The Cotham Chess Set

This was a very special website to design and a real honour to create alongside artist and sculptor Tony Pizzey’s son Jason, himself an artist. Tony was an admirer of the Lewis chess set in the British Museum. In 1964, inspired by the film ‘The Seventh Seal’, which begins with the figure of Death playing chess with a knight on a Danish beach. He was inspired and set out to design his own 32-piece ‘high-end’ porcelain chess set. He wanted a side income to support his teacher’s salary and was at the top of his game creatively.

 Every piece had to be made in terracotta clay. His friend Leighton Clark who helped him with the project recalls that advice on making two-piece moulds was received from a dental technician. Due to the shrinkage inherent in the process they had to be made larger than needed and then plaster moulds were made for each piece.  Experiments with firing were carried out, using slip clay; some white, and some black. However excessive shrinkage of the black pieces caused a halt in the firing and the project was shelved before a complete set was made. Some unique pieces and experiments sat on our mantelpiece for years and as children, we were fascinated by them, but the moulds had been packed away in storage, forgotten and covered with dust.

Fifty years later Tony was diagnosed with a brain tumour and time was short. He wanted to complete the project along with many others. He had always told us that the project was no good and we thought that there must be pieces missing. In reality, there were no pieces missing and with help from family members including his grandson Harry and a local potter, Paul Stubbs, we used the original moulds to make five chess sets in stoneware, each glazed in different colours. There were details that he was unhappy with and he told us at length what they were, but to us, the sets were beautiful. 

He only returned to it in 2016 with the help of Jason when changes in technology allowed the set to be finished. In keeping with Tony’s original design, each chess piece has been handmade, finished in porcelain and is housed in a beautiful wooden lasered box in keeping with his love of pyrography. The design on the board is

He saw a complete version of the set for the first time in Christmas 2016 and passed away in March 2017. The project has continued and has been developed further as a legacy to his memory.