Seiffen 2018 - the german CCI meeting
20.11. - Punctually as every year around this time , the annual meeting of the german section of Chess Collectors International rolled over from the 25th to 28th October in scenic Seiffen, Saxonia - the best known of all the carvers and toy craft makers villages in the Erzgebirge area. 56 collectors only, among them several from Holland, plus as always CCI President Michael Wiltshire from London, made their way over winding roads into the hills south of Leipzig, to end up in a a sumptuous castle refurbished as a luxury hotel , a few miles out of Seiffen. It was smooth going as the weekend meeting clicked over in perfect harmony, impeccably set up by experienced masters of the game, namely Thomas Thomsen and Wolfgang Angerstein.
Thursday night featured the traditional opening cocktail, followed by dinner in the hotel restaurant - some visitors had arrived a day early - possibly to enjoy a round on the hotel's golf course?
Getting serious
But on Friday activities started in earnest, with the group clambering into a bus to mosey over to Seiffen, a few kilometers away from the bucolic hotel castle. Seiffen is well known as the epitome of Christmas atmosphere - at all times of the year, but especially towards the end of the year crowds of people from all over the world are thronging through the small lanes, pressing in front of the handicraft shops with their handmade tradtional wood carvings and toys, or lining up in front of the Toy Museum - precisely the first stop on the programme. With the help of CCI collectors, Museum director Konrad Auerbach had set up a lavish and well documented exhibition (see Exhibitions and Shows) on the many diverse chess sets, both carved & turned - made in in the area in past days. This show by far supersedes an earlier one in 2006 in the Castle Museum of Lauenstein, when CCI celebrated a World Meeting in closeby Dresden. A lavish catalogue presenting over 100 !! chess sets has been edited and can be obtained from past CCI president Thomas Thomsen (see New and Interesting Books) .
Thursday night featured the traditional opening cocktail, followed by dinner in the hotel restaurant - some visitors had arrived a day early - possibly to enjoy a round on the hotel's golf course?
Getting serious
But on Friday activities started in earnest, with the group clambering into a bus to mosey over to Seiffen, a few kilometers away from the bucolic hotel castle. Seiffen is well known as the epitome of Christmas atmosphere - at all times of the year, but especially towards the end of the year crowds of people from all over the world are thronging through the small lanes, pressing in front of the handicraft shops with their handmade tradtional wood carvings and toys, or lining up in front of the Toy Museum - precisely the first stop on the programme. With the help of CCI collectors, Museum director Konrad Auerbach had set up a lavish and well documented exhibition (see Exhibitions and Shows) on the many diverse chess sets, both carved & turned - made in in the area in past days. This show by far supersedes an earlier one in 2006 in the Castle Museum of Lauenstein, when CCI celebrated a World Meeting in closeby Dresden. A lavish catalogue presenting over 100 !! chess sets has been edited and can be obtained from past CCI president Thomas Thomsen (see New and Interesting Books) .
Exhibiton poster, using a handpainted illustration from an old pattern book
The show demonstrates in detail various turning and carving techniques - for example the unique trick of wheel turning , an early technique of speeding up the production of standard forms like horses, dogs, figures, tress - and chess knight heads. Also well represented are publicity and ads of various carvers or toy craftsmen specializing in chess sets, especially from the 1900's onwards - and of course a profusion of styles, from standard Stauntons and Regence sets, to the typical Erzgebirge toy sets with their stacked discs, to Selenus style sets, highly artistic Edel style sets, modernistic, figural or abstract chessmen, and all kind of odds and ends to do with chess, boards, boxes, deco pieces etc. The show is still on till March 10 2019 - any chess fiend who passes through Leipzig, Dresden or Berlin would be well advised to make a detour down there and see the very best and largest exhibit of Erzgebirge chess sets ever presented!
At Werner's - how toy figurines are created
After the visit to the Museum exhibit, there was time left to pay a visit next door to the crafts business Werner , and observe how figurines and Erzgebirge toys and bioramas are made today, which themes prevail and how they are coloured. Siegfried Werner, the present owner, took great pains to show the group around, explaining some of the examples impressively presented in the company showroom. Even a chess set was on display - the pieces in figurative form, each chess figurine composed of several parts stuck together and coloured.
After the visit to the Museum exhibit, there was time left to pay a visit next door to the crafts business Werner , and observe how figurines and Erzgebirge toys and bioramas are made today, which themes prevail and how they are coloured. Siegfried Werner, the present owner, took great pains to show the group around, explaining some of the examples impressively presented in the company showroom. Even a chess set was on display - the pieces in figurative form, each chess figurine composed of several parts stuck together and coloured.
Even teh founder Ater lunch in a local restaurant thee was time left to stroll around the lanes of tehis village entirley dedicated to crafts and tourism, and admire the displays in the numerous crafts emporiums, do some Christmas shopping of their own, and sample the fruitcakes in the also plentiful pastry cafés. Afternoon was for putting the feet up in the hotel, and for dinner the bus took the group back to Seiffen,for another local restaurnant in a centenary setting.
The core of the matter...
