When I started playing chess back in 1965, I fondly remember playing with a small boxwood set in our school library. then the following Christmas my mother gave me a set made in eastern Europe with a varnished finish, with a glossy shine on the lightish board. then tragedy struck. our dog SEAL decided to have a snack of two pawns with Islamic knops, god I could have killed the dog ” health warning don’t leave chess pieces on a board when the greedy canines are sniffing about.then my mother purchased another far less desirable set from the same area, and apart from the board being too small , which was a killer for me.don’t risk eating smoked salmon or chicken when playing chess as I have yet to see a cat chewing chessmen.
For this set I would have strangled 36 chickens for to get it back then, although being small weighted king 6.5 cms tall, as I believe it to be made by Ayres in the late early 20th century., it came with no original box , & the well known collectables shop in Ruthaven lane in Glasgow’s west end called RELICS is a great hunting ground for picking up assorted items including boxes.plus the Ruthaven antique centre very close by is a fantastic place for the opportunist shopper with a good keen eye for a bargain. hence my box problem sorted !!!. being very extra polite & friendly sure helps.
this lovely little set far out shines my old weighted Jaques Broadbent set my personal opinion, and the use of the term heavily weighted is used far too loosely by some sellers,
the rooks & knights on this set are unstamped, but since F H Ayres supplied chess items for re sale , so many of their surviving sets are unstamped, it is best to
let the quality of the set decide when considering a purchase
for my liking as for the most part Jaques and BCC CHESSMEN can be described as heavily weighted.
the so called AYRES DEBATE IS A PILE OF RUBBISH!!!!, plus no researchers have come out of the cave to offer proper evidence that the claim is incorrect.
if the guilettine still existed for non believers I would surely risk being be beheaded, as I am so confident that the research done from 2007-2010, was sound with no monetary aims intended, simply a small group of collectors who had a keen interest in these underrated sets as they were at the time back then.
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