The Mulready Experiment by Charles Oppenheim (chess collector)

This very important piece of research offers genuine documentary evidence re the dating of the upright pattern or ‘Edinburgh men’ as Hallett titled the chess pieces for sale on his envelopes. There is not enough reference to the date of 1840 to my liking to be honest, and I would not be surprised if somehow somebody who visited the Edinburgh Chess Club pre-1840 and memorised the design (a Lord Hay?????) and perhaps got a London maker to recreate the sets as the quality of the surviving Edinburgh men simply does not match that of top London makers. A special thank you to the Edinburgh Chess Club for allowing me to peruse their library, surviving chess sets and collection of books and  magazines when myself and fellow CCI member, Peter Armit, visited a few years ago.