Modern  Designer Sets

chess sets made in the steerage of 20th C artist movemnts . which led many an artist to design chess sets, from marcel cuchamp, Max Ernst and man Ray onwards. Nowadays, it is more "designers" who try their hand at editing "their" chess set .. is it a matter of pride?

Bauhaus

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Modernist French Set

Modernist french set, in old box, with draught stones - king stands 73 mm - set is possibly from the 30ies to 40ies.

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Expressionist

Beautifully finished, smoothly polished, no felts or weights. Knights and bishops are better distinguished at a distance - starts You wondering....

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Smooth Pocket set

Very smoothly finished small chessmen, which have a quite modernist look to them - actually it is a mini-compendium with draughts stones, and a board with nine-mens morris imprinted on the rear. But on the bottom of the rough wood case a dedication is pencilled, with  the date of 1.2.1940!  Certainly prewar WW2, made in Germany.

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Abstract Glass

Minimalist glass set from Portugal - faintly reminiscent of Yves Tanguy's set from the 40ies in New York.

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Tuscan Abstracts

Thanks to big alabaster deposits, fashioning handcrafted objects is craft  with a millennarian tradition in Volterra in Tuscany, Italy. The opaque white material is coloured by a special process of soaking, gaining the most exotic colours. This set - king 76 mm - also is reminiscent of Yves Tanguy , has metal bands around the bottom, felts, and is most likely from the 60ies to 70ies. Alabaster sets from Volterra are exported worldwide, mainly by the house of Chiellini.

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