The Thistle and the Rose Chess Set Returns!

Hola darlings!

Before Christmas I was contacted by a person who owns a COMPLETE Thistle and Rose chess set, and I was about swooning over the prospect of publishing the photos he promised to send me.  True to his word, these arrived before Christmas, but I've only just now am publishing them:

I apologize for the lopsided photos. When I downloaded I saved them oriented the best way to view them, but for a reason unknown to me (and one I cannot figure out how to correct), they are posting here all cock-eyed. But I hope you will be able to enjoy them, nonetheless.

He has the pawns!!!!  He received the complete set (with board) as a gift from a neighbor some 30 years ago who, I hope I've got this correctly -- himself received it as gift during a business trip.  My set, in contrast, was collected over several flights by Ms. JS when she worked for an oil company and was a frequent flyer on British Caledonia Airlines.

I've tried, off and on, for a few years to collect some pawns -- unsuccessfully.  E-bay is a bait pit when it comes to Thistle and Rose pawns, as I learned the hard way.  I didn't know -- before --  that E-bay allows vendors to rig the bidding.  Now I know better, and I don't shop at E-bay anymore.  I refuse to be cheated.  I've therefore no pawns for my efforts to join the beautiful pieces that were gifted to me by Judith S. some years ago, before she retired from our mutual employer.  Goddess bless her, she knew I was "into" chess and wanted to pass her Beneagle's pieces along to someone she figured would appreciate them.

I am forever grateful to you, Judith!  I posted about this wonderful gift earlier:

September 8, 2009:  An Unexpected Gift
October 1, 2011:  More on the Beneagles Thistle and Rose Pieces

I probably won't ever own the pawns to complete my set, as Mr. T (I will call him, as I do not recall whether I obtained his consent to publish his name, and I was too lazy to check back through our email correspondence to find out, duh!) helpfully sent me a link to The Whiskey Exchange to illustrate what full sets of the Beneagle's Thistle and Rose are going for now -- 499 BPS (British Pounds Sterling) for a full set without board and 599 BPS with the board.  Holy Hathor!  [Does anyone remember Mr. T from the television series "The A Team?"  One of my favorite shows!]

More photos are promised, and I will post them when they arrive.  Such a lovely set! I am NOT a collector but, by default, I happen to own three chess sets, two of which I've purchased over the years because I fell in love with them (not collector-worthy) and one set that was a gift (the Lewis Chess pieces set), plus my incomplete Thistle and Rose set (also a gift).  I also own a USCF regulation set with a roll-up board and woven vinyl shoulder case to hold the lot. I believe I paid something like $14 for the entirety, on sale a few years ago.  Woo woo! 

Now maybe I'm crazy (a likely possibility) -- but I dug out my research from a few years ago and found some interesting things price-wise:

June 29, 2009, a "Wade Full Set of White (Rose) Chess Pieces Beneagles - winning bid: GPB 51.00.  I believe that pawns were not included, as the photograph on the E-bay entry that printed out on Septenber 8, 2009 showed only the major pieces.

Also printed out on September 8, 2009, an auction preview sheet from Scotchwisky.com, Lot 634, estimated at 400 - 600 BPS, pieces minus whisky and I'm not clear from the description whether pawns were included, but a "copper chess-board" was included.

On October 1, 2011 I printed out an auction offering (Tennants Auctioneers) offering a full set of "Wade porcelain ches pieces designed by Ann Whittet and Fredrick Mellor, a bottle of Beneagles Etra Special Scotch Whisky, 26 2/3 Fl. Oz., 70 degree proof, in original cellophane wrapper, a copper effect chess board and information leafelet, in original box."  Estimated price 100 - 200 BPS.

If I haven't written this before, Fredrick Mellor worked for eorge Wade & Sons, Ltd., Stoke-on-Trent, and the pieces were "fashioned in the fine Wade Porcelain at Portadown in Northern Ireland."

More on the Beneagles Thistle and Rose Pieces

In 2009 I received an unexpected gift of sixteen pieces of the Thistle and Rose chess pieces.  You can read about it here. 

Today I pulled out the bag I've stored the wrapped pieces in and took them out.  I do not have pawns, unfortunately.  I would love to have the matching pawns.  It appears that they were sold separately as boxed sets (white and black separately) and are rare.  I haven't been able to locate any for sale online.  Not that I could afford to buy them anyway, I expect they are selling (if at all) at a premium.  

