Recently on e-bay I purchased a flawed set with this honest description:-
Vintage Wooden Chess Set
King height approx. 3.5 inches
some damage
one of the black pawns looks like a replacement
It was being sold to raise funds for Cornwall hospice care, and thankfully no attribution to Calvert was made, since by making such a claim then the prices can be unnessarely steep. What I cannot work out is why these not rare English pattern sets unstamped on all occasions that I can recall is why on earth they are attributed to Calvert ?
Being frank, I don’t believe a word of it. If there is a tiny grain of truth to this nonsense then Dorothy Calvert must have been breeding carvers & turners like rabbits. A careful study of the knight carving and piece profiles will no doubt gather sceptics in their droves as the penny drops.
A fine-looking set being sold by Tim Millard on his antique chessshop.com offers a serious question to this LOB (load of bollocks) claim which needs to be scrutinised. No fair minded collectors will be overly critical of the term style or when describing a genuine antique set, since makers copied each other.
The trumpet style kings knops seem to have some merit if one is to believe (which I don’t!), but by look of things add a few dollars and the descriptions can persuade collectors of GRIM tales as they emptied their wallets forking out their hard-earned cash for these very mis-described sets.
Should any highly respected researchers offer proper proven evidence then I will of course humbly offer an apology to other hurt parties on this website due to me disputing these highly dubious claims!
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