Mammoth Ivory and Ebony Chess Set. Staunton.

The white figures are made of mammoth bone. In order to avoid painting the figures black, the manufacturer decided to use an equally luxurious material for the black figures - ebony in its natural and organic form.

This is a unique, single specimen.

Ebony is a dense, black-brown hardwood that comes from several species of the genus Diospyros. This wood is used to make chess pieces because of its strength, fine texture, and mirror shine when polished. It is noteworthy that ebony sinks in water due to its high density. Ebony is considered a precious and one of the most expensive types of wood in the world

Piece sizes:

King: Height - 10.3 cm Base diameter - 5 cm

Pawn: Height - 5 cm Base diameter - 3.5 cm

Knight: Height - 6 cm Base diameter - 4 cm

Rook: Height - 5.7 cm Base diameter - 4 cm

Bishop: Height - 6.6 cm Base diameter - 4 cm

Queen: Height - 8.5 cm Base diameter - 4 cm

Board size: 52.5x52.5x11 cm

Playing field size - 46x46 cm

Playing cell size - 5.5 cm

Transport case size: 63x59x14 cm

This chess set represents the first model of the Staunton design of 1849.

Staunton is a standard design of chess pieces created in the mid-19th century by Nathaniel Cooke. This design of chess received its name in honor of the famous English chess player Howard Staunton, who lived in the 19th century. The FIDE organization recommends Staunton chess for competitions held under its auspices. Until the mid-19th century, each country in Europe where chess tournaments were held had its own traditional standards of chess piece designs (Barleycorn, Calver, Selenus, St. George, Lund, Regence, etc.), which, undoubtedly, was very inconvenient during international competitions. Nathaniel Cooke registered the Staunton chess on March 1, 1849, however, in the same year, the rights to this design of chess passed to John Jaques, who was the brother of Nathaniel Cooke's wife and owned the company John Jaques of London, which specialized in the manufacture and sale of sports equipment. The first set of chess designed by Staunton appeared on sale on September 8, 1849. At the same time, the famous periodical "The Illustrated London News" published an advertising article, which indicated that Howard Staunton himself was one of the creators of this remarkable design of chess pieces.

There is a version that the article was written by the famous chess player, since he subsequently actively contributed to the promotion of this chess set on the market. Under the cover of the chessboards of the first Staynton sets, there was a facsimile signature of Howard Staunton, and one of his books was included with the set as an advertisement for free. However, there is an assumption that the real author of the Staunton design is John Jaques, and Cook only registered it in his name and subsequently involved Howard Staunton in promoting the chess on the market. In 1940, the German air force bombed the factory of John Jaques of London. Historical sketches and drawings of the Staunton chess pieces burned in the fire. The first Staunton chess sets were carved from ivory or hardwood (such as boxwood). Later, they began to be made from mammoth tusk and various valuable wood species, such as wenge, ebony, boxwood, etc.

ART P30