A beautifully turned and carved tournament chess set, the pieces made of boxwood and ebony. The king size is 97 mm (3.8"). All pieces are heavily weighted. The kings with long slender shafts topped with a leaf ornamented crown and a drop shaped finial in the opposite colour. The queens of similar shape but smaller, the crown with a ring of pearls and a small ball finial in the opposite colour. The bishops with a crown similar to the kings' crown, but smaller and with a pointed elipsoid inlay in the opposite colour instead of a mitre cut. The knights as elegantly carved horses with very detailed carving of the mane. The rooks as slender turrets with four crenellations. The pawns of slender, conical shape with a ball finial. All pieces on circular bases topped with leaf ornaments and (with the exception of the knights) with vertical indentations in the shafts.

I bought this chess set from a Russian seller, who claimed this to be of Russian origin. Taking a look at the carved ornaments, the particular type of crowns and the bishops' finials in opposite colour, I tend to the assumption that this set was rather made in Austria in the late 19th century. It is perhaps one of the most beautiful sets of this region which I saw so far.

When I received the set, the mouths of the black knights were broken off. I had them restored together with some cracks in the bases which presumably occured due to the heavy lead weights. Also, instead of an extra pair of queens, as is usual with today's chess sets, this one came with an additional pair of pawns, which makes me believe that two pawns were replaced. However, it is impossible to identify them, as all pawns seem to be of the same age and quality.