Chess Sets

Elizabeth · Post by **Elizabeth** » Tue December 28th, 2010, 1:57 am

I found images of the most wonderful old chess set in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, dating from the mid-16th century, which I shamelessly stole and put into the possession of Duke Alfonso II d'Este of Ferrara. The detail of the pieces is remarkable... the king, queen, knights and bishops are all on horseback and in sixteenth-century costume. They all have unique personalities; one of the rooks is a monkey riding on the back of a man, using a wooden spoon to, er, castigate him.

There is a chess scene toward the end of the book, and I think these unique pieces added a lot to it.

Here's a link to the picture. Click the little magnifying glass with the "+" to see it full size. It's far too big to post here.

Chess Set Rijksmuseum

Michy · Post by **Michy** » Tue December 28th, 2010, 4:23 am

[quote=""Divia""]I remember when I was a kid in the 80s they would always have a commercial for the "civil war chess set

This thread reminded me of that.

[/quote]Oh, that sounds very cool. And how about a Revolutionary War chess set? The Americans could include Washington, Franklin, Lafayette, Ethan Allen, Paul Revere. The Brits could include King George, Cornwallis, and oh, yeah, Benedict Arnold.

I'm sure someone somewhere has already made one......

Ash · Post by **Ash** » Tue December 28th, 2010, 4:35 am

http://www.amazon.com/Revolutionary-War ... 781&sr=8-1

I always thought it would be cool to get a Robin Hood one

http://www.google.com/products/catalog? ... CQQ8wIwAA#

Michy · Post by **Michy** » Tue December 28th, 2010, 6:12 am

I especially like the colors of the Robin Hood one. And did you see there's a WWII one also? That one would be neat, except you could never actually play with it because who would ever want to be stuck being Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, et. al.?!

Ash · Post by **Ash** » Tue December 28th, 2010, 8:30 am

[quote=""Elizabeth""]I found images of the most wonderful old chess set in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, dating from the mid-16th century, which I shamelessly stole and put into the possession of Duke Alfonso II d'Este of Ferrara. The detail of the pieces is remarkable... the king, queen, knights and bishops are all on horseback and in sixteenth-century costume. They all have unique personalities; one of the rooks is a monkey riding on the back of a man, using a wooden spoon to, er, castigate him.

Chess Set Rijksmuseum[/quote]

Oh my those are wonderful! The carvings remind me of some of the miserichords we saw in some catherdrals. Just charming!

LoveHistory · Post by **LoveHistory** » Tue December 28th, 2010, 4:36 pm

I'm sure I saw a Lord of the Rings chess set somewhere.

Ash · Post by **Ash** » Tue December 28th, 2010, 11:31 pm

Goggle is an amazing invention:

http://www.wbshop.com/The-Lord-of-the-R ... lt,pd.html

LoveHistory · Post by **LoveHistory** » Wed December 29th, 2010, 3:05 am

Yep. That would be it.

rockygirl · Post by **rockygirl** » Fri December 31st, 2010, 11:54 am

Thanks for providing the close ups of the Roman vs. German one. It's obvious the designer did a lot of research to make the pieces authentic replicas.

What other chess sets do you have in your collection?

ejays17 · Post by **ejays17** » Sat January 1st, 2011, 12:45 am

They're mostly in storage at the moment - when I first moved in with SLOC, it was a small 2-bedroom unit, and there just wasn't enough room.

Anyway, from memory:

* Roman Vs Ancient Briton
* Dr Who (the first one)
* Star Wars x2 (one from the original trilogy, one from the new one)
* Lord of the Rings x2 (they did releases for the 3 movies, with different characters)
* Buffy the Vampire Slayer (this one I'm not happy with, it's a cheap-looking plastic one, and some of the pieces aren't well-painted)

And there's also a "plain" one, in that it's not a themed set, the pieces look like the ones you get in an average set from a toy shop.