Some words on small German sets

Small German sets and rollup boards were imported to England in remarkable diversity. Sometimes the sets carry the labels of English retailers, but they still come from Germany (an example from Crumiller collection).


The lid of the larger box has words "CHESS AND DRAUGHTS BOARD".

The larger set seems to be definitely German. It is known that roll-up boards were imported to England in the 19th century.

However, it seems to be that the smaller, truly miniature set follows exactly the same pattern. Only Knight heads are different. The sawed-out Knight heads similar to the miniature example above are often recognized as German.

Update July 14 2009: The common knowledge that these Knights are German is solidly based upon German pattern books. For example, this page from the Nuremberg manufacturers H. Heerdegen and C. Gottlieb dates from around 1870. The designs are fancier than my sets but the common attributes are easy to see. Many thanks to Jan for the information.

Another look at the major pieces with very similar fnials.


Both Rooks feature raised finials with concentric rings and rather wide bases.


The Rooks of the miniature set have bases which screw off. This is unusual.

Straw work on the lid of the smaller box. Although lots of straw work was done by the Napoleonic POWs, it was widely used in many European countries from the mid-1700s to late 1800s. The assumption that all straw work should be associated with Napoleonic POWs is not correct.

The similarities of the pieces suggest that both are German and come from the 19th century. While urn-shaped stems of English sets indicate early manufacture, it is not necessarily true about German sets. Many design elements continued to exist in Germany long after they were discarded in Great Britain. These include open cups (Selenus design runs well into the 20th century while the last English sets resembling open cup are the so-called Calvert or fountain sets from the 1st half of the 19th C) and urn-shaped stems.

A 19th century German or Dutch set, possibly Nuremberg, featuring urn-like stems, collars similar to Selenus design, Barleycorn-like barrels and sawed Knights (not from my collection).

Update July 30 2008: CCI newsletter "The Chess Collector" (4-5/1 Jan 1990) features an article about German sets by Franz Josef Lang. The author points out that the mid-1800s pattern book of Nurenburg turner A. Kolb has labels "American", "German" and "Roman" under the designs ("American" designs have mitred bishops common in Anglo-Saxon sets) and assumes that these indicate the target markets for these designs.

Update 2010: Please note that none of the sets above do not belong to my collection any more. The article was left up for discussion on the German sets.

Barleycorn sets

This article is an attempt of a logical classification of chess sets usually associated with the term 'Barleycorn'. It contains very little original research and is in main part a compilation of other people's work. However, as far as I know, no similar pieces of literature devoted to the Barleycorn design can be found online.

The author is grateful to Alan Dewey, Frank Camarratta, Jon Crumiller and other people who have provided the pictures or helped to improve this piece. Especially Alan's remarks helped to improve this article greatly.

'Barleycorn' is a buzzword widely used for a range of chess sets made in 19th century England for the most part. There are several subpatterns and gray areas where the appliance of the term can become a subject of heated discussion. Below we will examine several decorations, subpatterns and borderline cases.


The origin of the term

The Free Dictionary tells us:

bar·ley·corn (bär'l-kôrn)

n.

1. The grain of barley.

2. A unit of measure equal to the length of a grain of barley, or about ¹/₃ inch (0.85 centimeters).

The famous chess set design is said to have come from the shape of foliate decorations used to decorate the royal pieces. It is interesting to note that many sets considered Barleycorn have decorations resembling the leaves of barley or even some other plants. Examples will be presented below.


The Barleycorn Century

When where the Barleycorn sets produced?

Dermot Rochford:
"...I would classify this as an early 19th century Barleycorn, a transistion from the washington style. Note how similar the knight is to set 3's knight. [...] Barleycorn sets so named for the carving found on some of these sets, are an evolution of the Washington type sets and were very common throughout the 19th century even after the Staunton design was introduced."

Victor Keats ("The Illustrated Guide to World Chess Sets" page 127): "They [Barleycorn sets] [...] first appeared at the beginning of the century. This was due to the decline of trade with Napoleon's France when the supply of playing sets of Dieppe and other French sources decreased." Page 212 reads: "The only other surviving Jefferson set is of barleycorn design [...] sets such as this were made in England in the early 1800s..." And about a set of J. Q. Adams (page 213): "his chess set was [...] in the barleycorn style, made some time after 1825."

Frank Camarratta: from 1820 to 1845.

