I wasn’t familiar with the 1849-1850 Leuchars Cook Staunton with its attractively broad bases, unique sloping knights, and stylish king’s and queen’s crowns until I discovered this reproduction at Royal Chess Mall. This tall crimson and white lacquered beauty is a regal masterpiece.
Perhaps because I own several 1890-1900 Whittington Pattern, peg-in travel sets with natural bone and cochineal red-dyed pieces, I desired a full-sized red and white set. Now I own one and it’s far grander than I anticipated. Quite frankly, my admiration grew and grew for this reproduction with each piece I freed from its protective foam wrap. What superior craftsmanship in the very well turned, perfectly symmetric pieces and pawns and the strikingly carved knights. I couldn’t help but fall in love with it.
Take heed, this is no tournament set for players to treat with careless abandon even under classical time controls. Naturally, that doesn’t describe all tournament players but enough for the owner of this fine set to be wary. In my opinion, this set should be kept at home and cherished by playing through the games of the grandmasters, past and present, or when analyzing your own games. Besides, at 2-inches the King’s base is far too wide for your typical tournament board sporting 2.25-inch squares. Some may concluded from my photos that a 2.375-inch square board is still too small. In that case, opt for a board with 2.5-inch squares (~65 mm).
I feel obligated to mention the single minor defect where the lacquer didn’t take. You have to look very closely to discover a light, 0.25-inch hairline at the base on a single red rook. This in no way detracts from the five star rating I gave this set.
In conclusion, I was so impressed with this reproduction I purchase two others from Royal Chess Mall: the 3.75-inch 1849 Jacques Cook Staunton Collectors Set in stained boxwood and ebony, and the same set in boxwood and blood rosewood. Those will be reviewed separately.
