A lovely Italian chess board made by Fratelli Guzzini with buffalo horn inlays and dating to the 1990s. Guzzini is a well known Italian producer of household goods. Guzzini was founded in 1912 by Enrico Guzzini. He was born in 1863 in Recanati, which is located in the Macerata province in Italy and which is until today the seat of the Guzzini enterprise. At the age of 43, in 1906, Enrico Guzzini left the country for Argentina to reunite with his brother Guiseppe, who had left Italy after the bankruptcy of his workshop, in which he made briar pipes. Guiseppe had emigrated to Buenos Aires some months earlier to open up a new workshop, where he made bone snuffboxes in addition to wooden pipes. When Enrico followed him, he left his wife and his three sons Pierino, Mariano and Silvio in Recanati, supporting them with money from abroad. His eldest son Uberto had emigrated to Buenos Aires as well to learn the craft of working horn, which was a material widely used in Recanati since the first half of the 19th century. In 1911, Enrico Guzzini went back to Recanati, where in 1912 he opened up a workshop to manufacture smoking articles, some of which he made himself, while a friend supplied him with others including his first pieces of horn. His second son Pierino joined the company in the mid-1920s, who had worked in the pipe factory of a cousin, who also traded in goods made of horn. Pierino persuaded his father to extend their range of horn products to include household goods like shoehorns and salad cutlery. The business prospered, in particular when inexpensive materials, such as earlier forms of plastic including galalith, became available and made it possible to reduce production costs. Enrico Guzzini dies in 1948, but he had been entrusting the operational business to his sons already in the 1930s. By that time, Pierino had already been in the company for a while. He was followed by his brother Mariano and in 1938 by his brother Silvio. Accordingly, the company name was first changed to P.M. Guzzini, then into P.M.S. Guzzini and in 1940 into Fratelli Guzzini, which has been kept as the company's name until today. In the late 1930s acrylic glass entered the market and over time, in particular in the 1960s, developed into another interesting material for the production of household goods. Since these were very modern materials, the Guzzini brothers started cooperating with well known designers, one of which must have been responsible for the development of the board shown here.

The board was made in the 1990s, when horn products no longer played a role in the Guzzini enterprise. But it was likely a reminder of the roots of the business which had started almost a century earlier with the very material so typical for the Recanati region. The board itself is made of a wooden base plate covered with horn inlays. In addition, the entire board is covered with a rather thick acrylic glass layer, which unfortunately is broken and comes off in several places. The overall condition of the board is nevertheless good. The material makes the board not only a very rare type, but provides also for a beautiful impression, in particular when used in combination with horn chessmen, such as the ones shown on the pictures from the first half of the 20th century.