On Saturday morning, the collectors - some of them from the Chess History & Literature Society, formerly called Ken Whyld Association, met in the hotel's "Rittersaal" (=knights hall) for for the lectures, the fulcral reason for these meetings. Thomas Thomsen discoursed on the 15th century humanist Georgius Agricola, author of the first modern treatise on mining and metallurgy, who had been born and lived in Saxonia - quite appropriate, as a sizeable number of the typical figurines and dioramas produced by the carvers depict mining activities, miners, washing of ore and the like. Franz-Josef Lang - the only founding member of CCI still around in Europe! - delved into his great fund of knowledge on Asian ivory sets and explained the whereabouts of the formation and styles of Cantonese Export sets. Siegfried Werner demonstrated how the various historic professions and industries of the Erzgebirge have influenced and contoured the toys and figurines made by the crafts shops. Marion Faber talked about the various styles and types of chessmen made in the Erzgebirge, illustrating her story with numerous plates from pattern books, with publicity flyers and newspaper ads - Mrs. Faber is conducting an extended research project on the role of pattern books in the styling and production of toys. After a short coffee break to ease the tension and wet the whistles, Michael Negele presented the new book on World Champion Emanuel Lasker (see New and Interesting books) - basically the editors have attempted to make the profuse material already published in german in 2009 on Lasker's life and legacy available to the english speaking world. Siegfried Tschinkel caused quite a surprise to the audience by pointing out the many references to chess on record covers, let alone the massive production of the jazz publisher Chess - a simple google search brings up hundreds of records of some of the greatest jazz men and women. produced by Chess records, founded 1950 by Leonard Chess.
The core of the matter...
On Saturday morning, the collectors - some of them from the Chess History & Literature Society, formerly called Ken Whyld Association, met in the hotel's "Rittersaal" (=knights hall) for for the lectures, the fulcral reason for these meetings. Thomas Thomsen discoursed on the 15th century humanist Georgius Agricola, author of the first modern treatise on mining and metallurgy, who had been born and lived in Saxonia - quite appropriate, as a sizeable number of the typical figurines and dioramas produced by the carvers depict mining activities, miners, washing of ore and the like. Franz-Josef Lang - the only founding member of CCI still around in Europe! - delved into his great fund of knowledge on Asian ivory sets and explained the whereabouts of the formation and styles of Cantonese Export sets. Siegfried Werner demonstrated how the various historic professions and industries of the Erzgebirge have influenced and contoured the toys and figurines made by the crafts shops. Marion Faber talked about the various styles and types of chessmen made in the Erzgebirge, illustrating her story with numerous plates from pattern books, with publicity flyers and newspaper ads - Mrs. Faber is conducting an extended research project on the role of pattern books in the styling and production of toys. After a short coffee break to ease the tension and wet the whistles, Michael Negele presented the new book on World Champion Emanuel Lasker (see New and Interesting books) - basically the editors have attempted to make the profuse material already published in german in 2009 on Lasker's life and legacy available to the english speaking world. Siegfried Tschinkel caused quite a surprise to the audience by pointing out the many references to chess on record covers, let alone the massive production of the jazz publisher Chess - a simple google search brings up hundreds of records of some of the greatest jazz men and women. produced by Chess records, founded 1950 by Leonard Chess.
Acceleration
Following the lectures, the principal points of the agenda done and gone, the meeting went into overdrive, and collectors started whizzing around like Speedy Gonzales, the fastest mouse in Mexiko! Up to the room, get changed, prepare for the chess market, back to the restaurant to wolf down a hasty lunch, weasel over to the Rittersaal to grab some space for the chess market, snap up quick deals while the competition is still unwrapping the goods (old flea market technique...), set up and conduct the market. At a given time, pack up everything quickly, set up chess boards , here goes the simultaneous game against Grand Master Helmut Pfleger ( the players got clobbered of course...) . back to the room , change for a ride to an extraordinary restaurant housed in an former mine.
Sunday was departure day - the dutch contingent had to leave early for a long drive home. Those who had a bit more leisure took a look at the old glass factory inside the hotel grounds, or the Nutcracker Museum outside the hotel - nutcrackers are one of the archetypal showpieces from the Erzgebirge craftsmen, this Museum sports over 6.000 from all parts of the world - there is even an international club of nutcrackers collectors! Enough to go nuts...
The last stragglers commandeered a table in the hotel to celebrate a peaceful farewell lunch, which for some went on into the early afternoon ...
The next german CCI meeting - as was announced in Seiffen - will take place in autumn 2019 a bare 80 kilometers away - in the seas village Ströbeck with its centennial chess tradition , and the local chess museum as a focal point. Hopefully some folks from overseas will manage to make the trek there...
Following the lectures, the principal points of the agenda done and gone, the meeting went into overdrive, and collectors started whizzing around like Speedy Gonzales, the fastest mouse in Mexiko! Up to the room, get changed, prepare for the chess market, back to the restaurant to wolf down a hasty lunch, weasel over to the Rittersaal to grab some space for the chess market, snap up quick deals while the competition is still unwrapping the goods (old flea market technique...), set up and conduct the market. At a given time, pack up everything quickly, set up chess boards , here goes the simultaneous game against Grand Master Helmut Pfleger ( the players got clobbered of course...) . back to the room , change for a ride to an extraordinary restaurant housed in an former mine.
Sunday was departure day - the dutch contingent had to leave early for a long drive home. Those who had a bit more leisure took a look at the old glass factory inside the hotel grounds, or the Nutcracker Museum outside the hotel - nutcrackers are one of the archetypal showpieces from the Erzgebirge craftsmen, this Museum sports over 6.000 from all parts of the world - there is even an international club of nutcrackers collectors! Enough to go nuts...
The last stragglers commandeered a table in the hotel to celebrate a peaceful farewell lunch, which for some went on into the early afternoon ...
The next german CCI meeting - as was announced in Seiffen - will take place in autumn 2019 a bare 80 kilometers away - in the seas village Ströbeck with its centennial chess tradition , and the local chess museum as a focal point. Hopefully some folks from overseas will manage to make the trek there...
