Jaques Set - Queens like Large Pawns

Please have a look at these pictures. This is a Jaques set, with the maker's name stamped on the White King only.  The Queens are unusual in that they look like large pawns (actually they also look like sex toys), and the Bishops don't have a little ball on the top.

Can anyone tell me anything about this set? I've looked on http://www.fersht.com/ and can't see any Queens or Bishops matching these. I've also googled images for Jaques sets and found nothing even close, so I' beginning to suspect someone started to restore them but didn't complete the job.

It appears someone has altered (kinda destroyed) a Jaques set.

Maybe for religious reasons???

I'll look in my books and see if I can identify the knights.

Thanks uthor. The set has long since disappeared from eBay where I saw it. I agree it just looks like it's been butchered 

II promise you ive never owned this set previously and so it was not me with my nail file!!  

I have seen this sort of thing before and it is as everyone says. What happened is that the queens had damaged crens and the bishops lost ball finials and so it was made to look playable. In this case, the restoration cost is about the same as it would have been before the butchery.

$20 per queen. $10 for each other ding. plus postage.

Thank goodness the knights were left alone in this case.

Thanks for confirming that gents. It was on ebay for £40 originally (which it might have been worth buying and getting Alan to restore) then swiftly removed. It's just re-appeared on ebay for £1000 or best offer - seems a little steep for a set with no box.

It's described as "there is no damage" - perhaps I will message the seller to say this is not strictly speaking, 100%, totally, accurate

Now it gives a very accurate description of the damage and there is a lot! It also says the king is only 3" tall. At the price they are asking, the damage and the size of the set; I don't think it's a good buy.

Agreed, it's not going to sell at that price. I'd like to see how much it would bring at auction.

This is all a bit odd.

A client contacted me to say she had bought the set and was sending it for restoration. I wonder if the seller backed out of the deal and has now re-posted it at this unachievable price.

All very odd. It was however a gift at $40 too good to be true in fact.

I would estimate it's value as is at about $200 with some restoration costs to add in of course.

The alterations to the queen's tops can be made good for about $50 and at least the knight's heads have not been butchered up in any way as does happen upon occasion by dealers.

Looks to me as though someone has harvested parts of this set to restore another set. The queen tops seem to have been completely removed and replaced by these odd spheres.

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