STAMPED WITH THE MARK OF CHRISTIAN BAUR, AUGSBURG, 1735

Elaborately carved chesspieces and richly inlaid boards such as the set offered here were among the ultimate symbols of opulence in 18th century German court life. Carved for display as much as they were for use; the sides of this board represent a European king and queen opposing a tribal king and queen carrying bows and arrows. Each side is supported by different characters including merchants as bishops, knights as dancing youths, elephants bearing turrets and rock hurlers as rooks and a rabble of peasants as pawns. There can be no doubt that the present artist found much inspiration for these playful caricatures from the much admired genre figures of artists such as Simon Troger (1683-1768) and Johann Christoph Ludwig Lücke (1703-1780, see Theuerkauff, op. cit., pp. 267- 273 and 220-1 respectively). In this case, these figures are complemented by the addition of an imposing and sculptural board inlaid with exotic, and hence expensive, materials - incised mother-of-pearl and thinly veneered tortoiseshell.

The silver and silver-gilt bases to each of the figures are stamped with the mark of the Augsburg silversmith Christian Baur who also created a virtually identical chessboard and pieces in the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich (see Seling loc. cit.).