Most of my Chess sets are antique of the English Kind or vintage , which have taken on a deep rich honey tan , On the box wood side , Which I really like , No fake sun tan like modern sets made to look old , As others have pointed out wood just ages , My only dislike is when Padauk wood turns from that bright red to that muddy brown , As i really like the redness of the wood . 
Effects of aging on wood pieces
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Feb 27, 2023
0
#23
Pawnerai wrote:
Yes. Slight darkening is normal with time (years). There was a forum posting here about a member who contacted Noj for some replacement Dubrovnik pieces. As expected, the white maple pieces did not match. The new pieces were off by about 1 lighter shade. Noj said this was normal with aging and suggested to leave the new lighter color pieces out 24/7 for them to accelerate aging and catch up to the other pieces.
On a separate example, I had a new unfinished unstained custom oak stairs banister installed. The unfinished wood was very light. I asked the installer if I should stain it so the wood isn't so stark. He said to just finish it with a few coats of poly and let it age naturally. In time, it will darken a few shades. Sure enough, it darkened naturally over a few years to nice light golden color.
Interestingly with the recent purchase of a few NOJ sets @OptimusBlunders and I saw the difference in the new NOJ light pieces vs the NOJ 3 year old Minceta that @OptimusBlunders sold. The new and old brown stained maple pieces were indistinguishable by sight and I could only really tell them apart by weight (Newer set was DGT enabled and slightly lighter). I would say overall I'm pleased with the aging of all of my sets from the darkening of my Padauk sets to the slightly lighting of my ebonized sets where the pieces are grabed the most, plus everything in between.
@KineticPawn
I dug around and found the original thread by @zagryan I was referencing. It's worth a read if you missed it. The eye-candy photos alone makes it worthwhile if you're into NOJ Dubrovnik 1950 Walnuts. Hah!
@zagryan doesn't comment much anymore, but his post (below) is a classic and worthy to be bookmarked 
https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-equipment/noj-1950-minceta
Feb 27, 2023
0
#25
Pawnerai wrote:
@KineticPawn
I dug around and found the original thread by @zagryan I was referencing. It's worth a read if you missed it. The eye-candy photos alone makes it worthwhile if you're into NOJ Dubrovnik 1950 Walnuts. Hah!
@zagryan doesn't comment much anymore, but his post (below) is a classic and worthy to be bookmarked
https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-equipment/noj-1950-minceta
I've seen and played with some beautiful 😍 NOJ walnut sets. One of them was an unweighted NOJ GM Pavasovic owned by @QtoQlevel3 and a DGT enabled BCE owned by @OptimusBlunders. @QtoQlevel3 might have had another walnut NOJ but I don't remember because he had literally about a dozen NOJ sets but I do remember playing with the GM Pavasovic. Also here are some pics comparing a 3 year old NOJ to a new NOJ. From left to right: New White Knight, 3yr old White knight, new brown stain knight, 3yr old brown stain knight.
I like it , when the maple wood turns into that honey brown photo from DubroMan .
Boxwood gets rusty with age due to damp, heat and cold conditions. Once the orange, brownish and yellowish spots appear on boxwood there is nothing that clean them away as the spots are inside wood. However, I do have many boxwood chess sets which look still as good as new although I bought them over 15 years ago.