Antiques

Saké is a traditional Japanese liquor made from rice and water.  It is produced from a fermentation and filtration process.  Known in the west as “Saké” but in Japan as “Nihonshu”, Saké is a general term for alcohol.

 

The fermented Saké is initially a milky colour but is filtered by pressing through a mesh to produce a clear liquid.  The Japanese production of Saké is an ancient tradition with evidence as far back as the 3rd century B.C.  As with so many Japanese traditional practices, Saké has its own specialised ceramics.  The central shape being the Tokkuri or 

Saké bottle

These containers were developed into a ceramic art form and many were produced by small family potteries.  The majority were produced as earthenware specifically known to the Japanese as “stone textured”.  Very often the brewer ordered the Tokkuri from the potter, who then wrote the name of the brewer in Japanese characters or in flowing script.

As today, when the customer returned the empty Tokkuri to the brewer, he received a rebate on the refill!  The Tokkuri were constantly recycled and used for oil, lamp oil, vinegar and for a wide range of domestic uses. 

Saké is normally consumed cold in the summer and warm in the winter.  Warming is today achieved by standing the now small porcelain Tokkuri in a container of hot water.  In earlier times the stone textured Tokkuri were also warmed in hot water but were commonly suspended over a low coal fire to heat the Saké.  The Japanese block print illustrated, circa 1820, shows this traditional method.

In the vast Japanese literary tradition, the Haiku or 16 syllable poem is found “in praise of the Tokkuri.

Two Tokkuri

The misty world

Seems to float

 

Anon

 and this haiku by Issa’s – 1824

Living alone

Just one Tokkuri

For drinking away the years

 

This haiku refers to an end of year drinking party, but in this house, (Issa’s), every day is new years eve!

The Antique & Vintage Table Lamp Co currently have 3 tokkuri table lamps.  Two are stone textured in the traditional “Rosuku” shape and one rather elegant smaller version of monochrome glazed earthenware.  These “robust and honest” lamps have a timeless ability to fit very comfortably into both the traditional and contemporary interior, being at home in either setting

The traditional wheel potted Tokkuri virtually disappeared after 1945 along with many typical Japanese domestic art and craft form

 A 19th century Japanese stoneware sake bottle or “Tokkuri” as a table lamp.
The bold black characters, the name of the brewer

The table lamp on a turned & polished maple wood stand.    Early Meiji – Circa 1880    Overall height (including shade) 21″/53cm

Imari porcelain is the name understood in the West as Japanese porcelain made at Arita and exported through the port of Imari.  From the mid 17th century the Dutch East India Company monopolised the lucrative export trade, supplying the insatiable European demand for porcelain.

It came to the attention of the Chinese porcelain makers at the vast Imperial kilns at Jingdezhen that Japanese Imari porcelain was in high demand in Europe.  The Chinese makers were quick to realise the commercial success of the Japanese Imari style of decoration and by the early 18th century were producing a Chinese version of the Japanese Imari style

Chinese-Imari pieces are typically less decorated than the Japanese originals with more white porcelain showing.  Japanese Imari is usually all-over decorated, producing a much more “busy” style, however, in general, Chinese-Imari examples are more finely potted with a thinner more even glaze.  The colour palette follows the traditional Japanese original, Rouge de Fer, or, Iron red, under glaze cobalt blue and gilding

Antique chess set collecting

in the twenty first century.

With the Internet now all pervasive there are opportunities for collectors of all kinds with, for example,

e-bay, (a double edged sword).

Auctions online (chancy, unless you can view in person)

Online dealers, (good, but can be pricey).

Chess set collectors have to make several decisions each time they look at an antique chess set. they are, in no particular order.

Is it desirable?

Do I want it?

Will it fit into my collection?

Is it in good condition?

If not can it be fixed, and for how much?

Can I afford it?

There are many different styles of set available, and many different kinds of collectors.

some have a theme collection, e.g. Indian sets, English sets, and so on, some collect only wooden sets, some only ivory, some collect everything they can find.

So, leaving aside the personal requirements of the individual collector, I propose to explore what kinds of set one can reasonably expect to find, where, and

how often one might get the chance to buy such a set and for how much, assuming the set is in good condition.

