Artist’s chess set brought back to life after more than 50 years
Artist and sculptor Tony Pizzey was an admirer of the Lewis chess set in the British Museum. In 1964, inspired by the film ‘The Seventh Seal’, which begins with the figure of Death playing chess with a knight on a Danish beach, he set out to design his own porcelain chess set. For technical reasons, he couldn’t complete the set and in 1965 he moved on to a new project. He only returned to it in 2016 when changes in technology allowed the set to be finished. He saw a complete version of the set for the first time in Christmas 2016 and passed away in March 2017. The project has continued and has been developed further as a legacy to his memory.
In keeping with Tony’s original design, each chess piece has been handmade, finished in porcelain and is housed in a beautiful wooden lasered box in keeping with his love of pyrography.
Please get in touch to find out more.
The limited edition Cotham Chess Set
“Tony’s idea was to make each piece individually carved by hand, which I thought was not a good way to go, far too labour intensive. I came up with the idea of casting the pieces in porcelain.”
Leighton Clark (fellow teacher)
“It was a spur of the moment decision to call him eighteen months ago and it was wonderful that we were able to meet again. His memory will remain with me as it did during those decades when life took us along different paths.”
Nigel Hall 2019 (sculptor and fellow student at the RWA)