I've been examining the pieces I received.  The white pieces are a creamy color, they are not bright white porcelain.  Also, the pieces are dusty.  The ones that were out of the box I assume were displayed and that is why they are dusty.  There is dust on the unboxed black pieces too. 

Of the black pieces, the King, Queen and one John Knox serving as the Bishop did not come boxed.  There are also two unboxed black towers.  There are three boxed black pieces: one John Knox and two William Wallace, who served as the black Knight.

Of the white pieces, the King, Queen and one Thomas a' Becket serving as the Bishop did not come boxed.  There are also two unboxed white towers.  There are three boxed white pieces: one Thomas a' Becket and two Sir Francis Drake, who served as the white Knight.

As far as I can tell, there are no dates on the boxes but I'm no expert, I may not be looking for the right thing or not looking in the right place.  According to information I found at "Beneagles Chess" website the boxes my pieces are in are "late," as the box design was changed somewhat from the box that holds the "early" pieces.  None of the boxes I have has a dark border line all around the perimeter near the bottom, which is the indication of an "early" boxed piece. 

I would like to learn more about these pieces/sets.  How many were actually fired?  Hundreds of thousands?  I understand that the pieces were given out in First Class on British Caledonia flights.  The lady who gave me the pieces travelled frequently in the 70's into the early 80's for her oil company employer.  She lived in London for a number of years and travelled back and forth between Canada , the US and the UK frequently. 

Peter Thomson (Perth) Ltd. issued the pieces individually, aside from the pawns, and they were filled with Beneagles 70 proof blended Scotch.  The pieces were designed by Ann Whittet, an artist from Perth, Scotland, and were modeled by Frederick Mellen of George Wade & Sons Ltd, Stoke-on-Trent, England.  I understand the pieces were fired at the Wade Porcelain complex in Northern Ireland. 

The black pieces are:

KING:  Robert the Bruce (`1274 - 1329) Scotland's patriot king
QUEEN:  Mary, Queen of Scots (1542-1587)
BISHOP:  John Knox (1505 - 1572), Scottish religious reformer
KNIGHT:  William Wallace (1274-1305), patriot and national hero of Scotland
CASTLE/ROOK:  Scottish Tower House (15th century)

The white pieces are:

KING:  Henry VIII (1491 - 1547)
QUEEN:  Elizabeth I (1533 - 1603), the "Virgin Queen"
BISHOP:  Thomas a' Becket (1118 - 1170) Archbishop of Canterbury in 1162, martyred
KNIGHT:  Sir Francis Drake (1540 - 1596), one of England's greatest sailors and probably a lover of Elizabeth I
CASTLE/ROOK:  Norman English Tower (12th century)

Many photographs of the various pieces can be found elsewhere on line.  I haven't yet photographed my pieces. 

The bottom of each piece has embossed letters but it's difficult for me with my bad close-up eyesight (even with glasses) to make out some of the letters, or possibly some of them are numbers.  Looking at the black king, "Beneagles Scotch Whisky" can be discerned; beneath this lettering, two undecipherable letters or numbers, a forward slash, the letters "WFM7" and possibly "A."

Ahhh, I think I may be on to something -- looking at the black queen piece now, it looks like "B1" or "81," forward slash, "WFM74" or "WFM7A."

The unboxed John Knox piece -- looks like "B9" or "B5," forward slash, "WFM74" or WFM7A."
The boxed John Knox has gold foil across the bottom and what is probably a cork in the bung hole, so I didn't remove it.

Both of my boxed William Wallace pieces have intact gold foil across the bottom and I assume corks intact.

Both black castle/rooks are unboxed but they have intact gold foil across the bottom and corks intact.  I didn't try to peek underneath!

Moving on to the white pieces, the king has foil on the bottom and intact cork; so does the queen.  However, the foil labels are different.  The queen's label is much simpler than that on the white king, which has "Product En Ecosse" and printed underneath that "Product of Scotland", and other information.  I'll have to take some photos of those labels.  The queen's label does not have the "Product En Ecosse" or "Product of Scotland" on it, and the eagle icon is larger than that on the king's label. 

Thomas a' Becket unboxed piece also has a label on it and intact cork, with a label that looks identical to that of the queen. The boxed Thomas a' Becket has what looks like "B9" or possible "89," forward slash, and "WFM76" - but it's a little hard to tell if it's actually a 6 or not because there is a firing flaw over part of the number - it's a little oval-shaped hole!  So, it might be a 5, or a 6.

