German "Onion Top" Chess Set, ca. 1900

German "Onion Top" Chess Set, ca. 1900

Here is another "Onion Top" chess set, this one with wooden knights. It deviates slightly from other sets of this style in that it has slimmer crowns on the kings and six crenellations on the rooks instead of four or five. The pieces are made of wood, one side ebonized, and unweighted. King size is 10 cm (3.9"). Onion top sets are, inter alia, famous for their appearance in a famous photograph showing José Raúl Capablanca with German publisher and chess promoter Bernhard Kagan (the latter often mistaken as Lasker).
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