Mourne Studios - Lewis Chessmen

I am eager to add Lewis chessmen to my collection. A desire driven by fond childhood memories.
As a young man, I remember these pieces on display in the home of a family member and they were captivating; the detail and expressions on the faces of the pieces lingers.
There are so many variants of these pieces. I sometimes get confused and frustrated by the choice of suppliers, materials, size and other options available.
In recent times, my search led me to Ireland and Mourne Studios. Mourne’s owner is Adam Hourican.
Since introducing myself and enquiring about his reproductions, Adam has been an absolute delight - passionate, knowledgable and humble. He’s juggling life and work like so many small business owners do.
Through the course of discussions - I have been able to bring my brother along for the ride and he too wants a set now.
We are currently finalising colours. I will most likely choose a bone and red colour-way: my brother is still deciding.
Suffice to say - colours aside - I believe the design and detail of the pieces that we purchase will be true to the originals - reflecting variations in the pawns, royals and other pieces.
I know figural and non-wooden pieces can divide opinion and to that end, I know the limitations of what I am purchasing. For me, these pieces are mainly for display but playable in the context of a slow and steady game over a drink of choice.
The aquisition of this set is a bit of a journey for me and I thought it might be interesting for some to come along for the ride.
In terms of my first steps - albeit I am still finalising aspects of an order - I feel in safe hands with Adam as we work through the details. Hopefully I have something by Christmas.
For those interested, here’s a recent interview with Adam - albeit about a Narnia set not so much the Lewis chessmen. Albeit, he discussed the Lewis chessmen and they make an appearance around the 28 minute mark.

Mourne Studios Podcast

Anyway … let’s see where this road goes.

I can't say the metallic finish grabs me, but combining pieces from the Scottish and BM is an attractive idea. Are they cast or printed?

I’m with you Greg, I can’t say that I’m a fan of the metallic finish either - nor the rose boards. I need, I recently sold a similar board that I had acquired. That said - each to their own - I am excited by the idea of bone and red colour pieces but I can imagine that would turn other’s off too.
Here’s a link to the style of pieces that I am attracted too: MS Etsy Store

I believe the pieces are cast from moulds created from laser scanned copies - but it’s a question that I can check to confirm.

i like them a lot more.

I have been obsessed with the Lewis Chessmen forever also. I recently went to Scotland and the part I was the most excited about was seeing the pieces at the National Museum of Scotland. My wife and I both bought one big thing while we were out there, mine was the set from the museum. The only board that I currently have that's big enough for the set is my silicon roll up board, so now I'm on the hunt for a really nice wooden board for this set. Good luck on your journey to acquire a set.

Congrats PBK - that’s a lovely set and even better that you’ll always attribute the set to the visit to the museum. 👍

Very interesting set! Actually,a somewhat classic design as I've seen repros of this all over Manhattan when I worked there in the 1970's and early 80's.

The above set looks amazing and I am sure your set,Powder,will be superb....How could it not be,with your keen eyes and outstanding taste.

I haven’t counted lately but I reckon it’s about the 20 Knights of Lockdown now and maybe 15 vintage boards … but I’m already down sizing. I’ve sold numerous boards and pieces too.

Here's another photo for MCH818. My son took this photo in the British Museum earlier this year.

These are my, newly aquired, Lewis chessmen.

Hi Greg and all, out of interest - I asked about casting and here is Adam’s response:

"I made the molds myself. Both the Scottish and London museums sell a small amount of laser scanned reproductions which I bought individually from them….

A small number of berserkers came from a collector in Canada and the others I bought over a number of years from various sellers online. For pieces like that I make my own molds …..What I do is water down the latex and hand paint the 1st 3 or 4 coats with the thinner mix on so that all of the details are captured and the imprint of the piece is exact.

My masters are the original pieces and are made from resin and as such the molds don’t experience the shrinkage that comes with 3rd or 4th generation molds made from castings.

Also the act of hand painting is much less uniform than dipping which results in a stronger and more flexible mold as the latex dries in accordance with the brush strokes creating a kind of textured mesh that better supports the piece while retaining its flexibility.”

…..

Please note again - I have not yet purchased my pieces but Adam’s knowledge and simply taking the time to respond gives an anxious buyer like me great confidence.

Looking closely, the piece heights are a bit non-uniform, whether thats the original piece heights or the heights of the reprodutions, its a bit hard to tell; the original pieces are all different sizes in any case.

That might have something to do with the fact that the original pieces aren´t a set...

Yes, that is my understanding, some of the pieces are slightly non-uniform in size and there are different variants of the pieces. In my (perhaps odd) sense of taste - that’s what is exciting/ingesting about this reproduction - I think the pieces will be faithful to the Lewis style; the set is of the style per se and each piece is obvious in what it is - so it is playable - and yet it will be a different and beautifully odd display set. 👌🤞

I never claimed they were

oh i entirely agree

That you didn´t and neither did I claim that you did. I just made a factual observation.

I´d like a set with scaled down berserks as pawns.