Weighted Staunton Chess Set, 2nd Half of the 19th
Century
Jaques London
King is 8.9 cm and Pawn 4.8 cm high

Howard Staunton, English chess champion from 1843 to 1852, gave his name to the chess figures designed by Nathaniel Cooke in 1835, which were subsequently made in London by the company John Jaques.

Jaques London retained the right to the production of the figures until WW2. The house recorded high profits through its copyright and the internationally accepted standardization of the Staunton figures, which were most widely distributed both in championships and in private circles.

The figures are distinguished by certain features in their function: a crown with cross for the King, a nobility crown for the Queen, an open Bishop's mitre hat, a horse head for the Knight, a tower with battlements and shooting ranges as the Rook, and a sphere on a pedestal as the Pawn.
Some early Jaques sets, including this one, had a red crown stamped onto the Kings' side Knights and Rooks.

Provenance:
From the celebrated Chess Set Collection of Astrid & Dr. Halvor Jaeger

Exhibited: Munich, Staatliches Museum fur Volkerkunde,1988

Curators: Ursula Siebert, Jean-Loup Rousselot

Literature:
Schachspiele Wandel Im Laufe Der Kunst Und
Kulturgeschichte (Chess: Art History and Culture),
Staatliches Museum fur Volkerkunde Munchen, 1988, page 97, set 117.

Staatliches Museum fur Volkerkunde (founded 1862) is now the Museum Funf Kontinente (Five Continents Museum, Munich, Germany).

Select chess volume references for this set: Frank Greygoose, Chessmen, 1979; Victor Keats,

Chessmen for Collectors, 1985 (illustrated); Mackett-Beeson, Chessmen, 1973 (illustrated)

Works from the Jaeger art collection have been exhibited at many museums and art spaces, including the American Museum of Natural History in New York, Baltimore Museum of Art, Wereldmuseum in Rotterdam, Gladstone Hotel in Toronto, Ontario College of Art and Design, UCLA's Fowler in Los Angeles, University of Cologne galleries, and the Museum Funf Kontinente in Munich.