Lot 71: Estimate £10,000-£15,000

George Tinworth – A complete pottery chess set modelled as mice in various poses with gilt details, the kings initialled GT, king height 8cm.
Provenance: Christies, The Allen Hofrichter Collection of Chess Sets, 20 September 2000, lot no. 48
Literature - Victor Keats, Illustrated Guide to World Chess Sets, Batsford Ltd, 1985, page 143. Reference is made to this design, commissioned by Royal Doulton and originally made in stoneware. There are no production records and apparently only two or three sets with coloured pieces are known to have survived from 1885.

Condition report
The set is in very good order with only a few small faults as mentioned below. The points noted have been observed while examining the whole set using a jewellers loop. As such all the points raised are very small and only visible when examining the set under a 10x jewellers loop. White set - The Queen has a small pin head size paint flake to the gilding on the lower rim. A single pawn also has a tiny paint flake to the gilded rim. There is minor wear to the gilding across the other pieces. Black set - The Queen has an old small nibble/chip to the edge of one finger, the King has a small flake to the gold banding on the lower rim. One Knight has an old tiny pin head size nibble/chip to the edge of one ear. One Pawn has a small nibble/chip to the tip of his hat which has been touched in with gold. There is minor wear to the gilding across the set. Over all in very good original order with just these few minor detailed points.