A. E. J. Mackett-Beeson ("Chessmen" page 22): from "early 19th century".

Frank Greygoose ("Chessmen" plates 69-70): from "early 19th century".

Jon Crumiller: "They were very popular in the early to mid 1800's."

Harry Golombek ("A History of Chess" page 164): A cartoon with Barleycorn-like pieces from 1832.

Golombek's page 178 contains an image of "A European barleycorn chess-set 1870-80" which misses the foliate decoration.

Michael Mark ("British Chess Sets"): "[...] were made in bone and ivory and were used in Great Britain throughout almost the whole of the 19th century."

Gareth Williams ("Master Pieces" page 43): "[...] continued in production until World War I."

Alan Dewey: "True (with Barleycorn decorations) Barleycorn, would not have been made before about 1800, as the lathe technology was not sufficiently well enough established, before then (using Holtzapfels dates as typical, although they were by no means the only firm producing these ornamental machines). [...] ...we can be fairly confident in dating most Barleycorns to the period, 1820-1920."

There seems to exist a wide consensus that the ornamentally turned Barleycorn sets did not and could not appear before early 19th century. However, the question about the end of the Barleycorn era is more controversial. Different people offer dates from the mid-1800s to 1920.

A number of carved Barleycorn sets exist. They might have been made earlier than the ornamentally turned sets.

Barleycorn parts

Following name convention will be used to identify various parts of Barleycorn pieces. Base, stem, barrel and upper stem with finials usually unscrew.

Predecessors

I do not believe in evolution of designs in the strict sense of the term. I do not want to say that new patterns were made by designers who took some old chess and deliberately tried to improve it (although that was so in some cases). By 'evolution' I mean a gradual manifestation of wider design trends in various chess set patterns. There were hundreds or even thousands of different designs around in 18th and 19th century and although gradual changes in various design elements are obvious, care should be taken to avoid the construction too narrow 'lines' of evolution or simplistic statements like Barleycorns evolved from Washington pattern and that's it. That happens in animal kingdom but not in the world of design ideas and concepts.

A number of 18th century sets have design elements similar to Barleycorn sets. Just a few examples:

The set of George Washington (picture taken from the book of M. Liddell). The Washington pattern is named after this set.

Ivory chess set owned by James Cook, 1770. Similar Knights became a standard for Barleycorn sets early in the 19th century.
National Maritime Museum, London.


A late 18th century book depicting chessmen with massive but round barrels


A round set from the 19th century

Early Killarney set with large and ringed but not cylindrical barrels. Image scanned from Mike Darlow's "Turned Chessmen", Polumbaum Collection.

For an illustrated article about the evolution of British chess sets with many more examples, see Antique English Chess Sets by Dermot Rochford.


Decorations of the barrel

1) True Barleycorn decoration

Ivory King and Queen with grain-like decoration

The body of this type of sets is decorated with ornamental turning resembling barley grain. In rare cases, such decoration can be seen on Rooks, too.

A closeup of deeper ear-like decorations on a True Barleycorn King.

Another type of True Barleycorn decoration resembles a barley ear warped around the barrel of the piece. In my opinion, these designs match the name of the family best and should be considered classic.

Ears of modern 2-row barley and 6-row bere



Unusual case where ears point downwards

2) Barley leaf decoration

Major pieces with foliate decoration

Some people see barley leaves here. I do not want to argue.

Barley leaves

3) Rope decoration

This is a non-foliate decoration, usually seen on the edges of the barrel of royal pieces and sometimes on Rooks, too. In many cases, all rings on the barrel have been turned this way.

A closeup view of rope-decorated royal piece.

If the decoration runs around the center of the piece body then it is sometimes hard to tell if the carving should be called Rope or Barley Ear.

I think that this decoration depictures a fine-grained barley ear. Note how the finial of the King is decorated with general, neutral leaves.

But I am not so sure about this one. Very finely grained & not very well done barley ear or two ropes with opposite twists? Yes, it did sell for £1000 hammer price at auction but that's another story.

4) Acanthus decoration

Another plant which has been used for decorating chess sets is acanthus. The trouble with them is that acanthus leaves cannot be turned like ropes or leaves or ears which run around the piece.

The King is decorated with acanthus leaves. All pieces are richly decorated; we will get back to this.

Acanthus ornament has been used as decorative elements from the days of Ancient Greeks. I will provide a picture of modern fountain which closely resembles the chess pieces above.

