Scholars have observed that to the modern eye the figural pieces, with their bulging eyes and glum expressions, have a distinctly comic character. Some pieces bore traces of red stain when found, possibly indicating that red and white were used to distinguish the two sides, rather than the black and white generally used in modern chess. The rooks are standing soldiers or "warders" holding shields and swords four of the rooks are shown as wild-eyed berserkers biting their shields with battle fury. The knights are mounted on rather diminutive horses and are shown holding spears and shields. All the pieces are sculptures of human figures, with the exception of the pawns, which are smaller, geometric shapes. Although there are 19 pawns (a complete set requires 16), they have the greatest range of sizes of all the pieces, which has suggested that the 79 chess pieces might belong to at least five sets. The heights of the pawns range from 3.5 to 5.8 cm, while the other pieces are between 7 and 10.2 cm. The 79 chess pieces consist of eight kings, eight queens, 16 bishops, 15 knights, 13 rooks (after the 2019 discovery) and 19 pawns. Main article: Game pieces of the Lewis chessmen hoardĪlmost all of the pieces in the collection are carved from walrus ivory, with a few made instead from whale teeth. Stylistically it predates the Lewis chessmen, as its mitre is worn sideways. It is thought to be English or German and carved in the 12th century. A bishop that probably predates the Lewis chessmen was in the collection of Jean-Joseph Marquet de Vasselot and was sold at Christie's in Paris in 2011 with a radiocarbon dating report stating that there is a 95% probability that the ivory dates between 790 and 990 AD. There are many medieval chess bishops of various origins in different museums in Europe and US. Madden immediately began writing a research paper about the collection, titled "Historical remarks on the introduction of the game of chess into Europe and on the ancient chessmen discovered in the Isle of Lewis", published in Archaeologia XXIV (1832), the paper remains informative today. Madden was a palaeographer, a scholar of early vernacular literature, but he was especially intrigued by these artifacts because he was a chess enthusiast. Īt the British Museum, Sir Frederic Madden, Assistant Keeper of Manuscripts, persuaded the trustees to purchase for 80 guineas (£84) the 82 pieces which he had been misled into believing was the entire hoard. The hoard was divided and sold in the 19th century the British Museum holds 82 pieces, and National Museum of Scotland has the other 11 pieces. of National Museums Scotland consider that Mealista ( 58☀6′14″N 7☀6′29″W / 58.104°N 7.108°W / 58.104 -7.108)-which is also in the parish of Uig and some 6 miles (10 km) further south down the coast-is a more likely place for the hoard to have been discovered. Four other major pieces, and many pawns, remain missing from the chess sets. Today, 82 pieces are owned and usually exhibited by the British Museum in London, and the remaining 11 are at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.Īdditionally, a newly identified piece, a "warder", the equivalent of a rook, was sold for £735,000 in July 2019. When found, the hoard contained 93 objects: 78 chess pieces, 14 tablemen and one belt buckle. Discovered in 1831 on Lewis in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, they may constitute some of the few complete, surviving medieval chess sets, although it is not clear if a period-accurate set can be assembled from the pieces. The Lewis chessmen ( Scottish Gaelic: Fir-thàilisg Leòdhais ) or Uig chessmen, named after the island or the bay where they were found, are a group of distinctive 12th-century chess pieces, along with other game pieces, most of which are carved from walrus ivory.
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