Chess Sets out of Salt and Pepper Shakers

I came across this article and thought it was interesting and fun: From the New York Times FORAGING; Chess Sets Seasoned To Taste By FRED BERNSTEIN Published: June 14, 2002 I HAVE been wandering New York City's restaurant supply district, a four-block stretch along the Bowery just below Houston Street. In each store, I ask to see the salt and pepper shakers. The smallest shakers -- clear glass cubes not much larger than dice, with tiny metal tops -- range from $5 to $10 a dozen, depending on the store. I have already bought 16 of these. Now I need 16 more in a variety of shapes and sizes. The shakers will become part of a chess set, an item I created as a bar mitzvah gift for a boy whose main interests were chess and restaurants. Making that first set was harder than it looked. For nearly a week, I rode my bike to the Bowery each day, picked through bins of shakers, brought my discoveries home to the West village, and tried them out in different combinations. I wanted kings that were distinguishable from queens, that were distinguishable from bishops, and so on. There is nothing worse than a chess set in which you can't tell the pieces apart. But the shakers had to have a similar feel -- no cut glass, or colors that would detract from the clean look I was seeking. (Half of the pieces would be filled with salt, and half with pepper, though I have also experimented with fish-tank gravel, which is more colorful and less expensive.) Some of the pieces were easy; the tiny cubes, sold by the dozen, were ideal pawns. For the bishops, I found shakers whose glass bodies resembled flowing robes. For the rooks, which I know as castles, I needed something squarish, almost architectural. As for the knights, well, I knew no shaker would look like a knight; I would settle for anything shorter than the bishops and narrower than the rooks. The real challenge was finding kings and queens that towered above the other pieces, but would fit on a tabletop chessboard. My inspiration, if you want to call it that, came when I decided that a cruet -- the kind most restaurants use for oil and vinegar -- would make a perfect king: full-bodied, with a pointed, if somewhat tinny, crown (picture Henry VIII in glass). Cruets are about $1.25. With a bulbous shaker as queen, I had my (slightly stereotypic) royals. Only once, when I saw an octagonal pair that reminded me of castles, was I tempted to steal shakers from a restaurant. As it was, I ended up with so many rejects I could be donating shakers to restaurants. I still needed a board with squares big enough to accommodate the cruet kings. I looked at large wooden boards at a chess store, but they were more than $100. Then, at ABC Carpet, on Broadway at 19th Street, I spotted a checkerboard-patterned sisal carpet and measured the squares (which were 2-by-2 inches). I asked if I could buy a 16-by-16-inch rug. The salesman, who like anyone who has worked in Manhattan long enough, is inured to special requests, wrote up the order. Did he think I was carpeting a closet? Having the sisal edged drove the price of the ''board'' to more than $40. All that was left to do was to fill the pieces with rock salt and peppercorns. I have given out four or five of the chess sets, and each time I try new combinations of shakers. On my last visit, I found Balter, at 209 Bowery, which had the largest variety of shakers I have seen -- though little patience for someone like me, whose entire order fit into a knapsack. ''Our customers buy in bulk,'' one woman snapped. Indeed, buying two of anything in the restaurant supply district is like asking McDonald's for two French fries. She told me the shakers I wanted were sold only as part of a set, with a stainless-steel caddy, for $18. When I suggested that the manufacturer must sell the shakers separately, as replacement parts, she reluctantly inquired. After a long discussion, she hung up the phone, said, ''I'm never ordering from them again,'' and inexplicably offered to sell me the shakers for $3 each. That is a lot for a clear glass shaker, but I took four. They will be part of a set I am planning to give as a gift next week. I am still trying to decide if they will be knights or bishops.