an argument could be made that it is, objectively, a little bit nicer than its direct competitors. Since there seems to be something about that design that works and that, in a way, is a little magical, why not try downsizing it? Surely expert carvers would be up to the task of imparting a similar degree of refinement and detail in a 3,5 inch king set. I can tell you now that I would pay the full list price of a 4,4 inch version of that set today to get a smaller, 3,5 inch king one, if it were available. For me it's an itch that has to be scratched, for chess set retailers it should actually be a niche to be picked up on, explored and filled.

The Chess Store has lots of choices of pieces with 3.5 inch, or smaller, Kings.....

An example...The Fierce Knight set....

https://thechessstore.com/fierce-knight-staunton-chess-pieces/

https://thechessstore.com/staunton-wood-chess-pieces/

 I agree with Frank Helwig that 'library size referes to 2.75" king height sets. I think tournament size is a good name for 3.5" and of course 4" can stay small club and 4.4" club size.

Incidentally Jaques sold their sets by the diameter of the bases to help when choosing a board. Which seems sensible.

I do not like sets with undercut bases, like the one above here it makes the pieces look unsteady IMO. They look a bit like the so called wobbly sets once sold as un tipable of ships sets. I havent seen one for years but they were weighted so that if the got pushed over they sprang right up again. Made things difficult when you wanted to resign LOL.

I tend to agree with this sentiment, I have one set like that (my "library" set, a 3" Zagreb). For the most part the pieces are stable but the Bishops are wobbly and I have knocked them over on more than one occasion with my big paws. If I tip most of the pieces 25 - 30 degrees or so they come back and right themselves quickly. The Bishops, though, wobble back and forth 4 or 5 times before righting themselves.

 Ah, I did wonder Rsava. I could not ever know as I wouldn't buy a set like that.

The undercutting of the bases defeats the object of the Staunton design, which was to have sets which were very stable but did not obscure the view of the other pieces. I wonder if you have read our seminal research on the origins of the Staunton pattern design?

http://www.chessspy.com/articles/Staunton%20Chess%20Set%20Design.pdf

This shows that the idea behind the design was one of piece stability (as well as being universally recognised)

@ Alan: I think it's interesting that you're posting on this forum as well, given your experience handling Jacques reproductions. Is there any one reproduction out at the moment in 3,5 inch king size that you really like? Or perhaps you could share some pictures with us of an original with that king size?

Nice! Apart from the obvious stuff (queen heights, etc.) I think that the genuine set differs, more subtly perhaps, in that the 'rings' above the pieces' bases don't seem so pronounced. In a way it give a more homogeneity and flow to the older pieces. I also like the fact that, in the vintage set, the knights seem quite diminuitive (although those particular, crocodilish knights don't do too much for me).

I'm out of the loop here. What is a library-size chess set? What is its purpose?

I gather it is less than 4.4" or 3.75" but 3.5" set is still kinda big. 

rmacmillan: Thanks!

I'm interested.

I once foolishly took a tournament set to a cafe and found there was almost no room for my coffee.

I bought this for an analysis set back when USCF was having the 20% off sale. It's the perfect size for me, for studying. 

http://www.uscfsales.com/the-zagreb-59-series-chess-pieces-2-875-king.html

http://www.uscfsales.com/standard-vinyl-analysis-tournament-chessboard-1-875-inch.html

That CB 3 incher does seem quite cute in a way, with large bases as well.

Well, this forum has done it to me again.

I just ordered the Chess Bazaar set pictured above.

It is the Fierce Knight Staunton Series Wooden Weighted Chess Pieces in Bud Rose & Box Wood - 3.0" King.

It lists for $77.59 however they have a 25% off sale going on now for Chess sets so my cost was only $58.19, delivered.

This set will work very well for me using either a 1.875" vinyl board or a 1.75" folding linen board that The House of Staunton has on clearance for $12.

I plan on carrying this set and boards as an analysis set along with a DGT 960 folding clock.

Oh yeah...

I hate you.

You made me go check out the set and the discount. I didn't "need" another library set, but ....

 It wasn't my fault.  I swear...

It was...it was maik1988's fault.  Yeah, that's it.  It was his fault.

There he went saying how nice and broad the bases looked.  I then compared that set to the HoS one and for about 1/2 the money, the CB set demanded that I buy it.

Then, yeah then, I was just back here perusing, yeah perusing.  And I just had to post that I bought it at that sale price.

So you see, it really can't be little old me's fault.

By the way, I also didn't need another analysis set at all...

 Hi Maik, Hi everyone.

I do not have a favorite Staunton set. What I do know is that Jaques sold sets with many different knights heads styles even in the first couple of years of production. My guess as to why there is such variation of knight heads is simply that they used different carvers from time to time as necessity demanded. We do not know if Jaques even employed these carvers in house. Logically there must have been a pool of woodcarvers in London both self employed and for hire as wage earners. Some of these may have worked for other chess makers like the Fleet St manufacturers most of whom made and sold many other items apart from chess as did Jaques. All of these craftsmen would have made sets which were affected by the carving they had been used to.

This would have made the knight's heads they carved look slightly different to other carvers work. Jaques management were not renowned for having a very hands on style of management. Joe Jaques told me that the family spent a lot of time on their yacht in the Med rather than in smelly overcrowded London. I assume they left the business in the hands of a competent manager who might not have had very close control of the production of knights heads.

So no one knows how many different knights heads styles there were. At least a dozen in the first year of production. As time went on the carvers Jaques used would come and go as production demended sometimes being laid off or not supplying heads for years until their 'turn' came round again. So some batches of a particular style of head could come and go over time. Add to this that dealers add empty boxes to orphan sets and it becomes almost impossible to date sets without other corroborating evidence which does not usually exist.

As far as what I would like to see in a playing set. A knight close to the Selene knight from the Elgin marbles. Smooth cheeked with the small damage to the cheek close to the eye which the Selene knight has.

Jaques sold sets by base size so that a board could be sold if needed.

Library size is K height 2 7/8".

Seeing that you posted the picture, first, of this set, thanks.  I mean it.  This is a Budrosewood set, delivered to my home for under $60.  And the set really looks pretty nice.

And now that I think of it, this is the second set I have purchased that you put pictures up about.  The first was the Noj GM Pavasovic set.  By the way, I played with it the previous Monday evening and it is a splendid set.