1850 Staunton Replica Chess Set
(50050 / 50070)
A
limited edition, unique collectors set to treasure for life and to hand
down through the generations. These chessmen are a recreation of the design
produced by John Jaques between 1850 and 1851 and are carved from fine
boxwood and jet-black ebony.
Each piece is very heavily weighted and cushioned with rich English leather in the original Jaques tradition. The white King is marked 'Jaques London' and the King's rook and King's Knight bear the mark of a crown on their summits. The King's cross finial is accurately detailed and can be easily removed. Each set comes with four queens.
From the graceful angular Bishop's headpiece with it's distinctive wide-open cut to the exquisite hand-crafted two-piece knight taken straight from the visage of the magnificent steeds gracing the Parthenon, this is one of Jaques finest ever creations.
The case is a work of art in it's own right. Made in England with fitted wooden trays, miniature brass lock and key, it is lined in green baize and naturally carries a replica of the original label that was signed by Howard Staunton.
This
extremely high quality replica of the original groundbreaking set comes
in 2 sizes (4 & 4.4 inch King - 100 & 110mm). The smaller set
was generally used for standard interclub matches while the larger size
was used for special occasions and high-end competitions (practice games
within a club would have been performed with 3.5 inch sets).
A limited edition of 250 sets of each size have been produced (50050 & 50070). Each set comes with a beautiful hand-made chess board made especially for this set. Board surround dimensions are 35 x 35 x 21mm and the board which is let into the surround is approx. 10mm thick.
Please note that the hand-made board is currently out of stock. If
you order the set now, Jaques will send you a 20" board to
use with the pieces and they will send the hand-made board to you once
it comes back into stock (later in the year).
Please click here for our rough guide to chess piece sizes to chequerboard square sizes.
Change to $  Change to  |
UK pounds (ex.VAT) |
Pounds (incl. VAT) |
Typical ETA in wkg days |
Add to basket |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1850 Staunton Chess Set with handmade board (50070, 4 inch King) |
£1738.26 | £1999.00 | 2 + transit time | ||
1850 Staunton Chess Set with handmade board (50050, 4½ inch King) |
£2607.83 | £2999.00 | 2 + transit time | ||
Spare Piece for Jaques 50050 Chess set (1850, 4.5 inch) |
£142.52 | £163.90 | 2 + transit time | ||
Spare Piece for Jaques 50070 Chess set (1850, 4 inch) |
£86.87 | £99.90 | 2 + transit time | ||
For an immediate quote and ETA, add to the basket & select your location. |
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The Origin of Chess
A great deal has been written about the origins of chess and there is still a lot of debate on the subject. The earliest clear ancestor of chess is shaturanga or chaturanga which was invented by a 6th century Indian philosopher. It was a battle between four armies each under the control of a Rajah (king), two players being loosely allied against the other two and and each containing 4 corps - Infantry, Cavalry, Elephants and Boatmen. The board of 64 squares used for shaturanga, was borrowed from an earlier game called ashtapada, which was a race game played in ancient India.
Under Hindu law, gambling became forbidden early on in the Hindu civilisation and, to avoid the gambling laws, shaturanga players dispensed with the dice. Another early modification was the merging of the allied armies into a single army making the game a two player form and duplicating the pieces, both developments which have survived until today. Other changes also occurred; and the resulting game was called shatranj.
There are three versions of the story of arrival of shatranj in Europe - did it come from the Saracens via Spain, from the Byzantine empire as a present to Charlemagne or was it brought back from the Middle East by Knights returning from the Crusades?. Nonetheless, in Europe, the game developed into modern European chess now played worldwide while in China, Japan, Burma, Thailand and Korea, other variants became just as popular.
You can learn more about the History of Chess from The Online Guide to Traditional Games.