- Bone Staunton Set -
This is my first antique Staunton set, a mid to late 19th century set bone set. With 2.75" kings this is the sort of playing set that was often packaged as part of a games compendium. I acquired it from an eBay seller in an old beat up wooden box which may or may not be original. Even in the 19th century its common to see bone Staunton sets with relatively poorly carved knights. This is perhaps because Jaques, who took the world by storm with the Staunton design, preferred to work in ivory and wood making few if any sets from bone. It is not the case with this set which features what I feel are relatively high quality knights. Overall I'm quite pleased with this dip of my feet into antique Stauntons. As period bone Staunton sets go, I feel this is an excellent example.
Bone Staunton Set c. 1880
Red royalty survey.
Red queenside pieces.
White knight.
The bone king looks out on the distant field; his knight is a wolf, menacingly poised.
Red knights are equally menacing.
Kings. Tell-tail dots and dashes, a hundred year old haversian system, antique bone 'flecking' is apparent on all pieces, the easiest way to tell old bone from ivory. It's a mistake to assume anything that doesn't fleck like this is ivory, though; see some of my other bone sets.
Red and white queens.
Mitered bishops.
There's clearly some variation in the hand carved knights.
Rooks.
And bone pawns.
These knights are quite fine for a small set in bone, rivalling many a Jaques knight in quality.
Piece height was more or less standard at this time in though even Jaques knights sometimes ducked rooks. One explanation for this is the carving of the knight heads, done by master carvers, was done at a different time and place than the turning of the rooks. I would think height control would have been easily to enforceable even under those conditions, so perhaps it was just not an important issue at the time... with the incredibly distinct Staunton piece signatures, no one was likely to mistake their knight for their rook and a castle is taller than a horse in life, why not in chess?
Knight of blood, knight of fire.
Pearl steed.
The set with the box in which it arrived.