100 unusual antique chess sets

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A set of model lathes.
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A possible design for a chess set, looks a bit like apple cores
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A board at auction which I thought might have pictures by Tenniel

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I love 169 and 184.

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 Hi Lawrence,

Yes, 169 is a very elegant Danish (so-called) Selenus style set. Very popular on the continent from about 1600 onward. Selenus, AKA Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg. can be found here amongst other places. https://www.nps.gov/long/blogs/selenus-style-chess-set.htm for example

The Tenniel board (184) is one of many regrets, I did not buy it. 

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chessspy1 wrote:

Not chess but simply the best non-chess thing I ever made. A set of butt markers.Each one has to be identical and the whole has to fit the Aspreys silver box exactly,

 

I thought perhaps these were cribbage board pegs.

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 Hi Alan,

No, although I made plenty of those. They are 8 triangular section lengths each has a number inscribed from 1 to 8 they are used to decide the draw for a 'Butt' when shooting (don't cha know) because some places are more favourable than others (nearer the birds I suppose) it is all decided by draw. So each and every one has to be exactly like another and they all have to fit exactly in the container, (silver, dated 1895 Aspreys) $3000 I think, if you like that sort of thing.

https://www.loveantiques.com/antique-silver/chester-assay-office-(closed-1962)/antique-silver-butt-marker-1912-78939

For a later set by a less well-collected maker.

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chessspy1 wrote:

 Hi Alan,

No, although I made plenty of those. They are 8 triangular section lengths each has a number inscribed from 1 to 8 they are used to decide the draw for a 'Butt' when shooting (don't cha know) because some places are more favourable than others (nearer the birds I suppose) it is all decided by draw. So each and every one has to be exactly like another and they all have to fit exactly in the container, (silver, dated 1895 Aspreys) $3000 I think, if you like that sort of thing.

https://www.loveantiques.com/antique-silver/chester-assay-office-(closed-1962)/antique-silver-butt-marker-1912-78939

For a later set by a less well-collected maker.

 

Thanks for explaining Alan.  Very nicely done to fit the cylindrical case.  Are you a grouse hunter?

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 "Are you a grouse hunter?"

No, no, it's the posh types that do all that. I'm just a working lad from the big city.

Although I could have been a 'gricer' https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/gricer 

But I decided to devote my life to fixing chess sets. 

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This is a German method of mass producing shapes. It is called Reifendrahen. It would work for knight's heads also as shown belownullnull

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These are Jonchette pieces and though by some collectors to be 'sand sets' It is an interesting story how they came to be confused with chess.

In or around 1940 a London chess dealer called Alex Hammond who had a shop in Chelsea was shopping in the Paris antiques markets and bought a handful of these figures on sticks. Not knowing what they were but thinking they looked like chess figures he bought a few. He had a carver called Bertram Jones who he used to restore chess sets which were damaged for him. Bertram made up a lot of these for Alex, even branching into making compete sets. 

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