F.H.Ayres staunton set, c1890-1900

A wonderful small club staunton set by F.H.Ayres, I would say easily rivalling the quality of Jaques sets from this era.  The set has developed a very pleasing and desirable toffee patina on the white side, and just needs a couple of crosses to be made for the kings to finish it off (there's a rather poor stand-in cross in the main photo at present). 

The majority of Ayres sets have knights without drilled eyes, and I have always assumed that the drilled eye sets pre-date the non-drilled eyed sets - and also that the non-drilled eyed sets were made in the late Victorian period through to the 1920s or 30s.  However, I have recently seen an Ayres set for sale, identical to this one, which was originally given as a tournament prize to a "Rev A.W.J.A Row, West Drayton Chess Club 1902", which has given me pause for thought around the order of the dating of the non-drilled sets.  There is, of course, the possibility that the set was older, or had sat in a shop storeroom for a number of years before being sold...or indeed that the Rev'd particularly liked an older set that the club had, and the prize was to claim ownership of any set within the club. Indeed, the one piece of "concrete" evidence that I have seen regarding Ayres is the well known advert in Benetfink's catalogue from 1899, and that shows what I believe is the non-drilled eye sets.  On reflection, I am still drawn towards the drilled eyes pre-dating the non-drilled eyes, but am always open to hearing (and learning!) from other collectors on this matter.