Reproduction and Real Jaques of London Chess Set

http://www.tradeindia.com/Seller-2836383-Amritsar-Ivory-Works/

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Amritsar-Ivory-Works/190468767651459

http://gauravsharma169.tripod.com/

Just to further expand upon Jack's intial grand opening and wonderful thread, I wanted to also post this pic, which I have tried my best to trim and clean up just in a attempt to show all as much detail as possible of the genuine 1849 Jaques Knight. I know most of us will be concentrating on the whole set with great anticipation, but all are also hoping this knight will be closely duplicated. Original pic of whole untrimed set however is to the credit of crumiller's site link here:

http://crumiller.com/chess/chess_pages/chess_jaques.htm

here's the 2 club-size knights from set No. 8 (oldest known set). Image (and set) belongs to Prof. Alan Fersht and is taken from here:

https://plus.google.com/photos/100450293480257053343/albums/5629512117710796849?banner=pwa

Thank you Frank for the pic and link... nice pic of the whole set there as well...

Those knights...so nice.

I wonder how long one of them took the carver?

Okay, I'm not expecting an answer, but it makes you wonder how well he was compensated for his time and skill.

Little bits of artwork, in my opinion.

I would imagine a Master Carver would have made good money in the day & time period.

there are very knowledgable people like Alan Dewey and Jon Crumiller participating in this forum and they may know more about conditions at Jaques in those days. From what I've read, skilled factory workers and workshop craftsmen mid century were paid fairly well, although wages quickly deteriorated in the following decades. Also not sure if Jaques used child labor (at least for turning).

Hi y'all,

Reb, the set in my video is the 4.4" 1849 repro from chessbazaar.

FFTO Acording to a newspaper report from the Strand magazine of 1898 A carver at Ayres huge factory could make 48 knights heads a day. Now admittedly their knights were not the same quality as a Jaques Staunton, and the set in the picture is a St George, but it gives one an idea of production. You must remember that chess was not the main concern of most of these manufacturers, even Jaques, who had a wide range of games from table tennis to croquet.

The article 'How games are made' is on this page of my website.

http://www.chessspy.com/pages/knowledge-chess.htm

Scroll down.

Also our article on the origin of the Staunton design icons is here along with many other chess set designs.

I also read many years ago and I cannot now track the book down, that political exiles in Siberia had to make as many as 500 knights heads a day. Now, this may have been a target for a group of craftsmen working production line style I just don't know but a huge output of this kind makes one wonder where they all went? I have speculated and based only on the fact that a lot of Regence sets have varnished knights heads which do not match the rest of the set in finish, that they might have been for export.

As far as wages were concerned, I think it is well enough recorded that Victorian skilled men regarded themselves as a class apart, but mimicked the middle class for dress, Bricklayers of the time can be seen in early phorographs wearing bowler hats for example. Most of the dramas on film and TV which claim to portray that period concentrate on the Navies, poor imigrant irish (for the most part) who came in to build the railways and so are not dealing with established tradesmen. It was not all milk and honey as anyone who has read The Ragged Trousered Philantropists by Tresstle will attest, however that was written in a period of severe economic downturn (slump) and deals with house painters who were the bottom of the heap as far as craftsmen were concerned.

I would encourag you all to read this:-

http://www.chessspy.com/articles/Icons%20and%20Staunton.pdf

And this;-

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

Both these articles were written with my Wife, Historian Milissa Ellison. The shed a good deal of light on how we are now playing with a worldwide standard chess set design.

Great thread guys...thanks for all the insight!

I appreciate the links, Alan. Thanks again.

Thank you guys,

These are a lot of articles and videos on making chess sets and the history of chess sets design and manufacture on my site.

It is a big sprawling site due to the amount of information on it, which will eventually become a book (I hope) I also use my facebook page as a note pad about the history of chess. I am at the moment writing short articles about famous people in history and the sets they might have used. I can expand them to include games they played if any of you are interested. Put in a 'friend' request on face book if you would like to see this kind of feed. https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100005481019506

still no word when the Chessbazaar set will become available?

I hear this coming week sometime. But that is the same thing I heard the last 3 weeks. 

Hi Alan

        The set looks great!I can't wait until it's released.I was wondering if you were able to take any pictures of your set,if so could you please post them .

Thanks

Bobby

Decided to bump this thread up... Wondering anything new yet on the 1849

in production or ?

On their web site...new release date is November 2.  

wiscmike wrote:

On their web site...new release date is November 2.  

____________________________________

Merry Christmas ! :)

Hi Y'all ,

Sorry about no close up pics of my 1849 copy it is gone to a better person than me now but I do have a video of me using it at Prichard Park (and getting beat).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7J_dP5HoCs

Alan out of kindness did you throw the game?