Also, most importantly, which sets are most desirable for ‘bragging rights’ with other collectors. This is an important consideration, nobody wants to spend good money for sets over several years, and then find that everyone else has better, bigger or bought the same thing more cheaply etc.

Lets start with a decent Staunton pattern set, this should be by Jaques, if you have any aspirations to be taken seriously as a collector. however a collection of non Jaques sets is just as valid, see. http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/chesspurr

A signed set in boxwood and ebony with 3 1/2″ kings, weighted, in the original box with label, can be regarded as the minimum requirement, and will cost around £800 as of 2008.

Beg borrow or buy a copy of Prof Alan Fersht’s monograph on Jaques sets, so you can see if what you are offered is the right set, in the right box etc.

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/Fersht

Buy from a reputable dealer and get a receipt stating exactly what you have bought, if it turns out to be a marriage, you can take it back for a refund or swap.

If you buy off e-bay, or from a market stall in anytown, be prepared for disappointment with no chance of any recompense.

however it is possible that with the changes e-bay are proposing to the feedback system, that e-bay buying may, (and I say ‘may’) become less problematic.

Above is an example of a superb, top of the range Jaques Ivory 4 1/4″ king set in a rosewood box, an early example and perfect, expect to pay £20,000+. (if you ever see one)

If you are a potential ‘real’ collector you will by now be drooling. If the above chess set leaves you cold, stop reading immediately and go and collect garden gnomes, or razor blades or some such, put one in the garden and use the other.

The picture above shows a reasonably good Barleycorn set, however the carving of the knights leaves something to be desired, however these knights are ‘right’ for this set.

Other sets with poor knights are the Selenus and Toy co. sets from Germany, however as this is how they were made there is nothing to be done about it.

There is only one good general guide to antique chess sets which is easily available, and that is Masterpieces. by Gareth Williams. It has information on most of the chess sets you can hope to find and quite a few you will not, and the things Gareth says are accurate as to dates and makers etc.

Other earlier books are either difficult to find,or written in a ‘foreign’ language (Shakpartie Durch Zeiten und Welten, ‘The Hamburg chess club catalogue’) or hopelessly inaccurate, (Keats, World Chessmen), or just plain hopeless, (Mackett-Beeson, Chess sets).

The best place to see sets on a weekly basis,is Portobello Market in London on a Saturday morning.

Otherwise look for sets in auction catalogues on line.

There are occasional dedicated chess sales, where well known collectors meet in the flesh, at the moment these are hosted by Mr. Luke Honey at Bonhams auctioneers.

There are various chess dealers and collectors online, and entering ‘Antique chess sets’ into a search engine will catch most of them.

Mr. Jon Crumiller, ( Jon’s chess sets’ ) stands out amongst these for several reasons, he is a collector, not a dealer, and all his collection is online and regularly updated, his descriptions are as accurate as he can make them.

http://www.crumiller.com/chess/chess_pages/jonchess.htm

The dealers captured as above are a valuable resource, but remember, the descriptions are likely to be optimistic, as are the prices, and discounts can often be negotiated.

If you would like to start a chess set collection without breaking the bank, a good representative collection can be started for a couple of thousand pounds, and this can be spread over purchases made over two or three years, so it’s not beyond the means of most people.

Above is a fairly standard Old English bone set, should cost from £100 depending on size, anything under a three inch king should be regarded as too small.

What should I buy first?

Look first to buy reasonably good examples of easily acquired sets, these are, (again in no particular order, and apart from the already mentioned Staunton pattern), Barleycorn bone set, Old English bone, St. George pattern, Burmese ivory, Cantonese puzzle ball,and Indian ivory.

A word about collecting antique ivories is probably appropriate here.

collecting and owning antique ivory objet d’art is not yet illegal neither is their sale or transportation, although this is now becoming severely restricted, particularly in America.

In effect the movement of ivory in and out of both Europe and America is forbidden, there are CITES certificates which can theoretically be issued to allow this, but until someone tells the morons who work at the airports and borders this is irrelevant.

The tree huggers responsible for this state of affairs will not stop until we are all prevented from, smoking, drinking,driving and living, we will live in a perfect green paradise, but will all have died from boredom. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

You will find some dealers sites which claim to have George Washington sets on them, this is because G.W. owned this set,

Any set which is substantially different to this should not be so described, and indicates the dealer concerned is ‘fluffing’ his sets and caution should be used before quoting anything said on such a site as fact.