A fountain with Acanthus ornament

5) Leafed decoration

Some people see the whole Barley plant here. I see just general, neutral leaves.

6) Jaques 10

The whole barrel is not ringed but covered with alternating rectangles resembling chessboard or ragged brick wall.

J. Jaques turning book page 4, left column, 4th figure from top. Picture taken from Darlow's "Turned Chessmen".

Actually it seems to me that this pattern is for ivory sets. This needs to be sorted out.

7) Plain sets

The majority of BC sets come without any decoration at all.

Stems and bases

Usually Barleycorn sets come with round or onion-shaped stems, threaded in the best sets. However, some exceptions exist.

A set with True Barleycorn decoration and ringed stems. The rings are repeated in every piece. Ringed stems are not particularily rare, although not common.

It is important to note that urn-like stems are characteristic to Washington pattern, NOT Barleycorn pattern.

The bases are usually plain. However, the edges of good set stems are often "cogged". The fanciest bases are called Van Dyke bases.

A Van Dyke base

English subpatterns

1) Cogged Crown



Kings: cogged crown finials and True Barleycorn or Plain ornamentation around barrel. In good sets, other sections have non-foliate ornamentation.
Queens: ball finials and True Barleycorn or Plain ornamentation. In good sets, other sections have non-foliate ornamentation.
Rooks: turreted towers. In good sets with flag finials and decorated ribbons around pieces.
Bishops: closed mitres, in good sets with non-foliate decoration.
Knights: horse heads, in good sets with non-foliate decoration.
Pawns: ball finials.

In good sets, all bases are cogged.

This is the classic and very common Barleycorn subpattern. Usually small to medium size sets (up to 11,4 cm). Made of bone.

2) Fountain Crown (Flower Crown)



Kings: Fountain Crown finials, True Barleycorn, Rope, Leaf or Plain decoration around barrel. In good sets, crowns with foliate decoration (Flower Crown) and other sections with non-foliate decoration.
Queens: tuft finials, True Barleycorn, Rope, Leaf or Plain decoration around barrel. In good sets, other sections with non-foliate decoration.
Rooks: turreted towers usually with flag finials, sometimes ball finials. In good sets with flag finials and decorated ribbons around pieces.
Bishops: closed mitres, in good sets with non-foliate decoration.
Knights: horse heads, in good sets with non-foliate decoration.
Pawns: ball finials.

In good sets, all bases are cogged.

This is the classic and very common Barleycorn subpattern for large size sets (up to 15,2 cm). Made of bone.

3) Stretched



Kings: Imperial Crown finials, Plain decoration, rarely downright ears.
Queens: tuft finials, Plain decoration, rarely downright ears.
Rooks: turreted towers usually with flag finials, sometimes with ball finials.
Bishops: very long round-topped open mitres.
Knights: horse heads.
Pawns: ball finials.

Another common pattern for larger sets (10-14 cm), easily recognizable for stretched Bishop finials. Usually without decoration. Made of bone.

4) Maltese Cross


Kings: Imperial Crown and Maltese cross finials, True Barleycorn, Leaved or Rope decoration around barrel. In the best sets, foliate decoration is repeated on the ball under the crown and other parts have non-foliate decoration.
Queens: ball or feather finials in good sets, True Barleycorn, Leaved or Rope decoration around barrel. In the best sets, foliate decoration is repeated on the ball under the crown and other parts have non-foliate decoration.
Rooks: turreted towers with cannon towers and flag finials, sometimes with decorative ribbons around the pieces.
Bishops: open mitres, sometimes with non-foliate decoration.
Knights: horse heads, sometimes with reigns.
Pawns: ball finials.

This is the pattern for high-end large (10-14 cm) bone sets. They are sometimes associated with the famous name of Charles Hastilow.

5) Acanthus


Kings: Imperial Crown and Maltese cross finials, usually Acanthus, sometimes other foliate decoration around barrel. Other parts have non-foliate decoration.
Queens: taft finials, usually Acanthus, sometimes other foliate decoration around barrel. Other parts have non-foliate decoration.
Rooks: turreted towers with cannon towers and flag finials, bricked bodies and decorative carvings on other parts.
Bishops: open mitres with non-foliate decoration.
Knights: well carved horse heads with spectacular manes.
Pawns: ball finials.

Van Dyke bases.

Another high-level pattern for larger bone sets, easily recognizable by Acanthus decoration and specific Knights.

