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British Staunton style set , end 19th/beginning 20th C, king 90 mm, heavily weighted, black side in ebony wood (breaks!). Cd be Ayres or BCC downmarket....

St. George (Old English)  set with the king side rooks and knights marked with a button in the contrasting colour - black side in ebony, king at 80 mm.

Set by Uhlig from ca. 1900 - the high moment of this principal Borstendorf Erzgebirge manufactury. King size is 80 mm, white almost ivory-like bone is used, and the only minor faults are on some bases where the turners tool has slipped.

A "poverty" version Uhlig from the days before WW 2, probably reflecting the economic constrangiments of those days - strange knight shape, less substantial pieces (less bone used), same king height, much less weight.

Plastic Set from Czech(oslovaquia), in the traditional czech tournament style, made in 1989 according to the informative price sticker. All pieces are felted, they are very heavy (weighted?) and have no mold ridge. Each piece seems to be composed of several parts glued together.

The older wooden version is still being crafted today - check here....

Folding Travel Set, with the board supported on metal wires - shd allow the game to be interrupted, folding the board without loss of position. Kings , queens and hishops are the same pieces, only distinguished by dabs of paint on top - white and black for bishops, red and golden for queens and kings . "Made in Romania", most likely pre-WW2. 

Travel set with fat and squat bakelite pieces in excellent condition - and a second tray holds draughts stones. An earlier owner - we never own things totally, just hold 'em for a while... -  has applied a new skin of flowery wallpaper to the probably dilapidated brown cardboard orginal - much improving it! Probably 20ies of the 20th C - where from?

Older german set with two piece knights - which are made in some kind of composite material -  papier maché? Kings stand 116 mm, maker is unknown.

Well finished pieces, with loose weights rattling around inside bases! Interesting contrast between the elegant queens & kings, and the solid rest of the set, especially the robust pawns. A similar set sold recently on ebay was termed as Austrian and Art Deco by the seller - my tip is german and 20ies or earlier - but some details point to Russia or even the Baltics?

Massive and heavy bust set - kings stand 90 mm and weigh over 450 g (1 pound!).  The irregular bases show this to be a set made from an older mold - the mold ridges run at the side and have been carefully removed an polished! Quite impressive to handle - and to display. Probably Italy, not extremely old.

A lucky windfall has permitted me to reconstruct almost entirely an intriguing german Staunton set -  listed here before as "German Ruins".  The first handful of pieces came in an ancient wooden box with the engraving "Trost in der Gefangenschaft - Krasnoborsk 1915", pointing to ownership by a german POW in a Russian prisoner camp during the 1. WW. Which would make this set older than WW !. Of course, this cd be misleading - the box could perfectly well have held some other pieces - but I believe the set is approximately from 1910.  Kings stand 90 mm, the pieces are not weighted or felted, and what immediately strikes the eye are the wide collars of king & queen, and the bulbous bases. Knights are rudimentary silhouettes - and the white bishops are similar, but from another set - they lack the wide second collar plus are made from a different type of wood.

This set deserves the name - the namegiving decorations around the central drum are prominent and well executed. King stands 104 mm - unfortunately one rook has gone missing. 19th C - quite detailed turning on the stems, bases, tops.

Chess clock from pre-WWII - with an ingenious and simple changeover system - a curved spring is fixed on the bottom wood slider - as this slider is pushed back and forth, it stops either one of the mechanisms. Really simple, works fine. Probably pre WW II, probably Spain - no mark on the clockworks. Note the two  colour spots on the clockface, white and lilac.....are they hiding a makers mark?