Soapstone St. George

- Anglo-Chinese Soapstone Set -

I acquired what I believe to be a 19th or 20th century Chinese Export soapstone set in the St. George or Old English design. It is made to look like 19th century English Ivory sets from that period only in stone. I've seen three sets similar to this one now; this is one of the two finest, so I'm guessing its fairly early. To my eye the carving on this set is every bit as fine as the best English sets in this style, but these sets don't seem to attract much attention from collectors, even as they show up less frequently than the English ivory sets they imitate. This probably has more to do with a dislike of soapstone than anything, as anglo-chinese ivory sets are generally sought-after. Soapstone is no more common a material than the wood that makes up a lot of the high end collector sets. Go figure. Personally, I like this set a great deal. Floyd Sarisohn (Long Island Chess Museum) has a similar set and tells me the design is quite early and with no way to date the steatite (soapstone) these sets could be of "any vintage in the last 200 years." If you have any information about this kind of set I'd love to hear it; shoot me an email. When this set arrived there were a few broken pieces. Diane Caron repaired it masterfully creating the top of one queen from nothing. I don't remember which one; her repair is that amazing. I bet she'd have filled in every chip if I'd sent the whole set. Kings 4-1/8".

Soapstone St. George Set

One side tinted red like an English ivory set.
At first I thought it clashed with the brown in this marble board, but the combination has grown on me.

Red King

Queen

Bishop

Knights

Rooks

Pawns

The chessmen came in a wooden box (not pictured and not good for the set; soapstone is brittle and needs padding,) along with a set of soapstone checkers.
I don't actually remember how to play checkers... hope I set the board up correctly.