must-have ! Old Cantonese (Puzzle Ball) Hand-carved Ivory Pre-1950 Chess Set, MEDIUM-SIZED

The first half of the 20th Century brought us this hand-made Cantonese medium-sized ivory chess set. A Cantonese chess set is one where there is a puzzle ball carved into the base of the pedestal of each piece. For perspective, the kings are the tallest pieces, and they stand 6 1/4” tall. This set appears to be the work of the Hang-On Factory in Hong-Kong, though there is no documentation to that effect. It is typical of their work, however.

This is a complete chess set, and it comes with a chess board that doubles as a case, but there are a number of really important caveats:

1. While the provenance of this set before I came to purchase it assorted years back is not known, it is incredibly clear that this set was not well cared for. There was some word that it was involved in a house fire, and while it suffered no burn damage, it was on the ground floor of a home that contained several apartment units on the upper floor, and the water used to put out the fire cascaded down to the ground.