This beautiful ivory chess set has a king size of 82 mm, one side is natural, the other side stained in red. The really outstanding pieces are the knights, which are carved with an unusual depth of detail. This can be seen, among other things, in the mane, which is characterised by numerous, individually sculpted curls and even goes so far that the mouth is not only wide open and the individual teeth are visible, but even the veins running along the bridge of the nose are carved out.

It took me years to find out the maker of this set and only after I found this wooden set of similar design stamped with a maker's mark, I was finally able to attribute it to the workshop of J. G. Gärtner in Dresden, Germany. So far, I only know of one more specimen of this particular set, which belongs to a collector in South Africa.