This article is dedicated to Brenda.
It is perhaps surprising that, despite the abundance of
books on all aspects of the game of chess, and the great
variety of chess pieces used over the centuries since the game was invented, no
book, published in English (or any other language as far as I can tell), was dedicated
to chessmen until 1937 when Chessmen
by Donald M. Liddell, with the collaboration of Gustavus A. Pfeiffer and J.
Manoury, was published by Harcourt, Brace & Co., New York. The book was
also published by George G. Harrap & Co. Ltd., London 1938.
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| Liddell title page |
Frederick S. Copley had published a small pamphlet of 12 pages with illustrations, in New York in 1864, entitled Copley's improved geometrical & universal chess-men, adapted for every game on the checker-board...and containing Hoyle's rules and laws for playing chess. This, however, appears to be a booklet describing just Copley's own design of chessmen (of which none could be traced by Liddell).
A copy of this very rare
pamphlet is held by New York University Libraries but not, apparently, by
either the Cleveland Public Library or the Bibliotheca van der
Linde-Niemeijeriana at The Hague.
Some historical works had
discussed chessmen to a greater or lesser degree, and, in particular, H.J.R.
Murray’s A History of Chess, Oxford
1913, was a significant source of information for later writers. There had also been
many articles, exhibition and museum catalogues, and books on ivories with
sections on chessmen; but no comprehensive work had been exclusively devoted to
chessmen until 1937.
It is in the nature of
books on chessmen that they are all profusely illustrated with, not only chess
pieces and sets, but also boards, paintings and manuscripts etc.
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| Plate from Liddell |
Liddell’s book has 171 pages of text plus nearly 100 pages of plates in black and white. In addition to the
chapters on the history and variety of chessmen, there are other interesting
chapters such as Napoleon at the
Chessboard, Famous Chess Resorts,
Chess in Art and Archaeology and Chess Automata. There are also
appendices listing Mediaeval Chessmen,
Museums Containing Renaissance and Modern Chess Materials,
a Bibliography on Chessmen and Ivories and Names of the Pieces in Various Languages.
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| Hammond dust jacket |
The next book to appear in
English was The Book of Chessmen by Alex Hammond, published by Arthur Barker
Ltd., London 1960. Hammond was, at the time, one of the world’s best known
collectors of chessmen and the book describes and illustrates some two hundred
chess sets from his collection. The book has 160 pages including 63 pages of black
and white illustrations. There is no bibliography as the author states
“reliable works on this subject are non-existent”.
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| Plate from Hammond |
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| Plate from Hammond |
A small paperback of 38
pages entitled History of Chessmen by
Emile Katz was published in 1963 by Hugh Evelyn, London. I have not seen this,
although it is readily obtainable, and the next substantial work was Chess; the Story of Chesspieces from
Antiquity to Modern Times by Hans and Siegfried Wichmann, published
by Paul Hamlyn, London 1964. It is difficult to show a good representation of this book as the front cover is plain black cloth and my copy does not have a dustjacket, and the title page is very sparse, I therefore show the spine and contents page.
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| Wichmann spine |
|
|
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| Wichmann Contents |
This is a translation of Schach, Ursprung und Wandlung der Spielfigur, Munich 1960. The book
has 328 pages arranged as follows; 70 pages of text are followed by 200 pages
of plates many of which are in colour. A further 50 pages of Notes on the Plates give detailed
descriptions of the illustrations. Several
illustrations of chess themed paintings are also included. A five page
bibliography listing around 250 items completes the book.
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| Plate from Wichmann |
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| Plate from Wichmann |
The following three books were all published in 1968:
Chessmen
by A.E.J. Mackett-Beeson, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London. 120 pages and a
similar number of illustrations many in colour.
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| Mackett-Beeson front cover |
Chess:
East and West, Past and Present: A Selection from the Gustavus A. Pfeiffer Collection, The Metropolitan
Museum of Art, New York. 178 pages and around 135 illustrations, eight in
colour.
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| Chess east and West front cover |
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| Plate from Chess East and West |
Chess
Sets
by F. Lanier Graham, Studio Vista, London and Walker, New York. 84 pages,
around 90 illustrations of which only two are in colour and one of these is reproduced on the dustjacket.
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| Lanier-Graham dustjacket |
The next major work was Chessmen by Frank
Greygoose, published by David & Charles, Newton Abbot 1979. After 32 pages
of introductory matter there follows 122 pages of illustrations, 45 of which are
in colour, showing chess sets and pieces many of which are from the author’s
own collection. The Bibliography lists nine books.
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| Greygoose dustjacket |
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| Plate from Greygoose |
The only other work up to 1988 was Chessmen for
Collectors by Victor Keats, published by B.T.Batsford Ltd., London 1985. This
is a substantial quarto volume of 240 pages and the chess sets and pieces
described and illustrated are organised by countries and regions. The book is profusely
illustrated throughout including 32 pages of colour plates. There is a
Bibliography listing 30 items, although none of the previous books on chessmen
are mentioned; suggestions for Further Reading, which does include Hammond's and
Liddell’s books; and a comprehensive Index.
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| Keats dustjacket |
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| Plate from Keats |
I conclude this article with an advertisement for a lecture by Dr. Emanuel Lasker which he illustrated `by means of Mr. Peter Toepfer's patented "Exhibition Chessmen."´
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| Lasker lecture advert |
© Michael Clapham 2016
