Porcelain Chess Set by Royal Dux, Czechoslovakia, 1990-2000

A Royal Dux porcelain set from the 1990's with a king size of 11.5 cm. The two sides are modelled as Tartar armies, in blue and white each heightened in gilt, the faces with flesh tones, the pieces marked and numbered on the undersides. The board is not original to the set, but is a Portuguese board from Viana do Castelo, which however fits perfectly to the blue & white design of the Royal Dux pieces.

The Royal Dux porcelain manufactory was founded in 1853 in Duchcov (Dux), in northern Bohemia, and initially produced simple ceramic household items. In 1860, the modeller Eduard Eichler took over the business and continued to run it as the E. Eichler Pottery Factory. At that time, the focus was on terracotta, faience and majolica. In 1878, the factory was awarded a gold medal at an exhibition in Paris. In 1898, it was reorganised as Duxer Porzellan-Manufaktur AG, based in Berlin, and began to produce porcelain as well.

The Art Nouveau period under the modeller Alois Hampel is regarded as the company’s most successful era, and some designs from this time are still produced today. In 1904, the manufactory won the Grand Prix at the World’s Fair in St Louis. At that time, it employed around 500 workers, maintained sample showrooms in several major European cities and supplied goods as far afield as Russia and North America.

The First World War and the interwar period brought this golden age to a halt, but figurative and decorative porcelain remained at the heart of production. From the mid-1950s onwards, the manufactory regained its position on the world markets, not least thanks to Prof. Jaroslav Ježek’s collection at EXPO 58 in Brussels. Since 1992, the company has operated under the name Royal Dux Bohemia AG and has been part of the ‘Das Böhmische Porzellan’ group since 1997.

Dating the pieces is not easy. The pieces are stamped on the underside in blue-greenish colour with "Royal Dux" and underneath "Made in Czechoslovakia", which was a stamp used between 1918 and 1945. The set came with documentation tracing it back to the shop of Garrick Coleman, who described the set as early 20th century, probably based on the stamp. However, the stamp was usually accompanied by a pink triangle bearing the inscription ‘ROYAL DUX BOHEMIA’ and an acorn, a trademark introduced around 1900 and still in use today. The chess pieces here do not have a pink triangle, but a golden sticker in the shape of a triangle attached to either the back or the foot of the respective piece. These stickers were only introduced in the 1990s, which therefore seems to be the more appropriate date.