Washed up on the beach.

A group of 'sand chessmen' similar to those thought by Rodolfo Pozzi and Dr. Kloproggeto be pin chess pieces sold at Christies 1997, Lot no. 110. with a certificate of authenticity?! signed by Mackett-Beeson.

How a small group of dedicated chessset researchers uncovered a litany of publishing and factual errors stretchingback to the 17th. century.research by,Alan Dewey. (chessspy)Guy Lyons. (chesspurr)Peter Armit. (vizam53)

Books referring to pin sets, sand sets or cushion setsHyde.

Mandragorias seu Historia Shahiludii (1694)Says, King Louis X111 had a set made for use in his carriage, strengthened with pinsand used on a board quilted with wool.

Twiss.

CHESS, London, 1789.Quotes Hyde, but goes on to describe travelling sets as being 'common' in his dayfor play on board ship or in a carriage, with pegged pieces and a hole in the centre of each square, and spaces around for the taken pieces.

Murray,

History of Chess, 1913.

quotes Hyde, but often critically.

Hammond,

The book of chessmen. 1950.

Relates with some relish the balmy days of Dieppe and how during the 17th and 18th centuries,gentlemen of the aristocracy would play chess with spiked bone chessmen purchased cheaply locallyfor play on the beach. forgetting to mention that the beach at Dieppe is made of large stones.

Wichmann.

Chess. The Story of Chessmen from Antiquity to Modern Times. 1960

Shows an 18c 'sand set' which is largely 20c and made up by Bertram Jones.

Also similar inacuracies in,

Greygoose, 1979.Keats, 1985.Dr. Kloprogge, 2008.Rodolfo Pozzi, 2008. CCI/USA.

Pin sets, Cushion sets, Sand sets and Jonchets.An online conversation between collectors.

E-mail from Guy Lyons,see his sets at,http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/chesspurr Hi, AlanThe more I think about the pin cushion set idea, the more difficult to believe itbecomes. Why have pieces so high off the board? as the complex chess positionsthat surely would occur, would be rather difficult to play with confidence.A rocking carriage , pieces way above the board squares, contradict every knowntravel set I have ever seen.Then if one agreed that the spiked stems were too big, one would have expected tosee shorter ones, so one can imagine figures sitting on the squares neatly, then atleast the positions of chess are far more easily understood from a visual perspectiveas a chess player. I could not imagine playing the romantic complex chess gamesthat were popular so long ago on a long journey, by such transport of those times,with pieces like those, and they were, by Pozzi's account meant to be practicalplaying sets.

The author Pozzi, does not discuss this at all in his article, which I find rather odd.

Then as you point out, why are the pawns so crudely made? Would noblemen of means want such basic pieces, devoid of any style, on a chess board?

So we have the author of this article avoiding the practical chess playing side of things, without a proven single surviving complete chess set of this type and havingus collectors believe they existed on the basis of his research .

The problem is, his argument, by ignoring this basic point, looks pretty weak .

This would be my first observation on the practical side of this discussion.

Guy L.