Some months ago I purchased this nice vintage inlaid chess board at a bargain price, perhaps because of some possible staining on the ivory looking inlaid squares. I phoned the seller, NIGED10A, to ask a few questions and his answers were encouraging, so I continued the hunt for this item. The huge risk when selling can be to overhype the item and leave buyers with a disappointed feeling when it arrives. Whoever made this charming item was no ‘cowboy’ craftsman. A lovely thing, and whatever the issue one might have with it, my best advice is to LWI (Live With It). A pleasant surprise, however, was finding some sets which might do this board justice of which I found four much to my delight. A well known CCI member suggested to me that this board might be. I had been thinking African, but his view was that it was perhaps too good to be of African origin (no offence meant to Africans, of course!) but Indian, which is a relief that the Brits kept cowboys out of India! The board weighs about 1.5 kilos, and has a square size of 2 x 2cms. Boards like this cutie may be underestimated, but they can give small sets a huge lift which in some cases make collecting such boards a delight regardless of their supposed value.
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