{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O87441"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O87441/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2013GD7901/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2013GD7901/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2013GD7901","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2013GD7902","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2013GD7903","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2013GD7904","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2013GD7905","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2013GD7906","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2013GD7907","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2013GD7908","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2013GT9459","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006BF8876","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AE9430","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KC5219","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017JU9214","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O87441/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O87441","accessionNumber":"8987-1863","objectType":"Chess-piece","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"This is a chess-piece, made in England in the mid-thirteenth century. Throughout the ages artists and craftsmen have made virtuoso carvings as a display of their skill and ingenuity. Although ivory, wood and stone are relatively easy to carve, other materials such as gemstones are much more demanding. Most of these carvings were made for wealthy patrons and collectors, who delighted in the rarity of the material and quality of the carving. \nThe quality of the carving in this chess piece makes it unique. Although slightly damaged, it is one of the finest 13th-century ivory carvings in existence. As well as a king, the carving shows seven soldiers defending a castle, its walls covered with leafy foliage.\nBy 1200 chess was a popular game in Europe, having been brought from India via the Middle East in the early medieval period. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries the playing of chess became established as a courtly – and courting – pastime par excellance, as numerous references to it in written Romances, illustrations in manuscripts and depictions on works of art attest. \r\nBy the beginning of the Gothic period the principal pieces had already taken human form. The castle though does not appear to have taken the form of a building until the sixteenth century, and is most often represented as a mounted figure not unlike a knight. It is no9teworthy that hardly any chessboards have survived. The overwhelming majority of chess pieces were made in non-Parisian workshops and the most active workshops were based further north, in Scandinavia, Germany and England\r\n\r\nThe game of chess has from its inception carried chivalric and military associations. These qualities made the game a suitable intellectual pastime for the elite of Renaissance Europe. Luxury chess boards and finely carved chess pieces became common possessions in palaces from Italy to England and as today, color was used to distinguish between opposing chessmen. \r\n","physicalDescription":"Ivory chess-piece, probably a king consisting of a medieval castle with two tiers of battlements defended by seven soldiers and a king carved in the round; beneath the lower crenellated parapet of the castle, the wall is pierced by round windows, out of which figures are looking.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Unknown","id":"A1848"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"ivory","id":"AAT11857"}],"techniques":[{"text":"carving","id":"AAT53149"},{"text":"relief","id":"AAT53622"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Walrus ivory carved in relief","categories":[{"text":"Games","id":"THES48947"},{"text":"Sculpture","id":"THES48896"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"SCP","id":"THES48600"},"images":["2013GD7901","2013GD7902","2013GD7903","2013GD7904","2013GD7905","2013GD7906","2013GD7907","2013GD7908","2013GT9459","2006BF8876","2006AE9430","2017KC5219","2017JU9214"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"111","id":"THES49918"},"free":"","case":"CA9","shelf":"2","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Chesspiece","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"England","id":"x28826"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"mid thirteenth century","earliest":"1225-01-01","latest":"1275-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[{"object":{"text":"REPRO.1886-109","id":"O1226852"},"association":"Duplicate"}],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"10.1","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"6.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"The object was acquired (probably in Paris) in 1863, for £8 16s.\n\nHistorical significance: The quality of the carving in this chess piece makes it unique. Although slightly damaged, it is one of the finest 13th-century ivory carvings in existence. As well as a king, the carving shows seven soldiers defending a castle, its walls covered with leafy foliage.","historicalContext":"Chess was a game enjoyed by people of rank. References to chess sets are found in English inventories and wills of Kings, Bishops and Earls.","briefDescription":"Chess-piece, walrus ivory, probably a king, English, mid thirteenth century","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"D. Porter, <u>Ivory Carving in Later Medieval England, 1200-1400</u>. State University of New York at Binghampton, PhD dissertation 1974 (2 vols in one),  vol II, cat. no. 20"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"<u>Country life.</u>  London : Country Life Ltd., 1897 -, February 16th, 1907, p. 229"},{"reference":{"text":"Longhurst, Margaret H. <i>English Ivories</i>, London, 1926","id":"AUTH333162"},"details":"no.XLVI, pp.99, 38, Pl. 42","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Inventory of Art Objects Acquired in the Year 1863 <u>In</u>: <u>Inventory of the Objects in the Art Division of the Museum at South Kensington, Arranged According to the Dates of their Acquisition. Vol I</u>. London: Printed by George E. Eyre and William Spottiswoode for H.M.S.O., 1868, p. 36"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Porter, D. A. <u>Ivory Carvings in later medieval Engalnd 1200-1400</u>. State University of New York at Binghampton, PhD dissertation, 1974, pp. 73-75"},{"reference":{"text":"Longhurst, Margaret H., <u>Catalogue of Carvings in Ivory</u>. Part II. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1929","id":"AUTH329986"},"details":"p.8","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"Maskell, W., <u>A Description of the Ivories Ancient and Medieval in the South Kensington Museum</u>, London, 1872","id":"AUTH330219"},"details":"pp. 38-39","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"Koechlin, R., <u>Les Ivoires gothiques français</u>, 3 vols, Paris, 1924 (reprinted Paris 1968)","id":"AUTH332728"},"details":"I, p. 470, note 1","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"Randall Jr., Richard H. <u>The Golden Age of Ivory. Gothic Carvings in North American Collections</u>, New York, 1993","id":"AUTH334011"},"details":"p. 120","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"Williamson, Paul and Davies, Glyn, <u>Medieval Ivory Carvings, 1200-1550</u>, (in 2 parts), V&A Publishing, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 2014","id":"AUTH332632"},"details":"part II, pp. 718-721","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"Williamson, Paul and Davies, Glyn, <u>Medieval Ivory Carvings, 1200-1550</u>, (in 2 parts), V&A Publishing, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 2014","id":"AUTH332632"},"details":"pp.718-721","free":""}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"kings (chessmen)","id":"AAT212342"},{"text":"soldiers","id":"AAT185678"},{"text":"castles","id":"AAT6891"},{"text":"body armour","id":"AAT36746"},{"text":"crowns (headdresses)","id":"AAT46020"},{"text":"weapons","id":"AAT36926"},{"text":"shields (armor)","id":"AAT36869"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["8987-1863"],"accessionNumberNum":"8987","accessionNumberPrefix":"","accessionYear":1863,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":["2019LN1015","2019LR0479","2019LX0298"],"recordModificationDate":"2025-08-21","recordCreationDate":"2003-12-16","availableToBook":false}}