- Mexican Bone Pulpit Set -
I acquired an excellent example of the Mexican bone pulpit set in a lucky eBay deal. All of these sets are made from cattle bone or plastic. This one is bone. Don't let anyone tell you these are ivory. People try to sell these as ivory all too often. The reason for the confusion may have to do with the age of the bone. This is not 100 year old bone. It is not 'flecking' badly. Older bone will show tell-tail dots and dashes, little dark spots in the grain all in the same direction. This is something to look for, but one should not assume anything is ivory if it's not full of flecks. Instead one should look for Schreger lines, cross-hatching in the grain (see my ivory French bishop for a good example of Schreger lines in ivory) and assume a set is bone until proven ivory. In this set it's easy to tell because the pieces are hollow, which indicates bone, and because the material has chipped on the sides of the knight heads in particular; ivory does not chip this way but cracks cleanly. Anyway, sets in this design were never made from ivory. This set is painted with black bases and tips. Sets like this were also made with one side painted completely black, or less commonly red. To me, the rough carving of the bone lends these sets a Macabre Spanish 'Day of the Dead' feel. Happy Halloween if it's that time of year. Here are the pictures:
Mexican bone set.
Ghost-white knight.
Lost city of bone?
Black queen and bishop.
Pawns are represented as fists clenching daggers.
White knight and rook. The carved reigns on the knights are typical of Mexican sets.
A position from the Frankenstein-Dracula line of the Vienna Game chess opening.
Presentation shot.
The bones! The bones!