Antique chess set. The question.

Hello,

I wanna buy a new chess set and I just found really interesting and good looking one. But I'm not really good on meassuring the prices dor those things.

Do you think it's worth to get?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/251310113432?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1558.l2649

There is a reason most chess sets are made of wood.  Other materials like metal, glass, or stone feel "cold" to the touch and most players simply prefer the feel of wood.  If you were buying it for display,  then that is a different story, but for actual use I'd say bad call.  Also most of these aren't really stone, but stone dust mixed with epoxy; tha's not necessarily a bad thing but many owners have an inflated sense of their worth thinking they're really hand carved stone.  Just because something looks old doesn't mean it is.  Folks are real good at making brand new "antiques".

Sorry to sound so negative, but you asked for an opinion and I gave it. 

I guess it all depends on the purpose it will serve in your life. For me, I wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole, as we say here in America. For me to be interested, it has to be Staunton, number one, because I am going to be playing on any set I have. I don't want to sit and wonder in the middle of the game what my piece is sitting on e5. It should be made of wood or plastic, number two, as either of those sets will be durable, and I won't be too worried if a piece falls to the floor. It should be triple weighted, number three, so that if my opponent and I are playing blitz, or one of us is in time trouble, moving the pieces rapidly won't topple the piece or other pieces around it over because our hand bumped into them, or sat them down quickly, trying to get the clock to stop. With all that being said, if you like the set, and are planning on putting it on a shelf for people to look at, not to be played much, then of course it's worth it.

You should buy it if you think it's worth the price to you. I can say with certainty it is not worth anything as a collector's set. It is not an antique. Also as has been said before it doesn't seem to be of much practical value apart from dispaly. That said if you like the look of it it could be a great display piece. In my mind that's the only reason to buy it, though, if you personally want it.

I personally like stone and metal chess sets unlike a poster above. I have an onxy one myself. They do have the issue that being knocked over can break them, especially if they have small details (My set is from when I was younger and we had cats. They loved to knock over the pieces and the little plus like symbols on the tops of both kings have long been broken off and lost).

Although I haven't looked at a lot of stone chess sets in my days I can't say I've seen one that was epoxy and stone dust vs real stone. There are a lot of countries where the labor is cheap enough to crank out stone pieces by hand to not need to cut those types of corners (I guess the easiest clue would be seeing several of the same sets with all slightly different cuts on the pieces instead of them all being 100% identical).

So it is really up to you on what looks, feels you like or if you just want it for show.

I agree mostly with a few exceptions since we all think the stone ones are not antiques. I like the feel of bone the best-Couldn't afford a staunton ivory so it's as close as I could get. My bone set looks better than when I bought it as it stains well and a little white or black sharpie marker followed by some coats of renaissance a couple days later made my day. My second choice is of course a older wood set. 15 to 20 years ago HOS was putting out some pretty nice boxwood and ebony stauntons. The ebony was of higher quality than it is today. I would guess it somewhere between AA & AAA real black. Again, renaissance sure brings them back to life. Mine has of course, as many older ebony sets do, have a few cracks here and there cause I live in a very dry state, but I like my little cracks as it gives them character ;). Attached a couple pics for fun cause who doesn't like looking at other folks sets.....

Both of those look like excellent practical choices for play, Robb_Chess. As far as antique sets it is usually possible to get an antique bone Staunton set for possibly even less than you paid for your new bone set, though the carving won't be so sharp... ie: http://www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-ORIGINAL-ANTIQUE-VICTORIAN-CARVED-STAINED-COW-BONE-CHESS-SET-IN-WOOD-BOX-/181185205554?pt=UK_Toys_Games_Games&hash=item2a2f7ad532 is an above average looking one, a genuine antique, and it might go cheap. The Kings are missing their finials but that can be rememidied.

I have two antique Stauntons in bone:

http://www.tykroll.com/chess/bs2.html This one resembles Jaques but obviously there's no way it's Jaques.

http://www.tykroll.com/chess/bstaunton.html This one has a bit more of a unique "character."

Also one of my best sets is this 19th century Staunton made from vegetable ivory: http://www.tykroll.com/chess/tstaunton.html

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To answer a more a general question about antique chess sets, if someone might be interested in getting into collecting antique sets here are a few good "starter" examples from my collection and elsewhere... those Stauntons above are all low-mid level collector sets... something a few steps up would be like a Jaques set which would cost many time more and I have yet to take that "plunge" in my collecting. Actually I do have a few Jaques pieces I should photograph at some point but not a complete set.

Of course you can collect more modern Stauntons but even HOS's highest end sets may not hold their value as heirlooms... that has yet to be seen. The sure thing about those sets is they're practical; if they have collector value in the long run that's a plus.

(What I mean here is not just collecting what you like. You can do that too obviously, but the original question was about whether the set was "worth" the money. All of the sets I'm going to talk about here are fairly affardable and in my mind "worth it."

