Prisoner-of-war carved bone chess set, French/English, circa 1810. This is a complete set of 32 chessmen, 16 stained red and 16 stained green. Each piece, save the knights and rooks, have figural heads or busts atop footed bases carved with crosshatch and circle designs. The detail of the heads and faces of each piece is excellent. All of the pieces sit on turned bone bases and have carved and pierced fine details. Knights and rooks have matched footed bases and the appropriate stylized horse head and castle turret. (SC 1320) Condition: The set is generally in good condition especially for something older than 200 years. Except for the knights all the pieces have small ball finals above the head and several are lacking. There are scattered losses to some of the edges of the various pieces.
Note: Having collected hundreds of POW items in the past 45 years I have seen only 1 other POW chess set which makes me think that POW chess sets are very rare.
Heights of the different types of pieces.
King 5 7/8”, Queen 5”, Bishop 4 1/4", Castle 3 1/4”, Knight 3 5/8”, Pawn 3"
