Mexican Bone Sets
These sets involve a wide range of forms, ranging from Pulpit to Upright to Tarascan to Painted Face sets. They are all composed of various preproduced parts and assembled in workshops. I don not know whether these sets are still being produced the same way in Mexico - most sets I have seen look at least 30 years old!
Classic Pulpit style
The classical mexican pulpit set - composed of various pieces, pin tops, pawns as hands with daggers, natural and black lacquer colours - this king stands 120 mm, pieces are quite heavy, probably because of a central pole - on which the various components are lined up on - of hardwood. |
Pulpit Faces
A later version, adding gaudily coloured faces to the top - the set is all white, with just the bases in black or bright yellow. Kings stand 138 mm! |
Pulpit set - wood
A pulpit set - in wood! Probably a forerunner of the bone sets, these pieces seemed like painted bone to me - closer inspection revealed them to be made from some very tough wood, grainless, similar to boxwood. Kings stands 90 mm, no felt!
Tarascan Chessmen
Simple older set of the Tarascan cut - so called because made principally by Tarascan indians in central Mexico. These set are assembled from turned wooden bases, and bone toppings. Here the king stands 88 mm high, set is felted. |
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Bone upright
Another type of these assembly bone/wood sets - with an intricate amount of different components. Older set - in later sets there is strong likelyhood that the bone parts are made of bone/resin mixture and mold formed! Kings stands 141 mm, set is contained in a folding box of solid quality, and all chessmen are felted. |
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Red bone upright
A somewhat younger set, in bright violet colour, with the same bone armatures - 150 mm high, felted, and boxed. |
Upright Crossover
Crossover version between uprights and Tarascan - permits to speculate all bone sets might be made in the same workshops, in the Tarascan area or beyond... kings stand 120 mm, are lacking the pate.... |
