This set was purchased from the likeable Glasgow Great Western Auctions way back in around 2007-2008. At the auction the bidding was heated, and by the skin of my teeth I scraped home. I was frustrated by the missing finials on the kings heads, so I decided to add a creation of my own – if I did this for a living I would starve! The set being precise has 3.5 inch kings excluding my addition, but having kept an eye on hundreds of the English pattern type sets, I have struggled to view a set that resembles this one. Declaring what I have done is rather important, and if owners of these scarce sets mess about with them it can cause a host of problems for future collectors, as even Dumbo would notice the king finals. The set is unstamped made of a quality wood. I don’t have a clue what type it is, but with far from common looking carved knights, which rule out Jaques or Calvert. No problem here, as it is a lovely set, which had no original box.
There are so many stamped sets out there in collections, that making wild and unfounded claims achieve nothing in most cases. The amazing variety of these type of sets makes it rather easy to buy one with replacement pieces but there is, in my opinion, an easy way to tackle this issue – start from the pawns, check the bases and work your way up, like I have done this on occasion. Poor photographs – unclear – make viewing for this issue far from easy, and getting replacements is difficult with patination matching – murder to say the least! The turning on the bases is not at all common for English pattern sets.
Recent Comments