This good picture of a Pepys set is from Keats book, Chessmen for collectors, and is one of the best photographed examples I could find. However he, (Keats) makes no attempt to correct the commonly held misunderstanding that this set was given to Samuel Pepys by James2, It wasn't , as they weren't made until the 19c.
Here is the offending set, The board is probably right, the set isn't.
Pieces from a 19c 'Onion set' (no pun intended) Bertram Jones made several of these for Mackett- Beeson in the 1950s sutiably 'distressed' for sale as 'antique in M.B.s shop. Bill Jones made a few in the 1960s for Walther Bach
An example of a 20c "pepys" set, by Bill Jones. He calls them "onion sets" for obvious reasons, This picture is from his book, Notes from the Turning Shop.
And the same set at auction.
Another 20c example by Bills father, Bertram Jones. Note the knight, done in the Archangelisk style, Makes me wonder if Bertram had been making copies of Russian sets for Mackett-Beeson too.
Extra decoration on this one, what a beauty!
Here we have two similar, Pepys pawns, both should show signs of being of Indian manufacture. However the screw threads tell a different story.
The two threads on the left are English, and belong to the leftmost pawn in the last picture. The thread on the top right is clearly of Indian manufacture, and belongs to the left most pawn in the first picture.
A closer view of the two threads.
The Indian thread. Note the tapered saw tooth profile.
The English thread. Note the paralell sides and the balanced shape of the thread shape.
This is an example of an object which would have been made on a 19c ornamental lathe, Lathe manufacturers were, Holtzappfel, Fenn, Evans,Birch. etc. These lathes were made from the very end of the 18c to the beginning of the 20c
This object would have been made on a "rose engine" or swage plate lathe and could date from 16c See The Erbach Museum for more examples.
Two rose water sprinklers in Portobello Road 27/10/07, £1,000
