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Vintage Puzzle Ball Chess Set
Beautiful, large size, unique design "puzzle ball" Chess set. Great production in Ivory, with superb high quality polished of an intricately carved chess set making this authentic and original. Visible Schreger lines. At least three layers of puzzle balls are visible.
Many of these sets were made in the first half of the 20th century. The kings stand at an impressive 5". All pieces are very skillfully crafted. Especially the Knights are very unique. Instead of the usual horses' heads, these Knights come with a rearing miniature horse on top of an ivory pillar.
Each piece incorporates a puzzleball knob, i.e. a hollow orb with one or more smaller carved balls free to move around inside. It is almost incomprehensible how something like this can even be crafted. The outer orbs itself are richly ornamented and are depicting a Chinese dragon looping the orb with its body. The two dark dots visible on some of the pieces are not stains, but are the eyes of the dragon.