Reproduced Knight of the Lewis Chessmen

The artist does a nice job.  What is the cost?  

WALRUS (non-fossil)-
Regulated by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service under the 1972 Marine Mammal Protection Act. Raw walrus ivory predating the Dec. 21, 1972 law, tusks bearing the Alaska state walrus ivory registration tags or post-law walrus ivory that has been carved or scrimshawed by an Alaskan native (Eskimo) are legal to buy, possess, and sell.

Raw walrus ivory obtained after 12/21/72 is not legal to buy or sell unless both parties are Eskimo (it is legal to own). A $30 export permit is required to ship walrus ivory or oosik (legal as per above) out of the United States.

FOSSIL WALRUS IVORY-
Not restricted as it pre-dates the 1972 cutoff, it is legal to buy and sell anywhere within the United States. Shipping ivory or oosik (fossil walrus penal bone) out of the U. S. requires a $30 permit.

True you would not want to mess with a Berserker!  

OP, since there were 4 (I think) partial sets of pieces in the original find, I imagine you had your choice of which specific rook, bishop, knight, king, queen and pawn for your set.  Can you let us know what you chose?  Did you choose different pieces for the 2 armys or will they match?  

Hi, forked_again. 

Yes, the white pieces in my pics are a cast set. They are put out by the National Museums of Scotland. The last time I checked, it was running at about $105 at Amazon. It's pretty good. I use it for medieval chess (shatranj) and is my stand-in until my set is eventually finished.

Mikhail at Megrina (go see his facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/megrina/ ) seems to be a very knowledgeable student on the Lewis Chessmen. Every piece he carves for me will be based on different pieces so, yes, each piece will be unique. No two will be alike. Yay!

As for the walrus ivory versus elk antler, US law is clear and my state of Hawaiʻi is very strict, so that was not even a consideration for me. Besides, however the walrus tusks may be acquired, I would not feel good about owning any. I'd be delighted inheriting an old piece (or finding one in one of my drawers), but I, myself, could not commission a piece of work with walrus. But other countries are different so it is not for me to speak on the behalf of others.

As for the costs, Mikhail has a price list that he can share directly with you. You can also get an idea by checking out some of his pieces on Ebay. Here's one that gives you another idea of his work:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Lewis-chessmen-KING-hand-carved-elk-antler-9cm-tall/192768574637

I will be receiving one piece (maybe two) a month. That was by my request. I'll be sure to post pics of them as they come in. Thanks for your interest!

Never mind the sword. He'll bite your face off.

I agree with you about walrus ivory.  But I assure you that Elk antler is an awesome substitute.  Here is a picture of an elk antler my dogs have had for a few years now.  Most of the time being gnawed on by 3 mastiffs, a Great Dane, and a bulldog on our ranch in Colorado.  Although it is not as big as it used to be, these dogs chew through wood like beavers, but they can barely make a dent in this antler.  

Ah, and that's the real reason why I'm getting this set produced. I always found the history of the Lewis Chessmen interesting (although some might question the validity of that history), and also felt a degree of awe at the sheer age of those pieces. Eight hundred years. Eight hundred! When I found out that I could get replicas of those same pieces made of elk antler, a material that has a proven potential for longevity (as shown by your dogs), well, I just had to get them. I just wanted something physical that would be around long after I was gone that my descendants could hold and say, "This belonged to my great-great-great-great grandfather." And how odd would that be, say, two hundred years down the road (if we're still around) for my descendants - or anyone for that matter - to say, "This is a two hundred year old replica of chessmen that are now a thousand years old!" Ah...Blah, blah, blah...

I've done some googling and found this:

"A particularly interesting outcome of this study has been finding traces of mercury on various parts of the surface of individual pieces by XRF analysis. This will be reported in detail elsewhere (Tate et al., forthcoming) and we note here simply the finding and the exciting conclusion that the mercury comes from traces of cinnabar, a mineral well known to have been used as a red pigment in the medieval period (Eastaugh et al 2004). In his 1832 report on the chess pieces acquired by the British Museum, Madden says “For the sake of distinction, part of them were originally stained of a dark red or beet-root colour; but from having been so long subject to the action of the salt-water, the colouring matter, in most cases, has been discharged” (Madden, 1832 p. 212). No traces of this colour can now be convincingly seen, (although we would not expect it still to look red [McCormack, 2000]) nor could any be found when the British Museum undertook a comprehensive study of the pieces (Stratford, 2007 p. 55 and Higgitt, 2010). However this is the first time that the NMS pieces have been analytically examined and it may be that the traces we have found reflect the rather different treatment that the two groups of chess pieces have received since they were found. There was insufficient time in the scope of our study to map the distribution of Hg across the pieces and to draw any conclusions about the extent of decoration, or any correlation with the density of the damage tracks. Both of these are planned for a further in-depth study."

This is from a paper about the set, which can be found here:

https://journals.openedition.org/archeosciences/3342

See the ebay link above.  There are several of his pieces on ebay.  

Thanks, IpswichMatt! I never thought to look that up before. 

Doesn't look scary to me at all.

Yes they will definitely have the longevity to be a family heirloom.  Nice paint job too by the way.  Do you know how he did that?  Is it stain?  I think the old Jaques Ivory chess pieces were stained, which would really be durable finish to go along with the tough material.  

BTW, what color will the "white" pieces be? 

Cast Isle of Lewis pieces are made of a pretty tough material, but not tough enough to be dropped on a concrete floor.  .  Jack fell down and broke his crown, and this weekend I will be trying to reconstruct it with epoxy putty.  I already have matching, paint, which I had to buy as soon as I got my set, to cover some small paint chips the pieces acquired during shipping.  

I agree. He looks crazed. 

I'm not sure what the process is but the piece looks stained, not painted. Mikhail said that the red color comes from onions and is also used for Easter eggs. I'm guessing that the white pieces will be left natural. I don't know if he would bleach them.

Ouch! Say, forked_again, is that a set you got on Etsy? There's a seller there that offers a set and all of the pieces are different. If I didn't start on this whole set of mine, I probably would have gotten that one. This pic is white and black, but he also offers it in red.

I believe that old bone and ivory sets were stained with something called "cochineal red", a substance which is extracted from the cochineal beetle

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cochineal

Other dyes may have been used as well of course

Yes I did get my set at Etsy.com from a seller called Oggtheclever, and I did chose to have different pieces for the 2 sides: