A GILT-BRONZE COMMEMORATIVE CHESS PIECE

BY CARLO AND ARTHUR GIULIANO

Details

A GILT-BRONZE COMMEMORATIVE CHESS PIECE
BY CARLO AND ARTHUR GIULIANO
Modelled as a rook, the top inset with a section of Trans-Atlantic telegraph wire, engraved 'CHESS MATCH BY CABLE BETWEEN HOUSE OF COMMONS, LONDON AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, WASHINGTON PLAYED OVER THE LINES OF THE ANGLO AMERICAN TELEGRAPH CO. LONDON AND WESTERN UNION TELEGRAPH CO, NEW YORK 1897' and 'CONTRACTORS THE TELEGRAPH CONSTRUCTION AND MAINTENANCE CO., LONDON', stamped 'C&AG'
3 in. (7.5 cm.) high
Together with a booklet entitled 'CABLE CHESS MATCH SOUVENIR', edited by W. H. Watts, published London 1926; and Geoffrey G. Munn, Castellani and Giuliano Revivalist Jewellers of the Nineteenth Century, published 1984

Literature

Hans & Barbara Holländer, Schach Partie Durch Zeiten und Welten, Museum Für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg, 2005, fig. 285, page 281.

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Lot Essay

This souvenir piece was designed to commemorate the first chess match played between the House of Commons in London and the House of Representatives in America in 1897. In 1860 Carlo Guiliano (1832-1895) the celebrated Italian jeweller of the Victorian era, whose early style of workmanship is closely associated with that of Castellani, came to London and established his own reputation through leading retailers. He set up his own workshop in 1861 and later an elegant retail business (1874), where he was patronised by Queen Victoria. This piece was made when Giuliano's sons, Carlo Joseph (b.1860) and Arthur Alphonse (b.1864) had taken control of the business. It continued to trade until 1914.

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