They've Done It Again
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I love the look of them, especially the pawns and the king. The knight may have a little too much mohawk for me
unfortunately, I think this is a very poor repro of a B&Co set. Bishops are all wrong, King shouldn't have a cross, knights have no resemblance whatsoever. It's a shame - B&Co sets are pretty rare and a good repro would have been really nice.
Here's a gallery of pics from James Cousin's collection:
https://picasaweb.google.com/105902078089873317812/21BCo35SlenderCa1900
And here's a B&Co set, courtesy of Jon Crumiller:
Dec 14, 2015
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#5
Here is a copy of the text at the HoS site regarding this set:
The origins of B&Co. are shrouded in mystery. To this date, no one has been able to uncover any information on this company. What can be determined, based on the style of the chessmen, type style and the storage boxes produced to house them is that B&Co. started producing Staunton chessmen in the mid to late 1850s. Initially, their sets bore some rudiments of earlier pre-Staunton designs such as alternate-colored bone staffs atop the Kingside Rooks. Around the 1870s, their design matured into the set you now see before you. B&C0 stampings are found on their hardware, such as their hinges. The House of Staunton has reproduced this unique set of chessmen for your playing enjoyment.
And here's the picture of the set they have as the "original".
Obviously, they patterned the set they are selling after this one.
Bought this set to go with my 6cm square ebony chess board. It arrived today. Lovely pieces which are very distinctive. A very original set.
May 9, 2018
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#7
Taking the correctness of comparisons to the authentic pieces out of the equation.....It is a truly beautiful set...I think you'd be very happy to own it,as would I......Good luck.
May 11, 2018
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#8
Honza66 wrote:
Bought this set to go with my 6cm square ebony chess board. It arrived today. Lovely pieces which are very distinctive. A very original set.
Please post some pictures of the set and the board
I specifically chose that set to go with the board. It's my favourite board and I wanted something to do it justice. Both the black squares and black pieces are ebony.
May 12, 2018
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#13
Honza66 wrote:
I specifically chose that set to go with the board. It's my favourite board and I wanted something to do it justice. Both the black squares and black pieces are ebony.
Where did you buy the board? Fantastic looking board and set goes great with it.
It is a Chessbazaar board. Had a few problems with it because the wooden squares started to warp and crack. It would be useless by now but I had it restored by a furniture restorer who sanded the board down, filled the gaps and cracks with superglue and re-polished it. That cost almost as much as the board did. There are a few new cracks in it now, but it is not too bad. I might get it restored again but this time the job is much easier.
Over the weekend the House of Staunton came out with their last Days of Christmas Chess offering. And this one shows a set that I had never seen or heard of before.
They call this the B & Co. Series Chess Set.
It's for the larger set lovers. The King's height is 4.4" making a 2.5" square board necessary.
I found the history of this set interesting. At the web site HoS has a nice write-up and pictures of an original one.
I like the King and Queen design quite a bit. I think the BIshop's mitre is a bit large, but I also thought that on their new B.H.Wood set and the one I ordered is arriving today!
I am not a fan of sets larger than 4" King. I prefer 3.6" - 3.75" and will go up to a 4.0" King (I have the HoS Morphy Series and Marshall Series in 4.0").
But I kind of like the looks of this set.
What do you fellows that are expert in the antique sets think about this set?