This turned vintage Staunton Aluminium set was purchased months ago with a dreadful
oil based paint finish, however the set was offered on Ebay at a fair minded price and on reflection it was rather unusual. The necessary restoration project needed serious and time consuming effort to
save this scarce looking set from the skip, and the necessary work was rather challenging. My method was to use a paint remover, steel wool, elbow grease, and hard graft. Once finished I decided to use acrylic spray paint for a finish, and I found my
efforts rather satisfying. Saving lost causes is very enjoyable – it’s not about the money,
and once tried and finished one gets a picture of how when destroyed buildings are rescued from their past glories, and you can clearly see why. I could on reflection have called it my ‘leper’ set.
There seems to be a trend to describe obvious Staunton sets as ‘Staunton style’ , ‘type’ etc – complete nonsense that only muddies the waters. The knights’ heads I would describe as ‘French type’ as they appear on Regence, cheap St George, and of course Stauntons, the majority appearing on small sets for kids sold by K&C and a host of other brands like HBF, Housemartin, Abbey, Corinthian etc. Such sets have survived in large numbers and are easy to source for a modest cost. Many of these sets have ‘Made in France’ on the paper labels and are also stamped on the slide lid box underside.
With a 3.5 inch king, the pieces have great stability – great for blitz chess-, and the set was probably made in limited numbers.The set’s origin I simply don’t know, it’s best to admit this, but I don’t ever recall seeing such a set of this size in aluminium before hence my decision to salvage it. The purchase did not include its original box but no matter. Would I like to know who made it? Of course I would! The hard graft and elbow grease deployed in rescuing this has only increased my affection for this set so I simply don’t care about its possible value, and I hope this frank admission and sharing this tale enables any like-minded collector to appreciate my passion for this purchase and my efforts.
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