Jaques Staunton "Paulsen" tournament set c1853-55

A real delight, this one!  I remember seeing a photo of the "Paulsen" style knight (as it is commonly referred to following the "Camaratta Codex"), and falling in love with Jaques chess sets that bit more.  It's taken me over five years since then to find a complete one for my collection (my other set has two replacement white knights).

Minimal damage for a set of this age - a few white pawn collar chips, several more black pawn collar chips and base chips, minor black queen coronet damage, and only one bishop had lost its knop (a white one - which always makes colour matching more difficult).

All original felts intact and in good condition - in fact I suspect the set has not been played with much in its 175 year life span, given how clean the set is.  The chips, no doubt, had occurred not due to enthusiastic play, but because the set is quite heavily weighted and was lacking a proper box.

The carving on the knights is sublime.  I may well have taken a few too many photos of this one, for which I beg for forgiveness!