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Fernando wrote:It happens to everybody that the most beautiful boards and pieces cannot be used for actual playing. They distract the attebntion, does not distinguish very well between them, etc.
Always they finish in a table as ornaments or in a closet or drawer or cellar with so many other derelicts and un-useful things...
Fern
Actually it's quite a nice set for playing as well, it's just that it's too large to take elsewhere just for kicks and I don't want it to get damaged.
That is an awesome antique set from someone that collects antique and vintage schach tools!
Happy Collecting Regards,
John
Cheers. The thing is, I don't know if it's actually antique or if it was custom made for Pa's retirement. All I know for sure is that it's hand-carved, but beyond that things get a little fuzzy. I don't even know where the customs agents got it (though given their job we could make some amusing speculation) and it's far too late to ask them (they will all be dead or most likely so, if Pa were still alive he'd turn 100 this year).
I can say, however, that the pieces and the table look no different now than I remember them as a child, so they could very well be antique (my early memories of them would be only a few years after Pa's retirement). All I can guarantee is that it's at least four decades old.
In the 20's and 30's Egypt was on fashion due to the Tutankhamen tomb discovery and all that, so I imagine some very good artisan made these pieces in UK.
Fernando wrote:¡¡Beautiful!!!
Your dad was a man of good taste...
Fern
Grandfather actually, on my mother's side. Not as famous as the American branch of the family (look at the inscription on the case and if you think *that* family and '64, the answer is yes).
Fernando wrote:In the 20's and 30's Egypt was on fashion due to the Tutankhamen tomb discovery and all that, so I imagine some very good artisan made these pieces in UK.
Fern
Ah, that does indeed make a lot of sense and I can see why the customs agents might have gone for something of that era since Pa joined the department in '33 and stayed until his retirement (save for a period between '41 and '45 when he served in WWII).
Did he tell you some histories of his service in war?
It is interesting stuff.
I have a friend 84 years old that run as a child from Varsov the same day it was being bombed by the Luftwaffe. Then he went to Italy and so and so. He lives in Chile since the end of the war.
Fernando wrote:Did he tell you some histories of his service in war?
It is interesting stuff.
I have a friend 84 years old that run as a child from Varsov the same day it was being bombed by the Luftwaffe. Then he went to Italy and so and so. He lives in Chile since the end of the war.
Fern
He didn't. The last thing that generation would do is inflict that kind of tale on family. However, a friend of mine is a military historian and was able to track down a few things regarding the service Pa did.
I know he saw action in Papua New Guinea while serving in 2/4 Cavalry (i.e. tiny little tanks with a tendency to roll over when they went into a ditch, he took photos of some of that and I'm pretty sure Mum's got them). He collected a few little souvenirs, I've got an Imperial compass somewhere around here (though the chain has been replaced). If I recall correctly he was in the Battle of Buna, but I'd have to double-check what Carl (the historian) sent me. He also missed getting caught up in the Fall of Singapore by a stroke of good fortune and an attentive Governor (who prevented them shipping out because he determined that every man present had not received enough training, three days later the colony fell to the Japanese). For the rest I'd have to find the emails Carl sent (with all the more specific references).
Thank you pal.
In my family the last guy that saw some -cover- action was me in 1978 and then my grand uncle in WWI, as a french soldier. Before that, some gran grand etc in franco prusian war.
Yours GD was a great war, open and just.
Fernando wrote:Thank you pal.
In my family the last guy that saw some -cover- action was me in 1978 and then my grand uncle in WWI, as a french soldier. Before that, some gran grand etc in franco prusian war.
Yours GD was a great war, open and just.
Fern
Well, it was hardly anything I did.
Actually all four of my grandparents served in WWII, though I only knew three of them. My father's father sustained injuries in a bombing raid of the base he was in and that contributed to his death twenty years later.
As for the rest of my family, they mostly managed to sidestep Vietnam in one way or another, but the most recent one is one of my baby cousins (they're all my baby cousins), in Afghanistan. He's a sapper in 1CER (well, actually he's a rupert, but hopefully not too many people hold that against him).
Happy Collecting Regards,
