Jaques Staunton "Steinitz" or "Megamouth" tournament set c1870

A near pristine example of the so called "megamouth" style set. Kings 3.5", from circa 1870. This style set has one of Jaques' most characterful knights, with the nickname "megamouth" being quite appropriate! The box was in pieces when I bought the set, but through some careful balancing and clamping, I managed to bring it back together. My gentle cleaning of the box lid sparked the perennial debate as to what constitutes patina and what constitutes dirt - and views will always differ on this point! Some feel that all dirt acquired during an antique's life constitutes its patina, and this is a valid view. My own view is that some dirt is just that - dirt, whilst patina is a more fundamental change, mellowing, oxidisation, or whatever process, to the surface of an object; this may also include certain amounts of dirt, which has become so embedded and ingrained over time as to form part of the patina. In this particular example, the box lid had clearly suffered additional dirty conditions when compared to the rest of the box, no doubt due to being separated (almost like someone had dumped a bag of compost or soot on top of it). A gentle application of an olive oil and cider vinegar mix with the finest of wire wools and the gentlest of wipe-overs, lifted off the worst of the dirt, revealing what I would call the patina beneath. Whenever "patina" comes off with a simple wipe over, I attribute it more to dirt than patina. I was careful not to scrub, as the dirt that remained was ingrained and therefore, I think, legitimately forms part of the patina and history of the box. One thought experiment to highlight the difference between dirt and patina would be to imagine a nice Jaques Staunton set, with a nicely developed mellow toffee patina...now imagine a young child getting hold of said chess set (yikes!), and deciding to play in the garden with it, burying the set in a fresh mud bath. At one extreme end of the spectrum, some would regard this as now forming part of the patina. To me, this would be dirt - and a gentle wipe should restore the set to it's pre-child condition and patina. So, does the key question come down to "how long has the dirt been there?" in order to qualify as patina, or should the question be more along the lines of "is the dirt ingrained so much that it will not come off easily". I think the answer is not black and white. One test, in my view, is whether the patina wipes off (without harsh chemicals!) or otherwise makes your hand feel dirty when handling the object - in either of these scenarios, I deem this to be dirt, not patina, and am happy to wipe it away.