Mourne Studios - Lewis Chessmen

An interesting board for sure; good that it is soft in case the hard pieces tip. To give you a sense of scale - I went for a larger size so, while my pieces vary, the kings are 9cm high with a 5 cm base. 
For those that want to waste some time this site is good fun to view 3D models. I’ve just done some side by side comparisons on some of the pieces and they are amazingly accurate.

Continuing a rolling review….

 

I placed a special order to get a wide variety of pieces. 40 pieces in total including 21 different royals and the two different pawns. I think Mourne sets come standard with 16 different royals.

 

(Generally, I think the sets being sold by other providers are either 5 or 10 different pieces. I am sure people will correct me if I am wrong.)

 

I understand that the Mourne pieces that I ordered are the exact size of the museum pieces - which is why they are of varying heights and sizes and are larger than the reproductions that are commonly or more readily available by many, many providers.

 

Most of the commonly available versions are quite a bit smaller in size too - which is not a bad thing if you want them to fit on a broader array or smaller board. My pieces are large and need a large board.

 

When I was searching around, it seemed that not many retailers offer versions of the laser-scanned pieces. (When I asked Adam about this, he noted that some of them are hard to get as they were out on a short release and quickly discontinued).

 

Why did I order Bone and Burgundy colour? Purely personal preference - Adam recommended the bone colour and I liked the idea of burgundy for the dark side as pigments found in the original pieces suggest some of them may have been coloured red.
Adam was a pleasure to deal with. Always open to questions and discussions throughout the purchase process. A delight and I’ll be purchasing again, I reckon.

More to follow - this is a rolling review with various thoughts and photos as I continue.

Amazing detail on those pieces. Hope you get a lot of pleasure from playing,or simply looking at them.

A slight detour … my brother purchased a Mourne set too - on the same order - but he has an old copper board so he chose a bronze finish for the dark side. I finally got to my brother’s place to drop them off today and the colour suits his board beautifully. 👍

Okay, so what are the drawbacks? Was there anything that Mourne could do better? Not a lot … perhaps packaging but that may be harsh. To explain… two pieces were broken/chipped in transit - they were at the bottom of a well padded carton, marked fragile all over. The long trip of international freight, across the world from Ireland to Australia is fraught with risk and Adam had packed each individual piece in bubble wrap. It must have been some drop on the box during transit for pieces to break but alas, they did. Importantly Adam immediately offer to cast new pieces and send … no hassle, no argument, no cost … so not an issue.

Would I call these pieces fragile … no, I have knocked a few over on the chess board already and to no damage but …they definitely would chip if bashed together in a blitz game or dropped from any height. So buyer beware - these are not wood or plastic and do not have their rigour. 

Other drawbacks? Well one man’s treasure is another’s frustration. By that I mean that while I am delighted with the nuances of design and size, for those more affected by such differences - this set is not for them. The differences could frustrate.

I go back to why I purchased a Lewis set and it was all about approximating the museum pieces in the Scottish and English museums - not a perfect chess set. I loved the idea of variability in the pieces and mixing and matching across the pieces. A set that I could proudly display, create conversation and indeed, under the right circumstances - play. And I have that and more. I am delighted - I did my research and for what I wanted. In saying that, I mean no disrespect at all to any other set of Lewis pieces and the vast choices available. For example, I nearly ordered berserker pawns and there are plenty to chose from in this set to differentiate from the rooks (see below) … but I didn’t… yet, I can see why people do, for sure. If I did get berserker pawns with this set, I’d probably choose the smallest of below because without headwear, they are differentiated from the taller tools.
Anyway - truly great fun and a wonderful set.

I mentioned above, my joy in the variability of these pieces. It is partly why I chose Mourne. Yet, I understand that others may want more consistency as it the way with more traditional wooden sets. In that context and as part of this ongoing review - here’s some photos that show the similarities in weight (where pieces are the same) and the discrepancies in weight where they a different. I’ll let the pictures do the talking.
Two identical kings, same weight.

(My apologies for the side loading of some photos … I forgot an easy fix before loading sorry!! It’s sending me mad - I reloaded photos to make it easier.)
Bishop look similar, they are not the same nor the same weight.

Numerous different knights …. Numerous weights and sizes.

I’m not short of a queen to promote when the pawns deserve such promotion.

Beautiful and subtle differences - the broken crown and thrones.

These variations are part of the beauty of the Lewis pieces … in my opinion … but for some chess enthusiasts who have a desire to play with more standardised and consistent pieces, I can also see they’d be frustrated by the variations.

To each their own.

I think these are wonderful pieces and I enjoy the humour and humanity that shines through in many of the pieces.

Here’s another interesting way to compare details. Some on this forum may remember me picking these Leipzig reproductions some time back. They were a local find where the owner said they were purchased in London 30+ years ago. 
Check out the difference in detail here. I didn’t dislike the Leipzig - bought for not much but my, my … the detail in the Mourne pieces is more impressive. 👍

Or maybe the detail is more accentuated by the staining used. The detail in the actual casting seem pretty similar. But they do look nice.

That’s a good point. True - it may be the finish that’s the difference.👍

Yes - my pieces don’t hold a candle to the originals in the museums; whether it be the black highlights or indeed the red pieces that I ordered which themselves are nothing like the colour of the museum pieces … it’s only speculation that some original pieces may have had a red tint in their past. Then there’s my brother’s bronze colour that he likes … purely to match a board he has. Not to mention my pieces aren’t carved from walrus ivory and therefore they must have a different feel, weight and finish what the actual pieces may feel like in the hand. Not that I’ll ever know…..I’m just glad that I have something that I really, really enjoy. 👍👍👍

Noone knows how the Lewis chessmen looked when new and that they indeed are chessmen is nothing but an educated guess. Of course, if one has a set of more or less accurate replicas to use for playing chess they have to be finished in contrasting colours.

👍 … and I hope you enjoy your set too. … I like your words … ‘less accurate’ but even so … that does not mean you won’t enjoy playing with the pieces you ordered and I’ll enjoy seeing pictures of them; infact you may get more enjoyment from your set because of the colour preference, berserker pawns and greater uniformity … aspects that my set does not have and yours is good value too! When they arrive, I hope the pieces you ordered meet your expectations and you get great satisfaction from the purchase. 👍

There’s some irony when - with some time while on leave from work - I was enjoying my Lewis chessman - taking some photos for this post and alas -when I noticed I had mistakenly placed two kings in the centre - I dropped one of the queens onto the glass table when moving her into place. Sad but in the end, it’s only a chess piece and I can get a replacement…I also did some running repairs myself … with trouble circling the globe, I’m trying to keep things in perspective, enjoy the festive spirit and relax knowing I’m lucky to collect pieces - even if they get a few knocks. Cheers 🍻.

don't fret, the repairs make it yours

Compliments of the season Greg and indeed, to everyone. 👍

and to you