Home - Jacobson Handmade Chessmen

This website showcases unique, wooden chessmen designed and handmade by South African born artist-designer, Porat Jacobson.

JHC Artisan Sets

The sets offered here are the product of a single artist: all are original creations, with the individuality of a work of art. Sets are turned and carved one-by-one from hard woods (boxwood, pear, maple, cherry, walnut or plane wood, to name a few), with a care and attention to detail and an eye on the design integrity of the whole. If you own a Jacobson Handmade Chessmen (JHC) set you can boast it being one of its kind: every set is different – either in design or material.

Although aesthetics and craftsmanship guide the process, the designs stay focused on playability, as opposed to other more ornamental or figurative artisan sets. They are subsequently all suitable for casual and serious over-the-board play.

Current Sets:

JHC #15

Lady Staunton

The 2nd design in the “Sister Series”.

Although this sets uses the typical Staunton base, the absent element, common to all Staunton designs, is the collar system. This is replaced with a kind of upper torso, which is a simpler resolution of the stem to head transition. The result is a more organic line and allows for a more comfortable grip of the piece when moved.

Like the Cleo design, this set adheres to the basic FIDE guidelines regarding piece identifiability, recommended piece height /diameter, and “playability”.

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