F.H.Ayres Edinburgh Upright c1880

A solid, large example of an Edinburgh (or Northern) Upright set,  circa 1875, with kings standing at 4.25" with rather chunky proportions.  Though one must not be mislead into thinking that an upright set has anywhere near the presence of a staunton pattern set of equivalent height (see the photo comparison with a Jaques club sized king).  What this means is that these "large" sets can be played on quite modest sized boards - which accentuates the inherent (relative) instability of this design: tall pieces on a small board.

The knights lead me to think that this is a set made by F.H.Ayres, and is very similar in design to the Ayres set featured in Peter Armit's excellent article about Upright sets (The Chess Collector Magazine, Vol XXIX No.3 Nov' 2020).