6) Ivory



The Barleycorn world is generally made of bone. However, a certain number of ivory sets with similar foliate decorations exist. Ivory sets without foliate decorations are never called Barleycorn.

Ivory BC pieces have usually the following characteristics.

Kings: Imperial Crown and Maltese cross finials, True Barleycorn or Leaf decoration around the barrel. Other parts have non-foliate decoration.
Queens: ball, taft or feather finials, True Barleycorn or Leaf decoration around the barrel. Other parts have non-foliate decoration.
Rooks: turreted towers with stems and flag finials.
Bishops: mitres with non-foliate decoration.
Knights: horse heads, sometimes with reigns.
Pawns: ball finials.

Non-English subpatterns

1) Plain Nurenberg (Plain German)
Barleycorn design was used in the continental Europe as well. The design believed to have been originated from Germany has clearly different proportions than English sets. The round sectionsand Rooks look shorter. Another different feature is the sawed-out Knight which appears in many Continental designs, including Selenus. Rook Flag finials are not used.

Plain German (Nurenberg Barleycorn) chess set

The design varies greatly. It was also made in wood.

2) German Skirted Barleycorn


Kings: Spiked coronet finial, plain decoration around the barrel and "skirted" carvings on it's lower edge.
Queens: pointed finials, plain decoration around the barrel and "skirted" carvings on it's lower edge.
Rooks: turreted towers with ball finials.
Bishops: short mitres and urn-like stems.
Knights: horse heads and ringed stems.
Pawns: pointed finials and urn-like stems.

This is a quite well established pattern and both urn-like and ringed stems are correct for this sort of a set. They were produced in early 19th century and do not need an ornamental lathe to make.

3) Pierced


Kings: Imperial crown and Maltese cross finials, pierced barrel.
Queens: Imperial crown finials, pierced barrel.
Rooks: turreted towers with Maltese cross finials.
Bishops: short and flat-ended mitres.
Knights: sawed-out horse heads.
Pawns: pointed finials.

All pieces with plain bases and urn-like stems.

Another well-established German pattern. Does not need an ornamental lathe as well.

4) Little Faces


Kings: Royal face finials, Leaf decorations around barrel, non-foliate carvings around other parts.
Queens: Royal face finials, Leaf decorations around barrel, non-foliate carvings around other parts.
Rooks: turreted towers with cannon tower and halfmoon finials.
Bishops: flower finials with non-foliate decorations around other parts.
Knights: well-carved horse heads with non-foliate decorations around other parts.
Pawns: pointed finials.

A Barleycorn version of German "Little faces" high-end design, also used with other patterns.

Conclusion

'Barleycorn' term has been applied to a variety of chess sets and has lost it's original meaning long ago. The royal pieces are decorated with ears, barley leaves, acanthus leaves, general leaves, rope twist, ragged bricks or just ringed. German sets might be even pierced. I am sure that there are some rare decorations left out from the list provided above.

There seems to exist a wide consensus that chess sets should be labeled Barleycorn by the general shape of the pieces, not by some particular way to decorate a ribbon around barrel of some royal piece.

The barrel should be considerably stouter than the neck and finials. Slim ringed sets as the following example are often listed as 'Barleycorn' by auction houses. I think that is not right because no slim bone sets with any foliate decoration exist (there are some with Rope decoration, though). If there were slim sets with foliate decorations, then in my opinion only these should be called 'Barleycorn' as in the case of ivory sets.

Slim English playing set. Evolved from Captain Cook pattern?

I think that following characteristics should be common to and required from the whole family:
1) existence of base, stem, barrel, upper stem and finials in Royal pieces;
2) massive cylindrical barrels, stouter than finials, about as wide as bases;
3) stout Rooks without stems in bone sets;
4) foliate decoration around barrels of ivory royal pieces.

Ivory pieces from an Indian set

Superior pieces from an ivory part set. Most probably of Indian manufacture from around 1820. The Queens are 9 cm tall. Unfortunately neither of the Kings have survived.

All pieces are monobloc, including Rooks with round bases and rectangular bodies. Turning holes can be seen in the both ends of pieces.

A similar set can be seen on the page of House of Staunton:
full set and a close view of some pieces.

Another such set was auctioned as a part of the Ettore Chiesa Collection at Christie's. See lot #90 in the catalogue.

Both these are of smaller size than my pieces.

