Guy chesspurr,
this brings us to the question of why some chess enthusiast will start collecting chess sets. Now with chess clocks for example the matter is easy - only older clocks qualifiy, nobody in their right mind will collect digital timers (I suppose...), and the interest of both preserving and studying former technical achievements of human civilisation is quite clear.
Personally I thought the attitude of Ned Munger - as it comes across in his three well illustrated books - is very interesting: every chess set for him marks a stage of his life, as memos in his personal travel diary, and connected to some experience of his - he is collecting memories via chess sets. Teh sotries he tells are quite interesting - often more than the sets themselves... many of which would not be considered worthwhile by exacting collectors. Taken as a whole they are an astounding travelogue through the diversity of chess as a basic human cultural fact. I agree with You that carrying a large checkbook to an acution - or even picking down the ebay offers weekly - is a bit a redux way of collectionism - armchair hunting.
Respect to Your fellow man goes without saying - and respecting his foibles or interests as well. But what You are saying is there are no objective criteria, and all subjective criteria are equally valid. So on what base can ches collectors communicate sensibly - just admiring each others catches? or possibloy defining a scale of vailidty, dep. on objective facts and features of chess sets? And I am not saying down the chute with all modern chess sets, obviously.
I wd try for a tentative criteria scale that hinges on these terms:
- functional practicality for the exercice of the game of chess - as in beauty is founded in functionality. This wd distinguish good tournament sets from bad...,
- aesthetic or artistic excellence - historic sets fe like Vishnagatam, Berhampore, Macao, Calvert etc.,
- representativity of an ethnical time, set of mores or space,
- rare materials,
- size (size counts...),
- unikats by renowned artists (fe Dali's finger set),
- authentic homemade handicrafts sets (not hobby sets made by mass produced molds, or prefab parts to assemble etc.) ( that wd include a simple chess set made with bottle corks fe).
Now how You value these is an open field - Tournaments apt sets wd rate very high for me because chess is not just a cultural metapher, but also and mainly a competitive game and a an ongoing activity - like music it takes life from two players sitting down over a board - and good equipment improves the flavour of the match. Check for example the super b games of the Russian championship ending today on
www.russiachess.org/online
or Hastings.
cheers
Nicholas
