Zoë Blade's notebook

British Birds chessmen

British Birds chessmen in Blade Runner
British Birds chessmen in Blade Runner

British Birds chessmen were an ornate style of chessmen sculpted by R. Fisher[1] for Remetex in the 1970s.[2]

As with all ornamental chessmen, what you gain in beauty and novelty you lose in piece recognition. They're great to look at, but less useful to actually play with, even with the birds perched upon symbols for the regular chess pieces.

The Kings are chained golden eagles perched atop large crowns; the Queens are (male) peacocks on smaller crowns; the Bishops are horned owls on mitres; the Knights are hooded peregrine falcons on gauntlets; and the Rooks are ravens atop towers with battlements.

There have been several iterations of the design. In earlier versions, White's Pawns are wrens, while Black's Pawns are kingfishers; in later ones, all Pawns are wrens, as their lower centre of gravity is more stable.[2]

A version with wren Pawns on both sides was used in the film Blade Runner, for J. F. Sebastian's iconic chess set, lit from underneath with a lightbox serving as a board.

Given their status as an iconic prop in a cult film known for its opulent visuals, it's perhaps little surprise that several clones of the chessmen exist, with varying degrees of both accuracy and detail.[3] The most accurate and official of these is sold by Hoyle's of Oxford.[4]

Being top-heavy and made out of artificial marble, they're also quite fragile,[5] further making them better suited for filming or displaying than actually playing chess with. But all of this is academic. They were made as well as they could make them.

History

The history of the set is somewhat hazy.

Hoyle's of Oxford claim that in the 1970s, Trevor Pepper of game shop Pepper Pastimes commissioned Remetex to make a set of bird-themed chessmen. When Trevor Pepper retired, Tony Robertson of Banbury Studios bought the stock and moulds (and presumably rights) to the set, and made a slightly modified version. This was later evolved even further, with the top-heavy kingfishers being replaced with sturdier wrens on both sides.[2] However, this seems somewhat contradicted by photos of an all-wrens set from Pepper Pastimes.[6]

At any rate, however it evolved, the all-wrens version is more stable, more consistent, and an iconic part of a cult film.

Long after the set's use in Blade Runner, Robertson died, with the stock and moulds (and, again, presumably rights) being bought by someone else, who migrated, then also died.[2]

Much later, photographer and Blade Runner fan Robert Jewett painstakingly assembled a complete set of British Birds chessmen from multiple sources, recast them, made period-accurate tools,[7] repaired those copies, extensively photographed them, and shared his work on the Replica Prop Forum.[8][2]

By this time, Hoyle's, who had been the main shop selling Banbury Studios sets, had obtained the rights to the British Birds set,[9][4] and were keen to find someone who had one so that they could recreate it. Jewett got in touch with them, and they got the official recreation into production.[2]

Naturally, it's also been cloned in a less official capacity.

The best one-off DIY clone by far is Rick Ross's. He made plausible fictional packaging, and a lightbox board on a stand that actually looks better than the prop used in the film, which had to be cunningly hidden behind piles of books.[10]

References

  1. "Hoyle's Great Birds Chess Set, Unboxing" Robert Jewett, Aug 2020
  2. "British Birds Chess Set" Hoyle's of Oxford
  3. "Blade Runner — Sebastian's Chess Set" Jintosh, The Replica Prop Forum, Jun 2020
  4. "Sebastian's Chess Set (Blade Runner, Great Birds)" Robert Jewett, The Replica Prop Forum, Jun 2020
  5. "Everything About Sebastian's Chess Set in One Place (Plus Extras You Have Never Seen)" Robert Jewett, The Replica Prop Forum, Jun 2017
  6. Stuart Wells Chess Set Collectors
  7. "Hoyle's Great Birds Chess Set, Unboxing" Robert Jewett, Aug 2020
  8. "Everything About Sebastian's Chess Set in One Place (Plus Extras You Have Never Seen)" Robert Jewett, The Replica Prop Forum, Nov 2019
  9. "Remember, I flew to England and actually went to Hoyle's to talk to them about the buying the copyright. I am trying to do the right thing." "Everything About Sebastian's Chess Set in One Place (Plus Extras You Have Never Seen)" Robert Jewett, The Replica Prop Forum, Nov 2019
  10. "Sebastian's Immortal Game Chess Set — The Final Cut" Rick Ross, The Replica Prop Forum, Oct 2010

Styles of chessmen: Bauhaus chessmen | British Birds chessmen | Coffeehouse chessmen | Dubrovnik chessmen | Lewis chessmen | Staunton chessmen