A year of collecting

I have been collecting a little more than a year for now. A few things to say:

First, I have come to conclusion that I do not want to amass a great quantity of sets. I will try to keep the number below 30. Right now it is 15 or so. I will eventually sell sets which do not give me the jolt of joy any more. These sets will disappear from this blog as well. Every collector has to make decisions like that and my decision is to have only these pieces which I really, really like (if affordable, of course). This site will therefore remain relatively small but I hope that you will still like it :)

Second, I want to express my deepest gratitude to Alan Dewey the chess set restorer, Jon Crumiller, Floyd Sarisohn and other people from eBay Chess Collectors group (organized in the most smooth and friendly way by Robert van der Veur) for many words of valuable advice.

Third, most of my sets have come from eBay. I have had experience with only one complete fraudster during that year. The average John B. Ebayer is generally honest although he can be a weasel from time to time. Care must be taken to avoid outright con men, though. One of my previous postings was about that topic.

The popularity of chess collecting seems to be on rise and spreading over the world. EBay is a great resource but nothing can beat great chess auctions where the collectors from all over the world gather. The latest of this kind was the auction of the collection of late Dr. Cholet at Christie's held in this spring. Bloomsbury's auction house carries out chess auctions periodically, being the only major auction house to do so. The catalogues of these events are very much worth studying. Liveauctioneers.com website features information about many past auctions and can be used for price comparision. Auction houses usually provide free price range estimates which might be useful, too.

Fourth, as we are living in the first decades of the Information age, I really hope that more and more collectors consider putting up a webpage. Blog software is an easy solution but might not be suitable for larger collections. I work as an IT professional and I would be delighted to provide advice in the World Wide Web matters. For instance, the Chess Collector's Knowledge Base might be used to house individual collections, too. Please leave a wish to contact to the comments section and I will contact you.

Thanks for your kind attention :)

Advice to novice eBayers

Most of my chess sets have been bought from eBay. There are some common traps to fall in which seem to keep appearing for ever. I hope that the following suggestions might be useful for people who have not bought collectables from eBay before.

1. DO NOT BUY CHINESE CRAP
Let us start with the most simple case.

The set is described as following:

Hello dear friend, welcome you visit my ebay item. I am an antique collector, I hope to share the old Chinese and oriental cultures with the people in all over the world. I am currently offering a group of Asian antiques. All of these items come from private collections. Now this time I will show you an exquisite and old treasure! This is a Rare bone carven Chess set and Vintage rosewood box. From the pictures you can see it had a long history. But it was kept very well. With the perfect style, nice design, wonderful workmanship, It is in good condition, no crack and no chip. Look at the pictures you can see the shape is very well; It is really a rare item and worth collecting!!! So wonderful item . Bid with confidence! You will not regret! please don't miss it ! It is most valued. I believe you are a finer buyer. If you know the value of my item. please bid my item. I have many other wonderful collect items on ebay. Please view my other items. If you have any question please tell me. If you are Asian antiques collector, please do not miss so better chance to get it. Enjoying your bidding!!!

It is brand new and has nothing to do with bone or rosewood. It is cast from resin and the box is made of whatever wood painted red. If you happened to buy it, you would still smell the fresh paint when it reaches you. The same is true about all these Chinese sets with "leather boxes". They all are the crappiest crap right from Crapville, CR. Period.

The sellers are con men. They charge $0.99 for the item and $125 or so for shipping. They refuse to compensate shipping costs if you want to return the item.

Rule of the thumb #1: If you see 3 identical antique items listed in the same time by different dealers, the chances are great that they are crap. If there are more identical items, they are almost certainly crap. We will discuss some exceptions below. Stay tuned. The Chinese items in question are simultaneously listed by 10 or more sellers most of the time.

Rule of the thumb #2: Never ever buy anything from anybody who seems to charge the price as shipping cost. This is the practice of con men.

2. DO NOT BUY CHINESE JADE CRAP

Sometimes Chinese crap is listed in a more respective manner. It still remains crap. Take a look at the following pictures.





The description reads:

Vintage Chess Board and Pieces. Handcarved wood, brass hardware, marble and onyx tiles, dark and light green quartz jade playing pieces. Two drawers, one on each side to store the pieces, there are bands in the drawers to hold each in place but this game is in such pristine condition that it still has the styro foam holders that the pieces originally came in. It folds up and can be carried like a case.

