Bone (!) Jaques Staunton, circa 1855?

A bone Staunton set, identified as by Jaques because it is identical to a set sold at a Charles Ross auction in April 2016 (now in the Dewey collection) which was (thankfully) stamped "Jaques London" to the base of the king, and with crown marks, as used for the early ivory sets, on the king's side rook and knight. Kings are 3.4" tall.

The knights are nicely carved, though not up to the standard of the wooden nor the ivory sets - bone being that much more difficult to work with. They have a very pronounced arch to their lower backs, which is a feature of early staunton sets.  I have included a photograph comparing the royals and rooks with an early dropjaw "Anderssen" set, and I think there is a strong argument that this bone set was produced around the same time, or slightly earlier, than the early Anderssen sets. I have also included a comparison, to scale, with an ivory Jaques Paulsen.

Since my first write up, where I thought that these sets may be prototypes or training pieces, there has been a very informative discussion on the Jaques Staunton Facebook page, led by Milissa Dewey and Sir Alan Fersht (worth checking out that page for Milissa's post about their set, with some fascinating information and videos of the pieces being unscrewed).  There are several known Jaques bone Staunton sets, at least two of which are stamped - with a Staunton-like set actually appearing in the Jaques pattern set pages, at the bottom of the barleycorn page (though with the more standard barleycorn knight).  I have yet to see a Staunton pattern set offered in bone in a price list or advert.