American Chess Company set from Royal Chess Mall

Well, I've read some discussions on whether these are Llamas or rabbits, or could even be laughing horses, but whatever your impression, my first thoughts were Llamas, and happy ones at that...probably what draws me to this set most.

RCM calls this set a 1900's American Chess Company reproduction which does seem to replicate that smiling Llama quite well.

I can't say that I know much about the origins of this design. I've seen a few variations made by the American Chess Company, and read that a similar design was used during the 1904 Cambridge Springs tournament. But, honestly, I just wanted that somewhat humorous Llama, I mean, knight .

For me, this design is something different, and deviates a bit from most of my purchases. Apart from the Llama knight, the king doesn't have religious symbolism that's typical in most Staunton styled sets, and has a slight fleur-de-lis character.

And unlike nearly all of my sets, I got this set in ebony. One thing that I've noticed is that ebony seems to machine/turn very nicely. When comparing the quality of finished sets, boxwood always appeared to be smoother than their sheesham/rosewood counterparts. However, this ebony is very well machined with quality craftsmanship.

The ebony pieces are also heavier, by about 17%, over their boxwood counter parts. Total weight of my boxwood pieces are 679 grams, while the ebony pieces are 798 grams. RCM didn't list the exact species of ebony, but this does seem to indicate one of the denser varieties. Also (but could be my imagination) the ebony pieces seem cooler to the touch.

I've got a small home party/gig this Saturday (yeah, for real, the band actually got back together) and I'm anticipating some entertaining reactions to my new Llamas. Can't wait .

Really nice and unique looking set. Nothing wrong with the Knights. I like them, in this particular designed set. Totally cool.

Right magic, nothing wrong with the knights at all. They were humorous to me when I first saw them last year, and though not seen very often, I recall smiling every time we crossed paths. I have a similar reaction to some of the modern Knubbel repros that bear a facial resemblance. During my hunt for a crimson set, those Knubbel repos were a strong candidate. Ultimately, I went with this set to satisfy my Llama fixation (also more playable sizing than the Knubbel) and went with the Reykjavik crimson set to make me "♫ think all ♫ the world's a sunny ♫ day ♫ oh yeah ♫".

Knubbel is cute....Yours floats my boat way more.