Toepfer Chess Set

Hi,

I have been trying to locate the Peter Toepfer chess set and am wondering if anyone has information that may help.

The set has comically shaped pieces made of aluminum. They range in size from about 7 inches to about three feet. For storage, the pieces stack within one another, like Russian dolls.

The set was built in Milwaukee around 1900 and was used in a lecture by Emanuel Lasker. He later used the set for a lecture at the Cambridge Springs tournament.

The set was donated to the University of Wisconsin in Madison in 1923 and was used in exhibitions from the 1920s through the 1950s. At various times, it was held at the UW Union, UW Library, and Wisconsin Historical Society.

I have been in touch with all of these sites, and there is no record of the set since the 1950s.

Does anyone have any information about the set after that time?

Thanks. 

Very cool and interesting set to be chasing. I would contact the curators at the World Chess Hall of Fame. I’ve never seen it on display there, but perhaps it is catalogued on their site, or in their possession. For a deep dive, you may be able to track down UW and Historical Society employment documents and trace lineage through an ancestry site, reaching out to children and grandchildren who may have come into ownership.

Hello Mike,

My queries with the University in 2018 yielded the same. It seems to have been lost, but it must be there somewhere. I did obtain copies of some correspondence from Jacques Mieses and a copy of Toepfer's Catalog of Works on Chess from his collection donated by the family in 1918.

Supposedly, the exhibition stacking chessmen were at the UW Archives, but staff could not locate them. Inquiries to the curator with the Wisconsin Historical Society Museum found no mention for him or the trunk with these chessmen. A University newsletter from 1972 described the demonstration chessmen as having been displayed at the capitol in Madison. Neither the University or museum could locate it, so I never made the trip there to look.

Here's a copy of his US patent for the apparatus. What other interest do you have in this regard as both Steve Etzel and myself are interested in Toepfer's connection with Milwaukee and Cambridge Springs?

Hi,

i was looking for this set a couple of years ago. I had hopes of having it on display when the US Open was played in Madison in August 2025. My search efforts were made back in 2023.

I likely communicated with the same institutions that you did: the UW Library, State Historical Society, and the UW Union. One of the people I communicated with remembered a previous question about the set. That may have been you.

Stories in the Madison paper and in the UW student paper and alumni magazine indicate that the set had been stored at all three locations, at various times. I think the last clear reference to this set was in the 1950s. When was your search?

i also gave the state history museum a try to no avail.

A librarian suggested that the set may have been sold when the historical society/library moved. However, she thought that their records were detailed enough that such a sale would have been recorded. Someone also suggested that the set may have gone to a Madison municipal organization that used the set in summer festivals. But I couldn’t find stories showing this set used in festivals after the 1950s. Someone also suggested that the set may have gone back to the Toepfer family or that it may have just been given away. If so, there may be no record.

i am familiar with the patent diagrams.

By the way, are you a Milwaukee/Madison chessplayer? If so, we may know one another. 

Mike Wierzbicki

Mike, my inquiries were in 2018 and it would have made a nice demonstration for the US Open. Both Steve and I played and I'm sorry we didn't meet up there. I seriously doubt that it was sold or was returned to family and believe it is buried somewhere in Madison. That 1972 newsletter is the most current reference that they provided to me, although it doesn't mention when it was on display at the capitol. I'm in Milwaukee and you used my image of Bill Williams for your article in Chess Life after his passing.

If you want, I can mail you the .pdf of the newsletter.

Alan Buschmann

Is the set a "one of a kind" or were more produced? I think a one-off could be in the possession of a private collector.

Hi, Alan,

No need to send the pdf. I have seen the article.

the patent diagram shows that the set, once stacked, packs up and can be stored in a small trunk. I have a fantasy that, like in the Indiana Jones movie, the trunk is in a basement somewhere, unmarked and forgotten. 

I'm of the same belief Mike. Rows upon rows of boxes and it's hidden in the basement waiting. Thanks for the update and hopefully this historical artifact will surface.

Just an aside, Peter Toepfer is buried at Forest Home Cemetery here in Milwaukee.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/85101623/peter-g-toepfer

It's unknown how many were made, but Lasker used these exhibition chessmen twice, once during a visit to the Milwaukee Chess Club and again during the tournament at Cambridge Springs.

I believe that the same set was used on both occasions. Toepfer was in attendance at Cambridge Springs.

Yes he was and Marshall used it as well in Milwaukee during his tour in 1910-11.

Brooklyn Daily Eagle 13Jan1911