It didn't come with a board, by the way, so I photographed it on the same board I used for my Staunton set.
So where was it made? When I posted the pictures in a few chess collectors groups on Facebook, the suggestions coming back were Russian, Latvian, Central American, African, and the Philippines ... In other words, it caused a bit of confusion!
Anyone any ideas?
I'm not much of a chess collector, but I looked at it carefully. The pieces are clearly hand-turned by an amateur. If I had to guess, it was over a period of time, because of the wide variation in the pawns. It could have been made anywhere. I made a copy of a 19th C. Persian set in Texas. That's why I print a description of what I've done and box it with every set I turn.
ReplyDeleteThanks for that! The variation in the pawns hadn't really registered with me, but now that you mention it, it's glaringly obvious!
DeleteI zoomed in on the photos. You can see the nubs on the tops of the pieces where they were (poorly) parted off, and it looks like the tops of the knights were turned integrally with the base, then carved away, possibly with a rotary tool. With a nub like that, they were either turned with the top toward the headstock of the lathe, or several pieces were turned from one piece of wood, which became shorter as each piece was parted off. Seeing the botyom could be interesting also.
DeleteThanks for those thoughts! I'll try and get some pics of the undersides of the pieces.
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