Why the bishop has notch on it's head?

zborg wrote:

Shaped more like a Bishop's hat.  Simple.

The History of Woodworking, not withstanding.

The Bishop's hat being called a mitre. Nothing to do with the woodworking mitre. Cheers, John C.

By the way, does anyone know where the knight went ?

All that remains is a horse head.

The knight took the horse's arse and left the field of battle, apparently.  

Aha! exit stage left for the centaur.

Lamarckian evolution has never been shown to exist.

Well, riders are hard to sculpt.  The fanciest European sets usually did have elaborate human figures.

http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/120014995?rpp=20&pg=1&ft=*&what=Chess+sets&pos=13  (German, the bishop looks like a secular "runner" to me)

http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/120014997?rpp=20&pg=1&ft=*&what=Chess+sets&pos=17 (This one is French, the bishop seems to be dressed as a military officer, not a Fool)

http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/120015018?rpp=20&pg=1&ft=*&what=Chess+sets&pos=14 (Austrian, but the bishaps have crosses on their hats if you zoom way in)

Not humans but has an interesting bishop:

http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/120015019?rpp=20&pg=1&ft=*&what=Chess+sets&pos=16

Indian, with elephant (incorrectly placed, I think - the pointy things would be towers [rooks], not bishops)

http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/120015033?rpp=20&pg=2&ft=*&what=Chess+sets&pos=33

Camels and oxen???

http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/120015016?rpp=20&pg=2&ft=*&what=Chess+sets&pos=40

• 4 hours ago · Quote · #13

  AlCzervik 

  One of the rooks cut the bishop years ago, and it's become a genetic mutation.

lmao

Two more:

French, with marshall's hat on bishop:

http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/120015143?rpp=20&pg=1&ft=*&when=A.D.+1600-1800&what=Chess+sets&pos=18

German, with flag-bearers for bishops (and castles riding elephants)

http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/120015064?rpp=20&pg=1&ft=*&when=A.D.+1600-1800&what=Chess+sets&pos=11

Nartreb, you have two links to that French Dieppe-looking set... I think you meant for one of them to go somewhere else. In regard to the Indian set where you think the Bishops and Rooks might be swapped it gets pretty complicated because the Rooks are often elephants in India today and it can even vary depending where you are: http://history.chess.free.fr/india.htm

Fixed it, thanks.

Yeah, the more different chess sets I look at, the more elephants seem to move around :)

Ok that fixed link is to a very weird set. It looks French or French-influenced, but the Bishops are not normal at all. I have a very hard time believing it's 18th century, and is it just me or does it not look like ivory in the pictures? It looks more like animal horn or some kind of polished stone. Maybe it's just the way the pictures are taken. I have a hard time imagining the museum could get the material wrong. There can be a lot of guesswork in identifying antique chess sets, though. I know for a long time all the German Geislingen bone sets in that gallery were labled French Dieppe sets there (like they are in many older books) and similarly "fakes" like "Pique Sable" Jounchets and "Turkish" tulip sets were/(are still?) labelled old and French or old and Turkish. It's quite possible all their information on that set is right, but it's hard to be sure with such a unique set. Looking at this thread to learn about antique chess sets one should stick to the more common styles that we can be more sure of. Unless you can find more sets with those Bishops (which I've only ever seen on that particular set) I think we chalk it up to that set just not "fit"ing in with our naritive of how Bishops looks and why. There are always exceptions.

Just looked through that collection again.. there are still problems with it.

http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/120015153
These are obviously 18th century English "Washington" style chessmen, not French, 19th century from Dieppe

http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/120015161
These are Russian, not Bosnian (but at least that one says "probably")

http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/120016682
These "Spanish Pulpit" Chessmen are almost certainly not Spanish though no one is sure where they come from. I believe the current theory is they're English.

http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/120016731 These are German from Geislingen, also not French from Dieppe (everybody likes to call everything French from Dieppe)

http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/120016777 These are Jonchets, for the game of Spillikins (pick up sticks) not chessmen at all.

http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/120015108 I'd be very surprised if these are 19th century. I have one of these sets btw, it cost me $80. http://www.tykroll.com/chess/dragonsg.html

http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/120015143 again Geislingen, not Dieppe

http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/120015131 again "Spanish Pulpit" probably British but really unkown... Portugese is certainly a unique guess

http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/120016773 these don't look British to me, more German-related.

...and you get the idea.

It seems the Met's entire chess collection came from one donor.  Not easy for them to check provenance, I bet.

On the set with the odd bishops, it's hard to judge from photos but I share your suspicions about the material.  You can see a linear grain on the white pawns.  I'm no expert, but it doesn't look right for elephant ivory to me.

I am sure the bishop is called somethng else in wannabe op's native language.

The 'notch' was originally intended to hold the high-value note being wagered on the game vs your opponent.

Well, now I think it is only because Bishop's hat looks like that..

I guess in the case of real chess pieces, the absence of the notch would only indicate a pawn?

So perhaps if the only function of a bishop is to protect pawns, the notch should be removable to show that it's just a 'tall pawn'?

Hehehe..

That holds true in several instances. I wouldn't deny that idea. I'm calling snakesbelly right away.