Stained, ebonised, painted … wooden chess pieces that are not their natural colour

Here’s a new thread to celebrate and discuss - (politely one hopes) - wooden chess pieces that have been treated such that they are not their natural colour. Here’s a start from me. 
For what it’s worth, I probably like pieces showing their wood tone and grain in their natural glory best … for example the Kamagong of my Phillipines pieces, or the smoothness and density (and sometimes slight colouration) of ebony.
That said, rules are meant to be broken and below - the Chavets and the Dubrovnik are amongst my most favourite pieces in my collection. Enjoy (or not!). 😆

Being a rather old musician, i can tell you there is a good percentage of buyers purchasing new "distressed" or artificially "vintaged" guitars. If you've always wanted that '50s Telecaster but don't have a spare $7,000 to $150k, you can buy one from Fender's Custom Shop for $4k or $5k. My point is simply that there is a market for artificially aged or antiqued products. It's true that not all of us care for them, but some of us do and pay good money for them. "To each his or her own."

Yeah, and I have a friend that paid almost $2000 to distress his front door (not including the cost of the door itself). I thought he was crazy when he told me about it...until I saw it.

I probably should not have lit this fuse …🤦‍♂️… go easy all.

Here is the wear on the green chavets … I think it is important for people to know that if they are buying a stained/painted set … it is more likely to show wear and tear in future and you would want to be comfortable with that and if not, don’t buy them. New or old. Or just buy them for now and know that their character is going to change for better or worse depending on what you like. 
Value is whole other subjective beast and I rarely purchase a chess set as an investment asset - rather a hobby that I enjoy for now; I imagine my kids will just gift whatever sets I have to the local opp shop when I drop off the perch.

My late father never took any pictures when he bought his ebonized set. That was about when I was born (1958). They must have looked fantastic then... Anyway this is how they look now.

The original Soviet Carbolite set was made of some kind of resin material. This replica set is made of boxwood and laquered to imitate the finish of the original pieces. Looks fantastic!

So many ways to collect chess pieces.. But to walk by commonplace ebony and boxwood pieces without a word is a bit like no longer turning pages in books by Tarrasch, Nimzowitsch or Capablanca.

I would like to see a monochrome (or diachrome) collection a lot (especially if they are not for display only but can be used). It would bring to the fore the differences in design, I guess.

And I enjoyed the game of my smurfs against powder's Mexicans, as well. Both incidences of real chess for me: We are playing a historical game that is free to exploration with new forms. -And even new rules. Personally, I am happy as can be with the rules of the main variant. But I wouldn't mind seeing more different sets in use (and tournament use) than the descendants of the Staunton set just everywhere.

I will try to take photos of a couple of sets later (but before the light goes away) to contribute something on-topic

Another laquered wooden set.

One of my oldest sets., a properly unweighted, well balanced, one. The King´s finial has taken some damage (as has that of the white king) but the "ebonization" is intact on all pieces. The lighter pieces look antique or rather their age.

I like beautifully aged, with or without battle scars, things and people.. A well used but properly cared for chess set can, even with the paint worn thin in places, be both more beautiful and more interesting than a shiny brand new one.

 DesperateKingWalk wrote: And is that a two piece queen?

Yup. The top is fitted in and, I guess, glued to stay in place. Has worked so far...

I would graciously call someone who tried jokes beyond taste or pretended I had no friends a clown, too- were it not for that the name I was given came from a medieval jester. Dog fight or not, an apology were due, Yenster

You will be aware the French call the bishop 'fou'. To take chess seriously, you cannot take it too seriously (in my opinion). So, when Powder and I played our Mexican paper mache vs. 70ies German Schlümpfe (made following the Belgian comic) game on the collectors play collectors photo correspondence thread, it was done with all respect for the game. It was a bit like blindfold for the imaginatively impaired, but it was hard staring at positions and it was simply chess. I fully recommend playing the odd game with unusual sets, it makes you more aware of where what piece is

On topic I want to add a photo I just made of a few pieces from four sets.

The cracked laquer and broken ears displaying light wood under the black paint go with the caballos de la muerte that give their face to the Spanish set on the top left. The red on the Danish Knubbel is trademark, I wouldn't want to miss the glow of the small German set, or could the wear on the Latvian Mordovian horse look any better. So, all that we'd miss if we only had sets the natural colour of the woods.

Nice pictures, Herman!

Then you missed the one in #104.

Nah, this is the second part...

@ungewichtet hmmm, I count 7 times being called a 'clown' before I made that joke. And have you seen his other rants against other people? I'll show you if you've missed them. I'm pretty sure I'm not the common denominator in these dogfights. It's DesparateHopAlong that needs to apologize to a lot of people. Regarding 'beyond taste', just curious if you've seen his turd trophy.