It has nothing to do with Jade. Real Jade is harder than steel and expensive. These pieces are made of soapstone at best. They might be cast from resin or some composite material (grounded stone mixed with resin or whatever). The board is probably not of wood but plastic. If it is of wood indeed, it is not hand carved. It might have been made yesterday. They make them all the time in great numbers. The set is not as bad as the first one but still outright crap.

Ty Kroll recently bought a faux Jade set better than this one (the set is older and the board is finer) for $20. That was a fair price in my opinion.

Rule of the thumb #3: eBay is full of "carved" stone pieces. If you are lucky, they are made of soapstone. Most of them are made of composite materials. These might look and feel quite like real stones but hot needle test will reveal their true nature. Be aware of composite materials.

3. DO NOT BUY OTHER MODERN CRAP

Lots of modern crap is offered at eBay. I cannot even attempt to cover the riches of this field here but let us examine one more example.



The description reads:

This is a superb and a rare antique 32 piece chess set. This is such an interesting set and we believe something quite special. We are told that it may well date as early as 18th century. These are large chess pieces and we think they are plaster but not absolutely certain. The pieces have been painted more than once it appears although we don't believe they have been recently painted at all. The figures are animals and all are presented in period dress. The pieces are quite beautifully modelled. The king lion has superb detail to face and costume. The bear wears a monk's cowl. Another bear piece has a monkey clinging to his back. There are various chips, nibbles, nicks. Some just nicks to paint. Some pieces missing an ear etc but overall damage given age is minimal and quite age commensurate and there is no damage which detracts from this amazing set. Largest piece measures some 7.6" height and smallest piece is some 4.5" height. This is a very interesting and a highly collectable chess set which is very decorative.

A plaster set from the 18th century, eh? The pattern is known as "Reynard the Fox" and if it was really made in the 18th century, it would have been carved from bone or ivory or wood and cost many thousands of dollars. However, it is a modern set made of resin and very crudely painted black and white. You can buy an identical resin set from here for example: http://www.shopping-emporium.co.uk/chess/reynard.htm . Please note that the last link points to trustworthy merchants who do not lie to their customers and do not try to sell their goods as fake antique.

I do not want to say that these sets are crap if new. They are sold for $175 in natural resin colour and more than $500 if hand painted. But the crudely painted example above is miserable crap.

4. DO NOT BUY MODERN IVORY

EBay is also full of modern ivory sets. They might not be outright crap but are clearly inferior to antique ivory sets. There are two reasons to avoid modern ivory:

1) Ivory poachers with AK47 rifles have brought the elephants to the edge of extinction. Occasional witnesses have good chances to get a bullet, too. It happened to George Adamson for instance. PLEASE do not support this bloody business.

2) The quality of most modern ivory sets is not comparable to antique ivory sets. The master carvers of today use mammoth ivory, not elephant ivory (mammoths are extinct for 3000 years or so and therefore not endangered by ivory hunters).



This is a Chinese chess set, probably made in Hong Kong after 1950. It is post-1947 set (E.U. and U.K. allow import of antique ivory dating prior to June 1947) and the carving of the pieces is nothing to be proud of. There are plenty of these offered in eBay and I for example do not consider them collectable. I am truly sorry for the enormous quantities of material utterly wasted on these sets.



This is another example of a modern ivory set. It is a typical Indian set and might be made of ivory or camel bone.

Rule of the thumb #4: The fact that an item is made of ivory does not mean that it cannot be crap. Ivory is one of the best materials to make chess sets from but even the best material demands good skills to get a good product. Never buy an ivory product which appears to be less than 60 years old!

5. BE AWARE OF MODERN INDIAN SETS

EBay is also full of modern Indian sets with antique look and feel. They might be quite good but are made in large quantities and therefore are not collectable in my opinion. You can see a good selection of modern Indian sets at Beekay's store . Please note that I do not think that these sets are crap and I have no issues with Beekay's business practices. But many modern overdecorated Indian sets are offered as genuine antique by other sellers. Buy them if you like them but do not expect them to be anything but modern.

The last picture of Advice #4 is of another modern Indian set which was offered as 19th century antique made by some Indian prince.

