It’s easy to forget the significance of board games now that the cool clatter of Monopoly dice has been hushed by the computer mouse in a session of desktop solitaire or by the controller in an Xbox 360 match. But chess has survived for centuries on its reputation as an intellectual pastime laden with the metaphors of politics, power and class struggle. And today, antique sets are coveted collectibles that command top dollar at auction, quickly surpassing bids for vintage models of other recreational standbys like Parcheesi and backgammon.
In the Christie’s London sale of theDr. Jean Claude-Cholet Collection last May, ivory chessmen from Germany, circa 1870, hand sculpted in the shapes of owls and mice, earned £150,000 ($299,100), a world record for a 19th-century set. Pippa Green, a specialist in Christie’s objects department, describes the items as “beautifully carved, typical of eccentric high Victorian taste.” They were presented in a box of Coromandel ebony stamped with the retailer’s mark of Thornhill, which added historical import. More typically, 19th-century European ivory sets in good condition sell for between $5,000 and $10,000, although prices vary according to rarity and the quality of the carving.
