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A RUSSIAN WALRUS IVORY KHOLMOGORY SET

Currency:USD Category:Everything Else / Other Start Price:NA Estimated At:9,000.00 - 11,000.00 USD
A RUSSIAN WALRUS IVORY KHOLMOGORY SET
Late 18th Century The Christians versus the Turks, the Christians dressed as Roman soldiers, the Turks in national dress, kings seated on thrones, queens as viziers, bishops as elephants, knights as rearing horsemen, rooks as double-masted sailing ships, pawns as footsoldiers, the chessmen mounted on circular elephant ivory bases, one rook missing half a mast, the king 3 1/2 inches high, the pawn 2 1/2 inches high. NOTE: A similar set from the Gustavus A. Pfieffer Collection is illustrated in Chess East and West, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, no. 59. The set reflects Eastern influences with the use of viziers as queens, and the use of an elephant as bishop. As is usual with Russian sets, rooks are depicted as ships. Kholmogory sets are carved typically from walrus ivory. SEE: Greygoose, Chessmen, p. 72, fig. 55; p. 79, fig. 66; Liddell, btw. pp. 36-37; Mackett-Beeson, p. 62, fig. 74; Phillips New York: November 6th, 1996, lot 103. PROVENANCE: Sotheby Parke Bernet: The Harbeson Collection, October 5th, 1979, lot 563. $9,000-11,000