Reproduction and Real Jaques of London Chess Set

any idea who carved that knight in 3331 ?  or this one below? 

I have no desire to go head to head with you again Alan, but to be fair, you simply read it wrong old sport ! so getting back to these knights ( above) are they supposed to be Jaques knights Alan ? 

No, but it is not a bad effort.

I would guess that a Dremmel or similar tool was used for the main carving, including the detailing, (nostrils eyes etc) The mouth and mane are reasonably well done. I assume it is a replacement for a lost knight from an old Jaques set.

Both knights are from an 1849 slim jim set. One is original one is a replacement. 

an original Cooke knight with one of our reproductions below  

I have a question for Alan as, in my opinion, he is our resident expert in these things.

Alan, what sizes of sets were made and sold the most in all these classic Staunton designed sets?

I recall reading that because of WW II the sets were made smaller.

What were the original sizes of these sets and boards?

A really good interview with the maestro and expert on all things chess,  Frank Camaratta 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITkclb4X8EQ 

I have seen that interview a few times, now.

I consider Frank a friend and know he is very knowledgeable about these things.

Nonetheless, Alan is the one that posts here often and he also has a vast knowledge of Chess sets.  This is why I have asked the question of him.

Legend Bill Jones,  Bone Grubber- Turner parr excellence 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2G3LHZNiuU&list=PLz2EPNZJavGGEHzKlenYc65bPJUPwqJKp

Hi Ron,

We should remember that Jaques sets were sold by base diameter not height. So that a buyer might pick out a suitable board at the time of purchase one assumes.

I think the 3.5" sets were most sold. But the large, so called small club 4" and full club 4.4"were also popular.

Ah, this is interesting.  The base size does matter most, especially when we are talking about the wider bases that demarcated the Jaques sets from others of that era.

I like the base size that generates the 3.5", or so, size.

What was the standard size board square compared to the base size then?

I personally like the smaller 3.5" - 3.75" sizes for playing.  Of course I can also go to the 4" size in a pinch with no problems.

I guess from the names Jaques gave to the larger sets, (small club, and club size) that most clubs were using the larger sets of whatever design. We know that Staunton took his 4.5" St George set to play in Paris against St Amant in 1843 (which is also a good argument against an earlier date for the Jaques set design than 1849 which has been suggested upon occasion. The point being that H.S. would have taken a Jaques set if he had one, which he clearly didn't at that date).

So I am going to assume that most clubs already had boards with fairly large squares 2" plus.

However do note this is just my assumption and as some of the sets in use had smaller bases compared to height the boards might have been smaller too. 

Seeing that the larger sets are called club sets, it makes sense that the smaller sets were for more personal use.

After reading what you said about the base size being how the sets were classified, I walked around work changing how I thought about sets and their sizes.

I really like doing this.  I think of a set and then think of what square size it would work best on with its base diameter.  The King height doesn't ever come into the mental equation.

By pure chance today I saw a screencap from a movie called "Breaking Dawn: The Twilight Saga" and noticed something peculiar:

A red and white lacquered chess set that looks suspiciously like a Jaques reproduction.  After a quick google search I saw the set was later sold at auction for $11,000!

https://twilightsaga.propstoreauction.com/view-auctions/catalog/id/51/lot/12899/

Breaking Dawn was released in cinemas in 2011, so this set can't have been one of the more recent reproductions.  I have a hunch it is probably the set sold by The Chess Piece which is in the first post of this thread. Looking at the photos more closely the red and white lacquer has been applied very roughly, and isn't something that would pass muster if sold as a premium Chess product. 

It's a collectors series set 😉

the auction site describes the set as follows:

custom-made red and white chess pieces that were created to match the pieces featured on the cover of the Breaking Dawn novel

Are you sure? I don't think the collector's series King has the same shape near the top, but that could be down to differences in batches.

It is interesting tracking down sets from films and the like. 

I worked in Portobello market as a 'smalls' restorer for c 25 years from c 1980.

One morning bright and early (a little after 7 am) I was walking round the market and saw a rather nice horn and bone French style set on one of the street stalls. The stall holder was not one of the regulars and had just taken the stall for the day, so I didn't know him. I asked him how much he wanted for the set, noting that one of the horn rooks was missing. "Oh it isn't for sale I'm afraid. it belongs to a friend and I just brought it into the market to get an idea of it's value" Said the guy. Now this is a tricky one as a dealer cannot really set a price on something he (or she) wants to buy, that is up to the seller.

However I was keen to buy it and broke just about every unwritten rule in the book by offewring him GBP400 for the set on the spot, even missing a rook (which I would have made of course before reselling the set, probably to one of the other dealers in the market). "No I really can't sell it" came the reply. " It belongs to my friend Emma Freud, it was her Grandfathers set and she just wondered what it was worth".

The 'value' of Sigmund Freud's chess set?  Son wanting to kill his father and all that nonsense...parallels to chess... 

I'm pretty sure Frank- House of Staunton would have definitely had been involved, and it looks very collector like to me. just to make sure I'll ask him and let you know. 

Our new site www.chesssetsusa.com based in Brampton...