CHINESE CHESS
An ancient game where all the men are the same flat shape (distinguished by ideograms) and SHOGI, sets have always differentiated the men by shape. It is often said that the shape of chessmen became simple because of Muslim religious objections to the making of images of living creatures, but, with the exception of the relatively recent horse’ s as head for the Knight, this has always been the case with playing sets. The main criteria have been the simplicity of design and ease of production. In more recent centuries this has included the use of the lathe. The oldest-known complete chess set is the Isle of Lewis dated probably from the eleventh century AD. The SAINT GEORGE CHESSMEN and others of similar patterns were popular from the 18th century, but in the second half of the 19th century, STAUNTON CHESSMEN became the standard design. (Hooper D. and Whyld K.)