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An English Barleycorn set is a good/important starter set: http://www.tykroll.com/chess/bcorn.html ... The "anonymous" chess collector has written up a wonderful article about them here: http://anonymouschesscollector.blogspot.com/2007/11/barleycorn-sets.html

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An English St. George is another good one:

http://www.tykroll.com/chess/ebsg.html is a fairly good St. George/Old English set of mine. Not a bad one, not a great one.

http://www.tykroll.com/chess/ebonizesg.html is the bare starter St. George, mass-produced, probably early 20th century. You can see especially the knight heads are simpler, boxier... (In my mind this set is not "worth it.") An even finer set will have even finer knight heads than my set above.

http://www.tykroll.com/chess/ivorytravel.html is probably my best S.G. but it's hard to compare ivory to wood and travel to regular size.

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French Régence:

This is the common 20th century Regence set very often peddaled as antique on eBay: http://www.tykroll.com/chess/boxwoodregence.html You can get this set cheap, today, and in my mind they have no collector value, (not worth it.)

Here is an example of a better, actually antique 19th century French Regence set: http://www.tykroll.com/chess/antiqueregence.html Notice the smaller finials, and general sleeker, more elegant profile of each piece.

(I should mention the carved horn Regence sets from Vietnam: http://www.tykroll.com/chess/hornregence.html I think they're lovely but I have to say I don't think they hold their value. I wouldn't pay more than $100 for one with the board these days.)

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Here's a fine Selenus set of mine: http://www.tykroll.com/chess/boneselenus.html There don't really seem to be many cheaper, lower-end versions of this important kind of set, but it might still be possible to get a deal on eBay if you're patient, want this kind of set, and don't want to pay much.

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Indian sets:

This set might be worth something: http://www.tykroll.com/chess/jaipur.html

These is sets *really* not: http://www.tykroll.com/chess/smallrajasthan.html http://www.tykroll.com/chess/ebonyraj.html and especially not http://www.tykroll.com/chess/paintedraj.html

All of those sets are 20th century and they're flashy but they don't really hold their value, some, especially the painted ones, are brand new tourist junk. (All over eBay and everywhere and definately not worth it.)

Examples of similar sets from the 19th century which are serious collector sets do exist, but you're not likely to see one on eBay for less than a grand so I don't think they're worth mentioning here... pretty much, stay away.

(http://www.tykroll.com/chess/delhi.html is also a good serious Indian set, but also higher end. If you see one of these cheap it's certainly worth going for, but you're not likely to see one of them cheap.)

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Also as much as I love Mexican bone sets ( http://www.tykroll.com/chess/redbone.html ) I have to say they don't hold their value. If you're after good collector sets stay away.

Also I have to advize to avoid Moro sets... I like them. I am very happy with the one I have, but I can't say they're "worth it."

Of course even better advice is ignore all this advice and if you want to buy a chess set buy the one you love... but if I'd said that to begin with I wouldn't have gotten to show off any of my chess sets.

I just remembered another Anonymous Chess Collector Blog post which may be apt here: http://anonymouschesscollector.blogspot.com/2007/06/advise-to-novice-ebayers.html which is more or less what I just tried to say but better written and more negative and severe. (The anonymous collector's answer to your first question happens to be the first thing he says as the top of this blog post, but that's not the whole story; you can still buy sets with no collecting value if you like them.)

I can play with practically any set without any strange feeling about the pieces, which is rather uncommon ; so I cannot tell you much about the playability of the pieces.

But the thing looks overpriced to me. For the €120 / £90 that this one is going to cost you, you can have a more practical and/or durable one. Last time I went to a chess shop in Paris, which was two years ago so prices might have changed, a set similar to the one my father bought 15 years ago (which is in perfectly good shape) was around €100 (wood, heavy pieces, board + piece box, no fancy pieces or engravings). As people have said, this is probably worth zilch as a collector piece, so why pay the extra of the 'antique' set if you intend to play with it ?

WOW TM-Very Cool ! Excellent :)

your bone selenus set is just gorgeous Ty. And your 'first' bone staunton c. 1880, too. I'd love to play a game with either of those. 

What's a Moro set?

They're from the Philipines. They are pretty cool, IMO, but I don't feel they hold their value as collectors' items even though they are mentioned in a lot of chess collector books.

I have one here: http://www.tykroll.com/chess/moro.html It's not a great example, though.

A Google search will reveal some better sets among the first few results: https://www.google.com/search?q=moro+chess+set&safe=off&client=firefox-a&hs=ry2&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=nMRmUoqXE8GyyAGc7oC4Aw&ved=0CAkQ_AUoAQ&biw=1170&bih=706

I don't think I've ever seen two of them with knights exactly alike.

oh wow, thanks! I wonder why my google search didn't come up with an answer. Must have been an internet glitch here. I love those knights! They're like butterfly wings. Gorgeous. 

Thanks for the kind words about my sets. I wasn't assuming you didn't Google first or anything like that. I just know my Moro set is not top notch and posting the Google search was faster than finding a couple better ones and posting those individually.

I know :)