chess pieces 'age'

I recently aquired a chess set or shall i say the pieces

It came in a wooden box & has newspaper clippings of matches played by top players. The clippings are newspaper with 1929 date on them.

How do i find out how old they really are,is there a way of knowing for sure ?

pics?

asa I find a camera

Ok. Can't imagine.

Yeah, "a picture is worth a thousand words" as they say.

Pics of the OP's set:

I don't recognize the set.

It's probably a mid-line UK set. No idea if it is as old as the clippings, but the knight design seems to indicate some age.

It appears to have been lovingly cared for.

Ebony or ebonized?

Maybe the author of this album

http://picasaweb.google.com/109071933456760886718

might have an idea.

If it's a life-or-death matter and you are close of a research lab, you can always get it dated chemically. Carbon 14 never lies.

But of course, it would be less destructive and considerably cheaper to find something in a more standard way. Aren't there any serial numbers of things like this in the corner of the box ?

It has been 'varnished' (clear laquer) to protect it.

I was thinking of taking it to a carpenter just to find out what kind of wood it is

the wood is dark (black pieces) the brown is very beautiful

I thought folks here would know...

I am pretty sure they are mass-produced and not unique. Try to find chess sets with the same design.

In addition, you may go to a knowledgable carpenter as you suggested. However, I would like to suggest to get the carpenter to look at the varnish as well. Varnish can wear off and age. Certain varnishes were not available only after specific years, while some are no longer available. If you can get the varnish appraised, then you can get an estimation of when the set was produced.

Knowing what wood it comes from helps determine which part of the world it was produced in.  But I doubt the wood age correlates with the production date.

In addition, are they weighted? Because weighted chess sets are modern invention.

Any tool marks may also be helpful if the carpenter can recognize it.

thanks for the info.

I varnished them a week ago. i know it protects wood & keeps moisture out.

The pieces are not weighted.

Well, that's a problem. With the new varnish, now it becomes difficult to determine their age. That is if you are still interested in finding out their age.

i thought it more important to preserve the pieces than the age of them.

It is not 'life & death'

The pieces are nice :-)

Not sure how old they are but they look awesome.  

I am afraid the pics and clippings prove nothing. I can thow pics in any set, that doesn't make the set valuable.

but the way you got it, who knows? sounds plausoble the set was used in some famous match or tourney. if it's enough to convince you, I guess that's all that matters.

That's a mistake lots of people make. If they were old / rare / valuble, you may have just ruined them.

It's like when people find really old metal items (guns, coins, swords etc). They assume that cleaning them up with wire wool and making them nice and shiny again will increase the value. In actual fact, it almost always ruins any value they had.

There is not a huge probability they used for a famous game, there value should not be really high. The wrapping in newspaper, if it really indicates that it was used in 1929, can have been done by some patzer in some minor club.

@OP : Don't worry too much about having ruined a valuable set, it probably isn't. I guessed your question was more curiosity than greed.

Fair point, and you're right, it probably isn't a valuble set. If it was, it isn't any more anyway.

I don't think wanting to know how valuble something is would show greed though.