The Lewis Chessmen
About 1150 to 1200
Rows of small ivory figures gaze out from their case with wide eyes and worried expressions. Kings sit with swords across their knees, queens rest a cheek on one hand as if faced with bad news, bishops hold croziers, knights ride stocky ponies, and the rooks are foot soldiers biting the tops of their shields. Some pieces are stained red, the medieval equivalent of black. They are the most complete set of medieval chess pieces in the world, ninety three pieces in all, of which eighty two are here and eleven in Edinburgh.
The pieces are carved from walrus tusk and a few from whale teeth, and the workmanship points to Trondheim in Norway, then the capital of a sea empire that included the Hebrides. Look at the details: the queens' braided hair and pleated gowns, the elaborate thrones carved with vines and beasts, the knights' kite shields and stirrups. The shield biting rooks are berserkers, the frenzied warriors of the sagas. Each figure has its own personality, and once you begin looking for the grumpiest face you will not want to stop.
The hoard was discovered in eighteen thirty one on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, in a sand dune at Uig Bay, perhaps hidden by a merchant travelling between Norway and Ireland. Local stories tell of a cow uncovering the pieces or a farmer thinking them elves. The museum bought most of them the same year. In nineteen ninety the pieces inspired the wizard chess set in the Harry Potter films, and a single extra warder found in a drawer in Edinburgh sold at auction in twenty nineteen for seven hundred and thirty five thousand pounds.
Did You Know? A lost piece from the hoard, bought for five pounds in nineteen sixty four and kept in a drawer, was sold at auction in twenty nineteen for seven hundred and thirty five thousand pounds.
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