Chessboard

With its sculptural pieces, the Chessboard, designed by Marie-Louise Idestam-Blomberg, is as much an art object as it is a game. The original version, made of ivory and ebony, was presented at the 1925 Paris World’s Fair. There, it was awarded a gold medal and discovered by Estrid Ericson, who acquired the rights to the Chessboard in 1927. Sometime between 1927 and 1928, Idestam-Blomberg designed the version in pewter, brass and gilded pewter for Svenskt Tenn.

The sculptural chess pieces are said to have been inspired by Russian peasant culture and depict, among other figures, a tsar-like king, a pregnant queen, wild horses and peasants with bowed heads.