- Anglo-Chinese Soapstone Set -
I acquired what I believe to be an early 20th century Chinese Export soapstone set heavily influenced by the St. George or 'Old English' design from a local antique store, one of the finest turned stone sets I have ever seen. Stone is often only roughly carved, especially in the 20th century. Note the thin turned disks on royal pieces; this is much finer turning than you normally see in stone (compare this to a Franco-Mexican Marble Set of similar size for instance.) I saw this set go by on eBay, found out the seller, James Sparks, was close to my location, and was able to purchase the set directly from him through Odana Antiques in Madison. My experience with James Sparks and Odana Antiques was excellent. I'd recommend dealing with them in the future. Floyd Sarisohn (Long Island Chess Museum) tells me the design is quite early and with no way to date the steatite (soapstone) this set could be of any vintage in the last 200 years. 1930s is the estimate James Sparks gave me, and from the ware on the stone, I don't doubt that could be an accurate date. I doubt very much this design really remained unchanged for 200 years and I imagine if I could see a few more of these sets it might be able to date this one with more than a guess. If you have any information about this set I'd love to hear it; shoot me an email. King 3".
An Anglo-Chinese Stone Chess Set
Marbled bishop and queen resemble English St. George Signatures.
Knights are represented as dragons. There's some irony here if this can be considered a St. George style set.
Black knight.
White castle.
Yin and Yang?
Black stone forces.
A presentation shot.
The dovetail box which came with the set is probably antique English and not original to the set. This is my nicest chess box showing real dovetail joints (see the taper) and not just square ones. I didn't noticed how nice the box was until I got the set home, a good surprise.