Bertram Jones Turned Aluminium Staunton c1940s

A rare example of a turned aluminium chess set, attributed to Bertram Jones (who mostly turned ivory sets). I have seen one other set before, which is in Guy Lyons' fantastic collection. Kings are 3 5/8" tall, and weigh in at 81g - and whilst the paint has seen better days, the wear and flaking reveals the turned nature of the metal, as well as highlighting the details, especially on the knights (which I assume were cast and polished to remove any mould seams).

The pieces are made in parts, which screw together beautifully.  In fact, I did wonder if the pieces could perhaps have been made by Bertram's son, BIll, who had a stint in the RAF fitting engines during WW2. Bill had continued the family tradition of ivory turning, which stretched back all the way (potentially) to the end of the 18th century.  The thought of the set being made by Bill was planted when I read that Bill has worked on engines in the RAF, and was renowned for his turned thread chasing (which would marry with the beautifully made, screw together pieces).

However, one other ivory set, again attributed to Bertram Jones, leads me to stick with the Bertam attribution, due to the similarity of the knights' faces - this set is in Holger Langer's exquisite collection.

The set came within a fitted case, which would appear to be from the same period - and so I presume was original to the set (though it differs in form to the one that Guy's set came in).