6. LEARN THE 3 LATEST CHESS DESIGN PATTERNS

1) Regency Pattern


These sets were fairly common from the 16th Century to the 2nd half of the 20th Century. The pattern itself has a proud history and the good examples are highly sought after and cost thousands of dollars. However, eBay is full of low-end Regency sets made in the 20th or late 19th Century. Even if some of them are antique, they tend to be rude, not collectable and bad to play with. Do not waste your time to crap like the example on the picture above.

2) St. George Pattern

This pattern was very popular in England from around 1800 to the First World War, possibly later. Plenty of these sets were made and there is still a steady flow of them. Most of St. George sets offered at eBay are low-end. The set above is genuine antique but rather low end, too. Let us take a closer look at the Knight.


As you see, it is rather rudely cut (I would not call it carving). This is a typical low-end St. George Knight. I bought the set for £30, did not like it and sold it for the same amount. Do not ever buy such set for more.

The best St. George sets cost thousands of dollars.

3) Staunton Pattern
The Staunton Pattern was introduced by the famous firm of J. Jaques in 1849. This is the most common pattern in use and is the FIDE official standard. Millions of Staunton pattern sets have been made in more than 150 years and every chessplayer has used them. The pattern varies greatly.

The most collectable Staunton pattern sets were made by Jaques of London in the 19th century. They are good quality sets, very well carved and the best examples cost lots of money. A very rare club-sized ivory set was recently sold for around 40 000 dollars in the auction of the collection of late Dr. Cholet at Christie's.

Many eBay vendors claim to sell sets of "Jaques pattern", of "Jaques quality", "unsigned Jaques", "with Jaques crown" etc. These are weasel words. 99% of these sets have nothing to do with Jaques even if they are antique.

There is no such thing as Jaques pattern. The pattern was named after famous chessplayer and columnist Howard Staunton who strongly advocated the design in the middle of the 19th Century.

High quality sets comparable to Jaques exist. For example, British Chess Company (BCC) made some very good sets in the 19th and early 20th centuries. But they are still considerably cheaper than comparable Jaques sets. Buy them if you want but not for the same price as Jaques.

Jaques signed Staunton sets White King and later both Kings with stamp around the base. The sets were housed in boxes with labels. If you are offered a wooden Staunton set without any signatures then it most probably has nothing to do with Jaques.

Jaques introduced the convention to mark Kingside Knights and Rooks with small red crowns on their tops. Other manufacturers adopted it fast. Such crowns do not indicate manufacturer.

Non-Jaques Staunton sets by good makers (BCC, Whitty, Crays or others) might be perfectly collectable but be aware that there is a large quantity of low end Staunton sets in the market. A 2nd rate Staunton set is next to worthless even if antique.

Some words should be said about Staunton sets in bone. There are very few (really very, very few, most probably less than 10) bone Jaques Staunton sets in the world but you will most probably never see one of these. Do not trust people who offer you bone sets and claim them to be made by Jaques. Take good pictures of the set and send them to the expert.

However, there are many good Staunton sets made of bone by other makers. They might be perfectly collectable and cost hundreds of dollars.


A good quality antique Staunton pattern set in bone.

A very common set encountered at eBay looks like this:

It comes from the 1st part of 20th Century (1920s or 1930s or so). Sometimes 3-4 are listed simultaneously. Buy it if you like it, it is not crap. But do not expect it to be anything special. These sets are sometimes listed as "Victorian". That is not true. They are always made of bone, never ivory. The most ridiculous claim I have seen about them dates one to the 18th Century.

Rule of the thumb #5: If you want to have a lower end antique set of a common pattern, do not buy a set which has ANY damage, however marginal. You will find a set in excellent condition sooner or later (probably sooner).

7. BE PARANOID

Buying chess sets by pictures is a risky business. You will want to have a set with minimal damage and know about possible replacements before bidding. Please note that in many cases, the pieces are assembled from smaller parts and these single parts might be replaced as well.

Let us have a look at the following pictures:





It is an interesting 19th or early 20th Century bone Selenus pattern chess set with carved faces. It would cost thousands of dollars in excellent condition. How many faults can you find from the pictures?

It seems to be that at least 5 pieces are replacements. They include 4 Rooks (if all Rooks are from the same stock which they are) and the White Queen. The Rooks come from some English chess set, of completely different pattern. The White Queen is a more complicated issue. Take a close look at it and compare it to other pieces.

You will notice that it has a different base, it's collar is less pierced and it's finial is substantially different from it's Red counterpart.

The stems of the Knights miss decorative ribbon which other major pieces have but I do not know if this is a sign of a replacement or not in this case.

