An uncommon form, gorgeous chess board from the British Chess Company in No.3 size. Stamped on opposite corners of the board "British Chess Co, Stroud. Glos."

I wonder if this is the "County Chess Board" referred to in BCC catalogues - the BCC sizing was mildly confusing - No.3 boards always had a playing field of 18", as this board does.  But in the catalogue, the County Chessboard is listed with various sizes, which I presume is the entire width of the board (including frames) - No.4 in the County Chess Board list is 23" wide, which matches well with this board's measurements.  The frame is approximately twice the width of the more common BCC boards, to accomodate additional wood band decoration, beaded edge and rounded corners.  As a consequence, the board has a lot more "presence", even though the squares are the same size as my other, standard, BCC board.