Pawning the family treasure: Rare chess piece set to fetch up to £1m
A rare and long-lost medieval chess piece could fetch up to £1m at an auction in Edinburgh tomorrow.
Sotheby’s is putting a Lewis Chessman piece up for sale some 55 years after it was snapped up by an eagle-eyed Edinburgh antiques dealer for £5.
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The dealer’s family has been keeping the walrus ivory piece tucked away ever since, unaware of its importance and value before recently taking it to Sotheby’s London auction house.
The valuable figure is part of the Lewis chessmen set, which are a group of distinctive 12th century pieces which mostly reside in the British Museum, and is the first object from the Lewis hoard to have been discovered since 1831.
It is estimated to fetch between £600,000 to £1m at tomorrow's auction in Edinburgh.
The medieval chess piece could sell for £1m at Sotheby’s London auction house (credit: Sotheby's London)
A family spokesperson said: "My grandfather was an antiques dealer based in Edinburgh, and in 1964 he purchased an ivory chessman from another Edinburgh dealer. It was catalogued in his purchase ledger that he had bought an ‘Antique Walrus Tusk Warrior Chessman’. From this description it can be assumed that he was unaware he had purchased an important historic artefact.
"For many years it resided in a drawer in her home where it had been carefully wrapped in a small bag."
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The hoard comprised 93 objects, the majority carved from walrus ivory, which could make four complete sets of figure pieces, with the exception of one Knight and four Warders. In addition to the 59 chessmen, there were 19 pawns and 14 flat, circular games pieces and one belt buckle (the only outsider in the hoard).
"With fond memories from my childhood of the brilliantly animated television series that paid full tribute to the inspiration of the Lewis hoard, this is one of the most exciting and personal rediscoveries to have been made during my career," said Alexander Kader, Sotheby’s co-worldwide head of european sculpture & works of art.
He added: "Today all the chessmen are a pale ivory colour, but the new Lewis Warder’s dark tone clearly has the potential to offer valuable and fresh insight into how other Lewis chessmen may have looked in the past."