Description
This charming 1st addition vintage pocket chess set is circa 1950 and in near-fine condition. Published by Robinson & Sons Ltd Chesterfield in England, it contains twin boards and can be used for chess or checkers! The game pieces are made of hard cardboard with the corresponding chess and queen rows on the back. The board can be folded in half, please note that it is a double board, which is very useful for practicing or studying chess moves when traveling.
Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp learned to play chess as a child taught by his elder brothers in 1902 the year he painted his first painting. The game of chess inspired Duchamp's art. He would go on to incorporate chess as a theme into several important works such as The Chess Game 1910, Portrait of Chess Players 1911 and Nude Descending a Staircase (No. 2) 1912, all of which are in the permanent collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Duchamp created a pocket chess set in 1943, shortly after he fled from wartorn France to New York. Planning to produce and market hundreds of them to chess enthusiasts with the guarantee that the pinned pieces would remain in place during travel, he exhibited it as a work of art at The Imagery of Chess, an exhibition he co-organized in December 1944. After his nomadic expedition, sailing from southern France to New York and living with friends before finding his own studio, Duchamp was keenly aware of wartime and developed a reliable travel chess set as a solution for such exile. Duchamp's Pocket Chess Set 1943 is also part of the Philadelphia Museum of Art's collection.
- Printed in 1950
- Game: 7 1/2" x 5"
- Dust jacket included: 8 3/4" x 5 3/4"
- Bright attractive copy in a complete envelope
