My first Italian set

A wooden chess set from the 18th century Italy.

Came with a box-board with drawer for wooden checkers. The board might come from the same period since the veneer is hand-sawn. The joints seem to be hand-made as well. It would be a definite marker of 18th century manufacture if it was British, but I am not so sure about Italy. The set itself is housed in a round container, which is most probably original.

A similar set could be seen on painting by Johann Raunacher from 1755.

Bird Nest

An 18th-century ivory set from England. This small-cupped pattern is often called "Bird Nest" and looks like an English variation of Continental Selenus design.

The Knight head is pretty well worked for it's small size. It seems to have similarities with carvings of some French Knights from the same period.

Irish Killarney set on matching board

Danish variation of the Selenus pattern

An ultra-classic example of Danish Selenus pattern variation. These rather small but elegant and delicate bone sets are commonly dated to around 1800.

Fine and interesting Selenus set

This set might be Danish but could in fact originate from Germany, Austria or Netherlands just as well. A somewhat similar but fancier set can be seen in "Schach Partie Durch Zeiten und Welten" page 222.

The same set photographed with flashlight.

London

They constantly erect modern buildings next to grand and historical ones. The Tower of London looks like a puppet show decoration among the glass and concrete mountains.

Another example of this disgusting practice.


British humour?


Too bad that the 2-story buses are intended to be put out of use. They are fun to ride if you get a good place and great for sightseeing (and what a merry sight it is in the present case!)


Tourist items in 221B Baker Street (the Sherlock Holmes museum). One can see a horn Regence set often listed at eBay as vintage or antique among other brand new tourist chess sets. This one is interesting for two reasons. First, I did not have evidence that they are still producing them until today. Secondly, mind the White Knight with black base. Looks like something had gone wrong with either bleaching or staining process. They might make the both sides from one kind of horn after all, although the sets are usually listed as buffalo and cow horn. I do not know enough about that material to tell for sure but whatever the truth is, the piece on the picture does raise suspicions.

Mr. D. in action. The pictures are available at http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/chessspy/BonhamsChessCards141008


Great.

Medieval bone playing pieces and dice exhibited in the Tower of London.

A gorgeous rock crystal chess piece from the 11th century exhibited in the Tower of London.

English open crownwork set

This English ivory playing set comes from early 19th century, say 1800-1820. Image taken in artificial light.

An image in natural light.

A closeup of the Knights.