A NORTH EUROPEAN PAINTED CARVED FRUITWOOD BUST CHESS SET

PROBABLY FRENCH, SECOND HALF 18TH CENTURY

Details

A NORTH EUROPEAN PAINTED CARVED FRUITWOOD BUST CHESS SET
PROBABLY FRENCH, SECOND HALF 18TH CENTURY
Depicting the Europeans versus the Africans, the pawns with feather caps, re-freshed paintwork
The king -- 3½ in. (9 cm.) high; the pawn -- 3¼ in. (8.5 cm.) high

Provenance

Jean Maunoury Collection, Paris, France
David Hafler Collection, Philidelphia, USA
Purchased by present owner from South Bay Auctions, New York, 28 May 1990, lot 82.

Literature

Hans & Barbara Holländer, Schach Partie Durch Zeiten und Welten, Museum Für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg, 2005, fig. 118, page 153
Wilfried Seipel, Spielwelten der Kunst - Kuntskammerspiele, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Exhibition Catalogue, Wein, 1998, page 176, fig. 89.
Anthony Saidy and Norman Lessing, The World of Chess, Random House, New York, 1974, page 102, illustrated.

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Lot Essay

The origin of this set is discussed in the exhibition catalogue Schach Partie and related to the French colonial iconography of the second half of the 18th Century onwards. Many examples were carved in Dieppe incorporating North African figures and the bishop as the fou from this period and throughout the 19th Century to illustrate the two sides.

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