Now, let us take a closer look at these faces.



If all the faces seem to be carved by the same hand then a question arises: how on Earth did they get onto different bodies? The answer is simple: they are glued in. The glue is clearly visible in both pictures of White pieces. This still does not resolve the problem of different crowns of White and Red Queen but is interesting to know.

Now ask yourself a question. Do you want to buy a set with at least 5 major replacement pieces and very suspicious traces of repair on others? If yes, how much money would you spend on it? I considered bidding $100. It sold for more than $1000. I really hope that the buyer knew what he was doing.

Many sellers do not describe all possible faults or replacements in their listings. Some are unable to find them by themselves, some just try to make more money and fool the buyers. Do not hope that you can always send the set back and ask for a refund if you find some hidden faults while examining the set in flesh. In many cases the seller will ignore you. But if you find yourself in such a situation, you should still make as much noise as you can. File a PayPal complaint (the deadline is 50 days from the date of the deal), leave negative feedback and let the Chess Collector's group know about your bad experience.

Rule of the thumb #6: Be as paranoid as you can. Assume that every item has some hidden faults and try to find them. Do not hesitate to ask additional images. Do not hesitate to ask stupid questions like "How do you know it is ivory?", "What makes you believe that the set is antique?", "Is the set complete?", "How experienced with antique chess sets was the person who told you that the set came from the 18th Century? Do you guarantee his words?" and most importantly "Do you guarantee that all pieces belong to the same set from the beginning?" A composite chess set is like a teared up block of stamps. Replacements from other sets mean a considerable loss in value. Sometimes it is a good idea to ask for an image of undersides of the pieces.

Rule of the thumb #7: Be double paranoid with Jaques Staunton pieces! As they were manufactured industrially, many composite sets exist. In the same time, discovering them is harder and sometimes outright impossible from the images.

One more of the sets pictured above has a replacement piece. I do not tell which it is. Try to find it.

8. BE AWARE OF OBJECTS OFFERED AS CHESS PIECES

Good quality single pieces might also be very collectable. For example, a good condition Wedgewood Flaxman major piece might cost well more than 1000 dollars and George Tinworth pieces cost even more. However, a really wide range of objects is offered as chess pieces. Some sellers just do not know what they are selling (it happens in the other way round, too) and sometimes even specialists make mistakes here.

Some of these objects are:

1) Netsuke figures (a small number of chess sets in "Netsuke style" exist but Netsuke traditionally come in pairs). BTW, most of the ivory Netsuke in the market is made of post-ban ivory. You might try to assemble a chess set from Netsuke figures (it could be kind of fun) but PLEASE use only pre-ban ivory Netsuke.

2) Okimono figures (often come in pairs but that's all, they do not come from sets of 32 pieces).

3) Single pieces in the "John Company" style like this:

The trouble with these pieces is that there is no evidence that they ever belonged to chess sets. They were most probably produced as decorative objects by the same school of craftsmen. The piece above is a very fine one and I am happy to own it but it is not a chess piece. However, they are often listed as chess pieces at eBay. The real John Company chess pieces come with round bases.

4) Many single pieces from all parts of the World resemble chess pieces. I will offer two more examples, one from India and the other one from Dieppe. Neither of them is a chess piece.


These very fine figures come from around 1600 and resemble chess pieces closely. However, they are both single pieces (the bases differ) and most probably just decorative busts.

5) Spillikins were most probably never made to play chess with but chess sets have been assembled from them. Sand or cushions are used as chess boards.

6) According to Alan Dewey, so-called Turkish pieces pictured in the Mackett-Beeson's book were never chess pieces (and that's why no complete sets have survived). However, chess sets have been made in the same style in the later period. One great example belongs to the collection of Jon Crumiller.

7) Decorative objects like in the following two pictures are not chess pieces. They were used to keep needles, hat pins or whatever. But they are not chess pieces.


8) Pieces like this are sometimes listed as 17th century Dutch chess Pawns. Nobody has ever seen other pieces than Pawns as far as I know. I think that they might be weights for small scales or pieces for some other game. But there is not enough information to tell it for sure. Sellers sometimes list them as blacks and whites, leaving the "white" pieces uncleaned from patina. This is ridiculous, of course.

9) And last but not least - the weirdest claim I have ever seen. The object below was listed as a 14th Century chess piece.



Yes, you are right. It is dog poo.