"Old Bailey" Porcelain Chess Set by Harry Everington, 1988

This is the ultimate connection between my profession as a lawyer and my hobby as a chess collector - the "Old Bailey" set depicting a Victorian court scene. The largest piece is the queen with a height of approximately 19 cm. The set is exclusive in that – according to information provided to me by the former owner, my late friend Tony Raynes – only three copies of this chess set were ever made. The pieces were created by Harry Everington (1929-2000), who was an art teacher, a sculptor, and together with Rosemary Barnett a co-founder of the Frink School of Figurative Sculpture, named after Elisabeth Frink (1930-1993), a British sculptor. Everington met Barnett in 1990 at the Sir Henry Doulton School of Sculpture in Stoke on Trent. When the funding was removed from the Doulton School in 1993, they both set about establishing a successor to it. The school, based initially at Longton in Staffordshire, was relocated to Leek in Staffordshire in 2005. Teaching covered every aspect of figurative sculpture, including clay modelling, welding, carving in wood and stone, letter cutting, mould-making and casting and concentrated on work with a small number of mature students. Harry Everington is until today known as one of the leading British sculptors. Several of his works can be seen, inter alia his work “Under Sail” in the central courtyard of the Maternity/Paediatric Building of St Richard's Hospital, Chichester, West Sussex or “The Crusader” in Jerwood Sculpture Park, Ragley Hall, where it was installed in 2000 a few days before his death. Everington also left a strong influence on British pottery and ceramics. His porcelain works are well known. One of these works is the “Old Bailey” chess set shown here. According to information I received from his youngest son, Simon Everington, a renowned sculptor and artist himself, Harry Everington made the Old Bailey chess set during a period of time when his workshop was in a small village called Longnor in Derbyshire. He had many stages and interests as an artist and craftsman during his life, and one of those interests was in Victorian times. He made a ceramic series of a Victorian carousel, and a ceramic series of a Punch and Judy show, and others, one of which was the “Old Bailey” chess set which is shown as a Victorian courthouse scene. As the individual characters in this set are so remarkable and noteworthy, I will provide Harry Everington’s full description of each piece to show just how special the set really is. Everington described the pieces as follows:

“The King – is, of course, the Judge; of melancholic remoteness, he has heard, ‘ad nauseum’ every misdemeanor of Counsel and those they represent. His apparent indifference, as he admonishes both, is a sign of his objectivity.

The Queen – all powerful and enigmatic is represented by ‘the Goddess’ ‘Blind Justice’, whose symbolic and classical form will be forever associated with the sounds and smells of the Old Bailey in the City of London.

The Bishop – is represented as two partners in a firm of solicitors. They search their books for precedence and seek to guide the course of justice as clerics of Church and law have done since time immemorial.

The Knight – is a barrister. The Chivalrous warrior, he pleads his case with tears in his eyes whilst the projection of his personality decimates like the avenging sword…at least he saw it as such in earlier years.

The Castle – citadel of security, is the ‘dock’. The prisoner, his frailty supported on either flank by the beatific warders may not always this of it that way. The silhouette of the warder’s hats may infer something of the Castle image.

The Pawns – are the indispensable ‘cannon-fodder’ of the game and are represented by the witnesses. Used and perhaps abused by both sides in court as ammunition for their case. Since in this context it is the variables in evidence that is of interest, there are eight different personalities as witnesses or pawns. Each character is seen taking the oath and subtle references to their character may be noted in the way they hold the Bible (or in one case, the Tallith).

The ‘Bronte’ like witness – provides poetic quotations in answer to Counsel’ questions and is as disconcerting to the court as the court is to her…she really should not be put into this situation.

The girl with the straw hat – perhaps a maidservant, is equally difficult when giving evidence. Her vocabulary includes such ambiguities as “I don’t rightly know as I should” and more often “Cooo-err”.

‘Madam’ – with her large hat and feather is an excellent witness. Her powers of observation being limited only by the thickness of the curtains at the house she runs for young and attractive ladies. Her understanding of worldly matters, especially those relating to the ways of men, is quite exhaustive.

Craggy lady of Scottish extraction – not of so liberal an outlook, whose calvanistic convictions make right and wrong as clear as black and white to her. Monstrous evil surrounds her and she must keep her nose high to avoid contamination.

The monocled sporting gentleman – is the cause of frequent explanations to his Lordship, since Counsels’ requests for a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ are answered with betting odds.

The military gentleman – as one used to good order and discipline, has many reminiscences which although irrelevant and immaterial do indicate a concern for fair play.

A pawnbroker – of Jewish persuasion, takes an oath of solemn affirmation. His evidence is discreet in the extreme, being mostly confined to expressive but unrecordable raising of the shoulders and spreading of the hands.

The vicar – of a country parish, second son of a ‘good family’ would feel much better in his pulpit than in the witness box. He manages to convert one for the other, however, before the end of the case.”