However sets like these with contrasting brickwork on the rooks and urn stems, were made in the 18c, but also through into the 19c and guessing which is which is not easy.

This St. George pattern set above didn’t sell at auction, estimated £120 -£160 and only achieved £55 on the day and consequently was marked unsold, but it’s more than possible there were replacements or other faults which were not noted in the catalogue.

That is of course just one reason why you should always view and handle lots you are planning to bid on.

This handsome ivory Hastilow set would cost around £2000 at auction (£1700 was the hammer price, and commission of between 15%-30% must be added depending on which auction house you are bidding at)

no one is really sure if Hastilow really made this style of set, but once the name has appeared in print the label tends to stick. (There are serious researchers who are working on problems such as this and scholarship and knowledge moves on.)

As a very general guide, you will very rarely be offered an 18c set, most 19c sets are actually early 20c. so exercise some caution in buying, however dealers and internet sellers are all covered by the same sale of goods act that all retailers are, so make sure you get a receipt stating exactly what you have bought. If it later turns out to be substantively different to described, you can reasonably claim against them, (although this is not straightforward).

Chinese and Canton sets.

hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of these sets were imported into the UK in the 19c. and because the Victorians kept them under glass domes, (for the most part) a great many have survived, so if you like this sort of thing, (I don’t)

You don’t need to buy the first one you are offered, as another better one will be along in a minute.

Apart from lot 21, the above sets are reasonably common examples, buy them if you like them, but never buy a set with pieces missing, as you will never find any matching pieces, as these sets were made to suit the materials and sizes to hand at the time of making, and always vary slightly from set to set.

Try to buy Chinese sets with well made pawns, carved in the round, not hacked out as most 20c ones were.

The best way to start collecting chess sets, is to surf the net, starting with my picasa site,

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/chessspy

then move onto my scribd site.

http://www.scribd.com/people/view/85927-frank-alan-dewey

As I stated earlier, typing ‘antique chess sets’ into the search engine of your choice, will return a sufficient number of relevant sites to keep you amused for weeks if not months, just don’t believe everything you read.

As with any other avocation, there are highways and byways. there are for example those who only collect famous chess players signatures, and those who are interested mainly in travel sets etc.

My personal interest is turned chess pieces, but for anyone with a computer, (or access to one) there are enough collectors and dealers online to satisfy all tastes. Have fun.

Alan Dewey. 2008.

The long history of Chinese culture has produced a great number of original and distinctive artistic styles.  One of these is “Cinnabar Lacquerware”.  Quickly recognised by its distinctive red colour and sometimes referred to as “China Red”. This treatment has been used artistically in China for over 1000 years.

Lacquerware refers to any facade which has been coated with lacquer, resulting in a hard, durable surface.  The natural source of lacquer is a tree, the Lac, or, varnish tree, the sap of which is collected in the same manner as rubber tree sap; small cuts made into the trunk of the tree and the sap collected.  The name “Cinnabar”, however, is derived from a natural red mineral pigment which is blended with the Lac tree sap after which a rich red lacquer is produced

The initial stage in the production of cinnabar lacquer ware begins with the first coat of red lacquer; this first coat can be the first of literally hundreds of coats to follow!  Each coat is given time to dry before the next, until the desired thickness of red lacquer is achieved.

The second stage in this long process is the deeply carved ornate decoration.

This is left to the hands of a highly skilled carver, who, with razor sharp carving tools begins the slow process of intricately carving the now hard layer of red lacquer..

Antique and decorative arts take many forms and are developed to enhance and beautify our lives.

Remember, that red is the color that we pay the most attention to. It is the warmest and most energetic color in the spectrum. In China, red symbolizes celebration and luck, used in many cultural ceremonies, New Year, weddings and birthdays.

In interior design, red is usually used as an accent and lamps are the most practical of all accents.  Decorators say that red furniture should be perfect, since it will attract attention! A colour you just can’t miss.

The Antique & Vintage Table Lamp Co specialise in antique table lamp lighting with an on-line range of over 100 unique, antique and vintage lamps on view.