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Isle of Lewis Chess Men. Missing description[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

Andrew Dunn wrote on Sun, Apr 27, 2003 01:19 PM UTC:Good ★★★★

A couple of other points of information. On the island of Lewis itself, the
chess pieces are known as the 'Uig Chessmen'. Uig being the name of the
peninsular with the beach where the chessmen were found.

The pieces are now kept in the British Museum in London where they are
usually on display (but not always?). The museum gift shop sells several
versions of reproduction chess sets based on casts of the original
pieces.

I think it is not quite acurate to say they are a 'complete set of
chessmen'. In fact the pieces appear to come from four incomplete sets.
There are four styles of king for example. However the pieces are similar
enough that a complete set can be constructed.

Also the pieces are now almost all ivory white, most of the red colouring
of the 'black' pieces having been lost through poor conservation. The
carving is still very fine however.