Introduction
Chess arrived in Europe in the 8th C through the Arab invasions of Spain. It spread rapidly and within 200 years it is known throughout Western Europe. Surviving chess men, paintings of chess players and illustrations in books on chess provide evidence to show that the style of chess men has, over the past eight hundred years been far from consistent. The development of chess men is marked as much by evolutionary development as by stark innovation, the need to display wealth or the need to create a chess set without it. From the late 15th C there appeared a wide variety of chess sets each evolving along different lines, taking with them some characteristics of earlier sets and leaving others. We present here four chess sets, each typical of their period, but by no means representing the only chess sets in use in their time.
Chess - Islamic style pieces
With notable exceptions chess pieces of the medieval period up until the 15th C were based upon the Islamic style pieces that represent elements of the Indian army. Though the names of the pieces varied the style was more or less consistent, most especially for the bishop and the knight, representing respectively the elephants and horses in the army. The rook is represented by a stylised chariot, a form which persists in one way or another into the 16th C. The forms of the king and queen varied, especially toward the end of the 14th and into the 15th C. Those presented here are more typical of the 11th to the 14th C.
The rules of Chess are similar to modern chess however there are a number of very important rule differences:
- The queen can only move one space at a time and only diagonally
- The bishop can only move three squares at a time diagonally
- Pawns can only move one square forwards on their first move
- Pawns can only be queened if the original queen from that side has been taken and only one queen on each side is allowed on the board at one time
- The rules of En Passant and Castling have not yet been introduced
Other than these differences the rules are as they appear today. Strategy is clearly different with the rook and the knight being the main fighting forces on each side.
The squares on chess boards up until the late 15th C appear to have been painted a variety of colours often with a different coloured border. After this point there is a remarkable consistency of black and white squares and a plain wooden border. Chess tended to be played in the medieval period with a dark square on the far right as the player faces the board.
Chessmen, painted red and white - £95
Wooden chess boards, various colours (14 inches sq)- £95
Leather chess board £15
Early Tudor Chess - the Publicius chess Set
An illustration of this chess set was published in Publicius' Ars oratoria in 1482. It has much in common with the Chessmen, the two prongs of the bishop representing the tusks of the elephant and form of the symbolic chariot of the rook.
The asymmetrical form of the knight represents the feather in the side of the knight's helmet. Several other chess sets of the early tudor period have characteristics in common with this set. Medieval rules still apply. Most illustrations of chess from the late medieval period onwards show boards with black and white squares and plain wooden borders.
Publicius chessmen - £105
Chess board (16.5 inches sq) - £95
Leather chess board £20
Late Tudor to Late 17th C 'early Selenius'
Gustav Selenius published an illustration of this chess set in 1616 in Das Schach. All the elements of this chess set are however found in sets from the mid 16th C .
The King and Queen with tiered crowns are seen in a number of paintings from the mid Tudor period and the use of the horses head to represent the knight and the castle turret to represent the rook are also known from the early to mid 16th C . The Selenius style evolves through the 17th and 18th C into one of the most elegant and ornate chess sets of the later period typified by tall slender and pedestalled forms. Modern chess rules apply.
Selinius chessmen - £180
Chess board (16.5 inches sq) - 95
Leather chess board £20
Late 17th C to Late 18th C
This is a chess set typical of the late 17th C and up until the end of the 18th C. It is a set that would have been cheaper to produce than other more ornate sets and those with carved horses heads representing the knights.
The asymmetrical form of the knight here has its origins in sets such as the Publicius set above. The bishop having the form of the mitre has its origins in the early 1600 though only becomes popular in the latter part of the century.
Late 17th C to Late 18th C chess men £105
Chess board (14 inches sq) - £95
Leather chess board £15