Monday Night's Set--House of Staunton's New "Bohemian" Chessmen

Monday night's set-up. House of Staunton's new "Bohemian" chessmen, Rechapados Ferrer board, Ruhla Garde clock. My friend Phil, himself a collector of vintage and reproduction sets, and I decided to test out the review copy Shawn Sullivan had sent me. The kings measured about 3.85", and the pieces were heavily weighted. We found the pieces to play very well, look good on the board, and to be very well-crafted. We found them to be a good reproduction of the Dragon Knight pieces marketed by Bohemia in the fifties, but made more playable by enlarging them a bit and giving them extra weight.

This set is the first of several historical and interesting designs that I have worked with House of Staunton to bring to the collectors and players. I'll be posting photo reviews and commenting on them as they roll out.

I'm excited to help make these historical and interesting sets available to everyone, and not only to those of us who spend so many hours scouring auction sites and dealers' web sites hunting for originals. Many thanks to Shawn Sullivan and House of Staunton for this opportunity.

Obviously, there's no way for me to avoid a certain level of bias in posting reviews of sets I've assisted with, and I'm sure you'll keep that in mind. House of Staunton is giving me review copies of each set I've helped them with, but I will receive no commissions on sales or any other form of compensation.

No miter cuts.

Many thanks! They'e very reasonably priced. Check them out.

Nice!  The board's not bad, either.

Love it! I wonder how this compares to the CB repro. 

Happy 4th of July Chuck. 

Thanks, Crappov!

Many thanks, Lawrence! I don't have one, so I couldn't tell you specifically. In general, MY HOS sets are a notch above in terms of finishing. The finishing on this HOS set is excellent.

Thanks, Chuck, always nice seeing pics of your wonderful chess sets.

Thanks, Lou!

The most expensive set in my collection, a Jaques, is far from perfect. This is a good reproduction, well-finished, and an excellent playing set.

While the uncut mitre, and in some originals, opposite color finials on the bishops, suggest some influence by Eastern European sets, notably the Dubrovnik, I have no reason to think that this design was "non-Christian." That style cross is  pretty common and you see it in earlier German sets. The Dubrovnic, with its ball finials replacing the cross entirely--that's an atheistic design, and was intentionally so.

"forcing an non- Christian look" - you mean a non Western Christian look.  There are Christians outside of the US and a lot of bishops don't wear mitres in the Staunton sense (Orthodox and Coptic being the main ones).   Quite a lot of royal crowns don't have crosses on them (the Hapsburgs for example), royalty is not necessarily christian either (lots and lots of them).  The cross on the British coronation crown is so stylised as to actually be square.  A lot going on there too. Now the Regence, Edinburgh and St George styles don't have crosses either (and some don't have cut mitres) but I have never heard anyone suggest that they were not christian sets; the idea of a set having some religious affiliation is a bit bizarre anyway.    

That looks like a good setup (combination of board and pieces). I wouldn't mind playing with that setup. Also, funky though the knights look, I think they also make the set look a bit more fun to play with.