Can anyone identify the origin of this chess set?
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Picture above is Bishop, King, and Queen.
Black King
If it was from a gift shop then it just might be the only one of its kind. Considering gift shops roam around looking for unique inventory (at least I'd hope so), it just might be truly unique. Hand crafted as an art piece, and sold to the gift shop per unique item agreement. The craftsman makes his or her living by providing the gift shop with exclusively unique items. Craft's people work pretty fast, so it adds up.
Or it could've been a seasonal batch produced by a group of crafts people somewhere in the world. Either way, it looks good.
I haven't seen this set so I'd guess it really might be a one off. It doesn't look particularly African to me, maybe Easter European but idk. I think more-likely hobby made, could certainly be wrong.
tmkroll.......I've done some hobby woodworking before, so to me, it seems too precise, too difficult, for hand tools, unless of course, a Master Craftsman.
It's not though. If you look at the shapes of the pieces, the turning is a bit clumsy. Look at the pawn. What is that bead in the middle supposed to be? The proportions are odd. The Knight has the best turning going into the base. The other pieces, the major pieces, pic 22, for instance, all those angles are quite shallow and there seems perhaps to be some chattering on the far left piece. edit: I looked again at some of the closer pictures and there is a lot of chattering all over these pieces. That doesn't mean it wasn't a professional job, but just, chess pieces normally have different artistic choices regarding the turning. This set looks like someone either didn't have much experience planning out chess pieces, or some of the cuts ended up a bit more shallow than was perhaps intended throughout. The base on in 24 looks a bit better than the ones in 22 as far as that is concerned. The ornamental turning all looks to have been cut free hand or some with kind of jig attached the lathe that didn't stay entirely steady, not something like an ornamental lathe, which again doesn't necessarily mean much, other people said tourist set, African. I have one African set with very odd turning that looks to have all been done off the lathe just made to look turned or on some kind of lathe that moved quite a lot while the work was on it; it's just all these things combined with the fact that I'm not familiar with this set lead me to guess it could be made by someone who wasn't too familiar with the craft of chess set making, even if they perhaps had a lot of experience in other kinds of carpentry.
tmkroll....I agree with a lot of what you are saying, but when you remember the king is only 2 3/8" tall, those cuts are quite tedious, plus this set has a lot of wear on it. I can tell its been played with a lot. That is why I think its an old set. Perhaps 18th or 19th century. But you are right, it could also be made by a hobbest, but ifso, he or she was quite skilled. I will try to get pic's of pieces set up and pic;s of the box posted. The box is good quality also.
The thing about that is there are only so many types of antique sets and collectors get to know them pretty well. It's possible this is an older set that I just haven't seen before; that does happen sometimes, just not very often, that's why I made the guesses that I made; I did say they were a guesses.
I would have guessed this set came from Latin America; I didn't notice anything specifically African about its style. Given the form of the Knight, I would agree that this set is in some ways modest.
On the other hand, some of the other pieces seem to me to be beautiful and well-made. The Rook and Bishop are particularly impressive. That the Queen's crown makes her look like another kind of Rook, however, is unfortunate, although it too is a well-made piece.
I think you are right, if it were a collectable piece, we would know about it, and would have others to compare it with. Thanks for the input.
Feb 12, 2019
0
#33
thomas1251lew wrote:
tmkroll.......I've done some hobby woodworking before, so to me, it seems too precise, too difficult, for hand tools, unless of course, a Master Craftsman.
Have you seen the Isle of Lewis pieces? Carved by hand with the tools available in the 12 century AD from Walrus Ivory! The precision of the carving in this set is nothing compared to that!
forked_again........good point!!
(I now agree with quadibloc that these look Latin American. I didn't think of that before.)
Yes, it could be Latin, I know there are some really skilled craftsmen in Cuba and Mexico (and other places) who sell their crafts on the streets, just trying to make a living.
Where ever it came from, its unique and I guess that is what I like about it.
I am not an expert on this kind of design... So take what I say with a grain of salt.
The design looks from the stile of Spain, also the wood combination looks Spaniard... I would suggest you to try to identify the woods, I can't recognize wood from the picture but I'd suspect that is Olive... another very popular Spaniard wood is the Caoba (Mahogany) and they do actually have a grayish shade of it call White Mahogany..., not boxwood...
Here a picture of a Spaniard chess set, for comparison:
https://www.amazon.es/SQUARE-GAME-Ajedrez-madera-ESPANA/dp/B01N5P8H6X
My second guess would be either Ecuador or Brazil made, imitating the Spaniard style.
Take it to someone that know woods, like a carpenter or so... and see if they can ID the woods, that will help a lot...
I check the chess museum and they have a page for Spaniard sets, there is a design there that resembles your set... I wish they provided a name for the design...
http://www.chess-museum.com/wooden-spanish-chessmen.html
People talking bad of this set because the horse... there is a whole tradition on Spain to work more on the rook:
https://tiendaajedrezescacimat.es/es/rey-de-94-a-99-mm/405-piezas-madera-sevilla-87.html
Translation for this set reads:
"Estupendas piezas fabricadas en madera de boj, con el mismo diseño de las piezas del Campeonato Mundial celebrado en Sevilla en 1987, entre Karpov y Kasparov"
Magnificent chess pieces made of Boxwood, this is the same set design used on the Wold Championship, Seville (Spain) 1987, where Karpov and Kasparov played"
Found a picture:
