Fans of chess are likely to be among the bidders in Adam’s saleroom in St Stephen’s Green, Dublin, next Sunday, November 22nd. The “Fine Period Interiors” auction includes four versions of the board game. Lot 91 is an early 19th century English ivory chess set, one side stained red, the other left natural, estimated at €1,500-€2,000. Lot 93, by contrast, is a Spanish “white metal” set portraying the Conquistadors and Aztecs (€800-€1,200).
But the highlights are two Jacques Staunton sets. Jaques of London was a family company that was famous for its redesign of chess sets named after the renowned Victorian chess master and author Howard Staunton.
Kieran O’Boyle of Adam’s said “Jaques Staunton chess sets have been dubbed the Rolls Royce of chess sets and continue to be highly prized by collectors both for display and play”. Lot 95 is a “club size Jaques Staunton ivory chess set”, made in London in the late 1850s, in a blue velvet-lined Spanish mahogany casket with a pink Staunton label to the underside” estimated at €8,000-€10,000.
A much less expensive set, in wood not ivory, is Lot 94: “an early Jaques Staunton” version made with boxwood and ebony in a green felt-lined mahogany Staunton box estimated at €800-€1,200.
