The Lewis Chessmen - Workmanship
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- čas přidán 11. 09. 2024
- In the second installment of 4 short films made for the British Museum, curator James Robinson uncovers who made the pieces and indentifies how the chess set was made, its materials and the workmanship of the Lewis Chessmen.
This short film was made for the British Museum.
I'm an artist, sculptor, and I love to learn. I used to carve mammoth ivory decades ago...the only drawback is the smell of burning teeth on top of the whining drill (dentist nightmares). It turns out a beautiful caramel color. After watching your video, I'm fantasizing acquirting a walrus tusk to play with, with my Dremel. Thank you.
Thank you for your video and all comments.
'She Moved Through The Fair' - an old folk tune playing in the background
Thank you! Looked up
Caitlin Grey's version of the song, available here on CZcams.
much more needs to be said about the style and details of the various pieces.
This has to be the most human thing ever. “I’m going to make a chess set. I know, I’ll use the tusks and teeth of other animals”
I'm hungry. Think I'll eat another animal.
Believe it or not, ivory was the standard material used for chess sets prior to wood becoming the standard in the 19th and 20th century.
The queen was having a toothache
These belong on Lewis where they were found
This is the queen I have in my replica set! cool
Toothache would have been a serious problem back before dentists with anaesthetics. The queen is holding her cheek because she has toothache. Her medicine is in the horn in her other hand. Most likely ground cloves. Just my opinion.
That’s possible. I personally believe that she’s actually mourning the men going off to die in war. The horn she holds could hold some kind of drink, perhaps to help her through her mourning.
The queen may be a very powerful piece in modern chess; but back in those days the queen was much weaker, moving only one space diagonally, and only had the purpose of staying in the back to defend the king - while the other pieces marched towards their doom.
Why isn’t he wearing gloves. The grease from his hands could be damaging.
Im not sure do those objects belongs to Britain really . ...
The chessmen were buried on the island of Lewis, one of the Hebrides on the West coast of Scotland. The people who made them and owned them were raiders/traders/settlers from Scandinavia, who had built a civilization on parts of the British coast. The British have not stolen them from anybody.
Objects and artefacts travel the globe, together with the people who made them, traded in them, lost them, gave them away or stole them.
Of course objects derived from robbery in the past should be returned if possible. And I mean 'possible' in the sense that in many cases it will not be easy to decide who is the rightful owner.
Don't assume that any object that is found where you wouldn't expect it must have been stolen.
The chess pieces were allegedly found by a farmer. The farmer sold them to a collector who later sold the majority of the pieces to the British Museum. The remaining 11 pieces he sold to the Museum of Scotland.
In my opinion, a lost treasure that is discovered by someone, on their land, is their property. They can then sell their property to whoever they like. They sold it to someone who sold it to the British Museum. Seems fair to me.