Recommendations wanted: Isle of Lewis set for 2.5" board

Hi all,

I have a chess table with 2.5" (6.3mm) squares. That's not, unfortunately, FIDE standard and picking sets to go with it can be interesting.

Has anyone a recommendation for an Isle of Lewis set which would suit a board with squares of that size? I prefer pieces not to be too crowded which helps. I'd like a set with red pieces, which probably doesn't.

All advice gratefully received.

Unfortunately too $$ count, but I'd rather nothing than a set I don't like.

Cheers!

I want to get an Isle of Lewis replica set just to look closely at the carving.

In the public forums, there are some topics by very knowledgeable chess set collectors. They are the guys to talk to.

Well, you'll never get any free stuff if that's what your reviews are going to sound like.

Thanks Jamie. I hoped someone might chime in here.

@bishod, thanks and I'm aware of the arguments pro and con. Quite likely they were not chess pieces, but they're interesting, I like the look of them and am considering purchasing a set regardless of what game they were originally created for.

Before I order and pay shipping to Australia I'd like a little more confidence than I currently have about how the sizes (pieces and chess table) would suit each other. It's not as if I don't have a couple of chess sets I can use for serious games or analysis.

The topic of Lewis game pieces will come up again and someone will post photographs, and if they don't say what size any board(s) pictured are I will ask.

For a wood chess table, the composite stone some sets use I expect or perhaps wood. Not plastic.

Just saw this Isles of Lewis pieces blog today (Sep 4); Did some quick Internet scans, including eBay; Found several: Isles of Lewis chess piece sets for sale, that were Red (1 was Pinkish) and Cream(?) color, made from either 'Stone' resin (and in one case 'Oak' or 'Mahogony'(?) resin), that is NOT carved real stone (or wood), but made from molded casts with resin 'materials'.

   They stated: K= 3 1/2 inch high, 'suitable' (designed?) for a board with 2 1/4 inch squares. One set (I think) said: includes 2 extra Queens; There were both some with the 'plainer' hexagonal(?) or octagonal(?) pawns (as opposed to the more figure like Lewis pawns.

   BTW: Does 'composite' stone equate to cast 'stone' resin?

   I didn't write down all of it, as I can go back to that IF this is inline with what you are looking for  

I believe the composite stone is the same as the ground up plus resin "cast" stone.

Thanks for the information; I believe I've found similar before.

What I am really curious to see is what the pieces look like on a board. Many chess "sets" as sold crowd the pieces to a ridiculous degree, so something "designed" for 2.25" might suit better on 2.5". But if they're really designed for 2.25" they might look too small. Photographs would help!

Oh -- never trust colour on eBay photographs. Virtually nobody will know to correct the colour balance of their images, not all browsers respect colour spaces, and few monitors (including mine at the moment) have been calibrated.

Sometime photographer here, but the device I had to calibrate my screens was orphaned after one company took over another, and I've not been doing enough photography to justify buying another.

Correcting a few points: 1st (yours)- 2.5" squares = 6.35 cm squares (=63.5 mm), OK?

  2nd: Most of what I looked up were NOT eBay related, but were commercial chess vendors of various types, SO think those would have more trustworthy photos, since it's their website and most showed pieces on a chessboard (not by themselves); Believe for ones that gave 'K' height= 3 1/2" (tallest I saw 'stated', also saw K=3" and 1(?) K=3 1/4").

  3rd: I focused on 'sets of pieces' not chess sets (in fact some vendors 'cautioned': No board included), since you said you had a chess table.

  Now, since you posted: Stone 'composite' (cast resin that results in stone like final appearance) is OK (would presume that would apply also to Wood 'composite' also, since one vendor stated: 'Rosewood' (cast) for their set (I tried to find ANY red and whitish (or off white: cream, ivory color, etc.)); Think I might be able to 'guesstimate' base width of K, from photos that show pieces in toto.

  Can NOW do more refined scan of maybe suitables (will ignore eBays' since I would presume commercial vendors more reliable both to 'reality' of descriptons AND photo accuracy to boot. Final question: Do you have a 'final' price range (means includes shipping, if that shown for Australia) that I can use to whittle down 'the list' to ones that might work for you, that is: I can record particulars (on notepad with pen (old school way)), to then post here for your then able to look yourself on Internet to my refers? Or at least you'd get an email address if 'they' don't appear on your Aussie Internet pages.

@SatBchManager very kind of you to spend so much time. Thanks.

2.5" is 63mm, yes. If I said or implied otherwise I was definitely wrong!

I can hunt further, and will "sometime". My initial post here was in the hope that someone had one of the known sets and would post with their impressions regarding board size perhaps with their own photographs.

There being no urgency at all I think I should discourage you from looking on my behalf. Of course if you have other reasons for looking, I remain interested. Probably the most straightforward way for me to proceed is simply to contact some sellers and ask about measurements.

Price I'd not really decided in any firm fashion, but the British Museum set is $$$ but this looks better:

https://www.chesshouse.com/collections/isle-of-lewis-chess-pieces/products/the-red-isle-of-lewis-antiqued-chessmen  (particularly while on sale).

The king base is said there to be 1.5" which at 60% is a bit small, but being more square than round it might be OK ... or maybe happier on a 2.25" board.

Which comes back to waiting for someone who actually has a set like this posting their impressions being the best way to judge!

I don't, in general, have a problem seeing things from Australia and at least once used a USA based forwarder to buy something ... I think Adobe were charging so much extra (twice the USA price, if I recall correctly) for some software that it was cheaper to order physical CDs and pay someone to buy them with a USA credit card and then ship them. Of course all I really needed was the code to active the silly software as I'd already downloaded the "evaluation" version. Which was of course newer than the CDs as it had fixes included. Silly people.

One day I shall locate an Isle of Lewis set I'm sure. They're discussed here now and then and one enthusiastic reviewer showing pieces on a couple of different boards is all I need.

Cheers, and thanks again.

Isle of Lewis pieces from Oggtheclever on Etsy.com.  Squares are 2.5 inch.  King is 3.5" high, similar to many other Lewis sets on the market.  I think its the perfect size board for these pieces.

Don't know how to rotate picture in the post,  So I have 2 copies of the picture, ore right side up, and one upside down, and when I attach either one, they both post upside down!!! Its a mystery.  

Some cameras include orientation data in image meta-data.

Thanks for the pointer; those pieces looks like a nice match for the board size.

Here's the picture right-way-up (fingers crossed!):

(I use OS X, and copied the picture, opened it in Preview, flipped it vertically and exported it as a PGN file. Saving it as a JPEG file would probably also have done the trick after flipping it. Windows ... I don't know what built-in tools would do the same thing. Something, probably.)

You lost me at the: OS X..., pic opened REAL slow on my PC/Windows7, BUT it was right side up AND the color tones look real good to me! Those size pieces 'just look right' for those squares, given we know they are Isle of Lewis theme and I like the red/off white color contrast.

Sure was nice of forked_again to post on orig 14 month/last 11 month ago thread.

Skelos thanks for fixing my picture!

More pictures now that I can post them right way up!  

Used MS Paint to flip it then unflip it.  Did the trick.  

Thanks, @forked_again!