Buy Wooden Chess Set, Staunton Chess Sets

Product Description

Wooden Chess Set Jaques of London has been instrumental in the development & success of modern chess. Chess pieces before the mid 19th century were of two kinds
- excessively elaborate & costly h&-carved reproductions of the Kings court, or rudely turned & daubed pieces in which rank was dictated by height alone. In the 1840s, this all changed. Nathaniel Cooke, proprietor of the Illustrated London News, brought John Jaques a new & elegant design for chessmen. Between the two of them, this initial design was polished to produce a set using symbols (for the king, a crown, for the bishop, a mitre) which could be easily recognised & reproduced. This radical design received rave reviews in the press, particulary for the exquisite design of the Knight, based on sculptures from the famous Elgin Marbles. Buying Chess Sets today. Mr Howard Staunton, the first British chess World Champion, was so taken with the design that he agreed to have his name & signature adorn every box of wooden chess set pieces. The Staunton chess set, as it became known, is now the de facto standard for play at all levels. Few companies can say they influenced the development of a game the way Jaques of London has shaped the world's favourite board game, chess. Carved from fine, ebonised boxwood by Jaques of London’s master craftsmen, this 3.25" original Staunton design chess set is lovingly presented in the sliding-lid style of box Jaques pioneered in 1855.