Both of my white Francis Drakes are boxed.  On the first one I'm looking at, the first two letters/numbers are not well-impressed and looks something like "BIO" - maybe B10?, followed by a forward slash, and "WFM76."  "WFM76" is quite clearly impressed.  The second Francis Drake has an intact foil seal and cork and feels heavy -- is it possible after all these years it still has some whisky inside of it?  The label is the same type as that worn by the white king, described above, and includes "Product En Ecosse" and "Product of Scotland" imprinted.

I have two unboxed white castle/rooks.  One has a seal and cork intact and feels "heavy" - wondering the same thing as with the Francis Drake, does it still have some whisky in it???  The label is the plainer label like the black queen's label described above.  The other white castle/rook has imprinted what looks like "B11" or "811," a forward slash, then the letters "WFM76" or possibly "WFM7G" -- there is a slight "smut" by the number 6 that may make it look like a "G."

Sooo, I need to put a little table together with this information; but it appears at first glance that I have black pieces fired in 1974 and white pieces fired in 1976.  That's all I'm willing to hazard a guess at, for the present!

Those are my pieces.  I need to shop for a nice vitrine to install them in, out of harm's way.  They are too lovely to be buried away wrapped in tissue paper and toweling inside a paper shopping bag! 

Cleaning them - well, the pieces without corks and labels can be wet-washed, but the pieces with the intact foil labels and corks, I'll only be able to clean them with soft brushes and cloth, maybe a little water not anywhere near the label!  A couple are rather grubby looking.  The boxed pieces I'll just keep in the boxes for the time being.  I don't know if those pieces reside inside their original boxes -- I'm only leaving things as they came to me, as much as possible. But eventually, if I want to display the pieces, I'll have to remove one "Knight" piece each from the two boxed white and two boxed black that I have. 

An Unexpected Gift!

A little background: On Friday 9/4, as everyone who had to work at the office was grinding their teeth and counting the agonizing, never-ending minutes toward 5 p.m. and freedom for the 3-day Labor Day weekend, a particular lady stopped by my office during the lunch hour to linger over the candy dish I try to keep stocked with chocolates for stressed-out workers. That candy dish gets heavy traffic (from attorneys and staff). The lady and I have shared many agreeable conversations over the past seven years. This time, she caught me playing chess online, LOL - I was still working on my training games at redhotpawn.com prior to my upcoming weekend match with Shira. "Oh," she said. "Chess!" We got into a discussion, and soon I was going on and on about the Shira Chess Challenge and some of the sponsorships for chess femmes Goddesschess has been putting out there - small but we hope to grow them over time. She listened politely, and I shut up finally, when it dawned on me - DUH! - that I was boring her to tears with my "other full-time career."

This morning: I walked into my office, turned on the light, turned around to reach down underneath the desk to turn on the hard drive and an array of chess pieces were sitting there next to my computer screen, before my amazed eyes! What the - I honestly do not think I can describe what I felt at that moment! Almost instantly my eyes registered that there were 16 pieces - the "royalty" - no pawns. Six of the pieces were still in boxes that read "British Caledonian," showing a picture of the piece within on one side and other information provided on each of the remaining sides of the box.

I knew who had left those chess pieces, a complete set of major pieces for black and white with some duplicates of both the black and white pieces. I emailed her my thanks, and suggested I could not accept such a valuable gift, because surely these were collectibles! Then - in between bursts of work - I did a no-no and researched those chess pieces and confirmed that they are certainly not dimestore ware! A little later she came to my office and said no no, I want you to have them, and she explained why she wanted me to have them. I asked only that she send me an email describing the particulars of how she had collected these pieces, and she obliged.

I cannot begin to tell you how much this gift means to me. I don't care about any potential monetary value for my own part, I didn't want her to give away something that could be valuable financially, not to mention embued with so many priceless memories... But that is exactly why she wanted to give them to me, because, I think, she knows that I will appreciate those confidences and wonderful memories connected with each piece, and chess in general, and the role it played in her life.

This is NOT my set! I need to take photographs of my pieces.

A history of George Wade and Son, the pottery that made the Thistle and the Rose chess pieces.

These pieces (photo above - the white major pieces) look identical to my pieces (minus pawns), except my pieces, even those in the boxes, don't have those "stamp tax" seals on them, and the rooks (towers) do not have the gold wrap (or whatever it is) near their tops. From Carlopeto's Figural Mini-bottles.

Information about British Calendonian and The Thistle and The Rose Beneagles Whisky Chess Set.