Chessmen (32) and box

This set was the prize at a chess tournament between the cities of Aachen and Leipzig in 1887. The glass-topped box has a paper label reading: "Zur Erinnerung an die 3 Schachparthien zwischen Aachen & Leipzig vom 16/11 84 - 9/8 85" [In memory of three chess matches between Aachen and Leipzig from November 16, 1884, to August 9, 1885]. The winner of the matches was Leipzig. Germany produced a number of these elegantly made chess sets, usually of wood, but occasionally of ivory. Even more fragile chessmen were made in Denmark. A set in the Danish Museum of Industrial Art has "crow's nests" of lacy forms and twisting stems of triple "threads." A peculiarity with the knight is the development of two addorsed horse heads, a form that goes back to the early seventeenth century. In some sets there is nothing to indicate that the piece is associated with a horse, and it is distinguished by an incomplete ruff, or a cut aslant. This design occurs as early as the 17th century.