5 Beautiful and Extraordinary Chess Sets
The Game of Kings has frustrated and delighted players for centuries, and these editions underline its mystique
Chess has inspired great minds from Lewis Carroll to Vladimir Nabokov, but the sets themselves can be surfaces for creative expression beyond the bounds of the game. They can be jewel-encrusted, or they can be paragons of stylized simplicity. The various named pieces—king, queen, rook, bishop, knight and pawn—hold symbolic value for their roles in the game.
The most expensive chess set sold at auction once belonged to Czar Alexander II of Russia, which went for approximately $2.6 million at Christie’s London. That 1867 set was made of English silver, electroplated silver-gilt, ebony, ivory, and vibrant enamel. Other prized sets have been notable for their links to a specific owner or artist. For example, a set created by Man Ray went for over $200,000 at Sotheby’s against an estimate of $60,000—$80,000.
Here is a selection of five chess sets noteworthy for their stories, beauty, and value:
1. The Lewis Chessmen | The British Museum, London
Unearthed in 1831 in the Outer Hebrides, the Lewis chess set is one of the star pieces in the British Museum’s medieval collection. The walrus ivory set may have been carved in Norway around 1150 and has traveled far and wide, appearing in over 20 museum exhibitions. A replica set was used in the Harry Potter films. While the faces on the front are iconic, the intricate tendril-knotted designs on the back are worth a look, too.
2. Chanel Coco Game Capsule Collection
One of the highlights of this year’s Watches and Wonders was this Chanel chess set, featuring Gabrielle Coco Chanel as the diamond pavé queen. Pieces from the set can be converted into jewelry. The brilliantly sparkling ensemble has playful touches such as a lion for the king and dressmaker forms for the bishops.
3. Nishapur Chess Set | The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
These 12-century chess pieces look like they came off the shelves of a modern design concept store. Near the dawn of the game, a Sasanian workshop set a standard for austere style that is right at home next to the set that Man Ray designed for Marcel Duchamp. The almost-complete ensemble is one of the oldest in existence.
4. The Saint Louis Chessboard | The Louvre Paris
Royal provenance comes with a royal, perfectly French dash of nonchalant scandal: this gilt-silver and rock crystal Renaissance chess set belonged to Gabrielle d’Estrées, a mistress of Henri IV. The sides of the board contain an assembly of small wooden figures that play no role in the game other than to make this particular board lovelier. It passed between owners for centuries before entering the collection of the Louvre in 1946.
5. Josef Hartwig’s Bauhaus Chess Set
Bauhaus made its own contribution to the world of chess, and did so with wit: the knight is shaped like the letter “L,” the same shape that the knight piece makes on the chessboard. Versions of it are in the Met and MoMA, but reproductions can be purchased here.