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I made my first chess pieces for an exhibition entitled "Chess by Craftsmen" at Windjammer Crafts in Salcombe, Devon in 1982. In that particular exhibition I only made the chess set pieces - no chess board. I delivered the chess pieces to George Mullins who was the Producer for the Jimmy Young Show at BBC Radio 2 and George said he'd had a chessboard made from etched and polished glass.
I went on to make various chess sets with boards ranging from about 30cm square to more extravagant 60cm square chessboards - with the chess pieces proportionally larger. I also made some sets that included draughts (as the same board is used) which were sold via the Best of British gallery in Windsor. The chess set featured below was commissioned in 1983 by Graham Gould whose wife Margaret then owned the Mid Cornwall Galleries at Biscovey, near Par, Cornwall (the gallery is now run by their daughter Helen Gould).
The chess pieces are in gilding metal with inlays of mother of pearl and ebony and the chess board is in gilding metal with alternating ebony squares and ebony and mother of pearl inlay to edge. Board dimensions (approx) 60cm by 60cm by 1.5cm deep. The tallest piece (the King) is about 15cm high. A chess set and board of this nature but in sterling silver would cost from about £18,000 dependent on type and amount of inlays.
The solitaire set (below) featured in the Goldsmiths' Hall's Hallmark Silver Selection Touring Exhibitions of 1989 - this touring exhibition represented some of the best work of the top 50 designer silversmiths of the time. The picture is a scanned in image from the Hallmark Silver Selection 1989 Catalogue. The piece was for sale at £1,375 and measured (approx) 25cm square with a depth of 1cm. It was made from sterling silver with inlays of black-lip oyster shell with ebony inlays to edge of board. The counters are sterling silver with inlays of black-lip oyster. The piece is in a private collection. A comparable but not similar piece today would cost from around £2,400.
Other board games I have made or been commissioned to make include Chinese Checkers, Tic-Tac-Toe or Noughts and Crosses, and Dominoes - but photographs of those remain elusive!
