That stump is a work of art in itself! I’ve never seen that sort of tree, of course. At first glance I wondered whether it had steps cut into it. It would grace any millionaire’s living room 
How do I sell My Priceless Piece
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I think you might have to get lucky to achieve a fancy price. There is an existing market for antique chess sets/boards/pieces but to sell something modern, even something as beautiful as your work, is another matter.
I have never heard of Osage orange wood but I gather that others have. You might explore whether there are afficionados of the material who would make a market for modern works in that material.
Congratulations on your work. Like others here (but sadly unlike my wife or I might have been a buyer), I find it quite beautiful.
Your title says what it is worth, "Priceless". However if you want to sell I agree that an auction would be the better way to go. Though there is a risk that you could get it under sold, no matter where you sell it. I doubt that would happen for that chess board, but it could happen.
The trees had been dead for a while although there were a couple of parts of one of the tees that looked like it still had some life left in it.
I do seasonal work so I needed something to keep me busy over the winter months, I dont know where the original idea came frome but I spent a lot of months just thinking obout the idea. Here is a picture of the stump before I started working on it
There are art appraisers out there and they would probably be your best bet. They are often used to put a price tag on art collections etc. As for finding the right art appraiser that is another question entirely. You definitely will want to learn qualifications and/or get more than one opinion.
The biggest problem would seem to be getting it advertised to the right people. Have you considered contacting a museum? Try the Nelson-Atkins in Kansas City, MO. or the new Crystal Bridges in Fayetteville, AR., or I'm sure Denver or Dallas would have modern art displays. If you could get it displayed as an exhibit, you could attract people with a great appreciation for art and deep pockets. Typically chess players don't fit that mold.
Bring the thing to Saint Louis, Rex Sinquefield comes to mind. It's a most awesome chess table, it perhaps needs some stable space next to the board to place a chess clock.
What a board!
I would give atleast 1,000$ for that, very good job!
NICE board! I'm not sure an appraisal will mean much (other than for insurance purposes if you wanted to insure it). Unique items are often impossible to set a price on because there's nothing to compare them with - unlike houses or cars for instance, where there are plenty of comparison factors to take into consideration - and plenty of other houses or cars to use for comparison.
Offhand I'd think your unique set is worth exactly as much as someone is willing to pay for it, so you may have to "self-appraise" it and decide how much is enough for you to part with it in return for filthy lucre
And there is the little matter of how much you think your labor is worth, except you have stated you don't recall how much time you spent on this project
I dont even want to think about how much time I spent on it
Thanks for your advice everybody I think I am going to try to get a bunch of exposure on the web and then put it on Ebay probably in a few weeks or a month
Don't forget to set a reserve on it! Best of luck
I am going to put a video on youtube pretty soon Ill post a link when I do
Good luck.
Sell it to FIDE and ask them to play the World Championship on it!
WhitePointer wrote:
Sell it to FIDE and ask them to play the World Championship on it!
very good idea
There won't ever be another like it. You should get quite a sum. How heavy is it?
WOW! what a fantastic table!
How would you get something like this appraised
Again, an auction house is probably best.
You could get it appraised for insurance purposes much easier. An appraisal on something like this, though, is pretty worthless.
You may be right, but I think an auction house will have a better idea what it can be sold for. And this will qualify as a big ticket item, if it does make it to auction everybody that they know of who might be interested will know about it.