Royal Blue Pottery Luxury Chess Set

The border is the reason to look twice. Lotus rosettes and trailing vine, painted in cobalt on a white ground, drawn from the blue pottery tradition of Jaipur - a decorative language usually reserved for tiles and vases, applied here to the four margins of a chessboard. The squares inside are left plain: deep blue against off-white, so the ornament frames the game without competing with it.

The chessmen follow a straightforward Staunton pattern in boxwood, finished in high-gloss lacquer - royal blue against ivory-toned white. The gloss is what carries the set.

It picks up light along the shoulder of the king, the collar of the queen, the mane of the knight, and reads as a piece of finished object rather than a game component. Each man is weighted and felted, with green baize discs that sit flush against the board.

Two additional queens are included, so promotions are handled properly rather than with an inverted rook.

The set packs into a black canvas case that zips shut on three sides. The board mounts inside the lid; the men sit in individual die-cut recesses in green flocked foam, each one held in place. A stitched handle at the top edge means the whole set travels as a single flat parcel - under an arm, into a car, onto a shelf.

Specifications

• Board: 45 × 45 cm (17.7” × 17.7”), lacquered finish, hand-painted blue pottery border

• Squares: 42 mm (1.65”)

• Playing area: 33.6 × 33.6 cm (13.2” × 13.2”)

• King height: 89 mm (3.5”)

• Chessmen: boxwood, lacquered in royal blue and ivory white

• Weighted, felted bases

• 34 pieces - full set plus two extra queens

• Includes zippered canvas carry case with fitted piece storage