拍品 109
109
A RARE CHARLES I MINIATURE PARCEL-GILT AND GILT METAL CHESS OR DRAUGHTS BOARD, on four hinged legs and with three detachable tweezers and side drawer containing sixteen various chess pieces, the chequered board engraved with alternating gilt flower heads, the underside engraved with signiature, by David Ramsay, circa 1630

细节
A RARE CHARLES I MINIATURE PARCEL-GILT AND GILT METAL CHESS OR DRAUGHTS BOARD, on four hinged legs and with three detachable tweezers and side drawer containing sixteen various chess pieces, the chequered board engraved with alternating gilt flower heads, the underside engraved with signiature, by David Ramsay, circa 1630
1½in. (3.8cm.) square

拍品专文

David Ramsay was born circa 1585 in either Dundee or Dalhousie (where other Ramsays were known). His formative years were spent in France and indeed he had a Frenchman, William Pettit, working for him in 1622 as a journeyman. He was the first Master of the Clockmakers Company in 1632 but is recorded as being 'out of the country' until late 1634. Records exist in the Royal inventories of purchases of watches and his annual stipend or pension of (200 to be retained as the Clockmaker to James I. Like other ingenious clockmakers he was also involved in the sciences and even occult.

Very few chess sets in either silver or silver-gilt are recorded. Perhaps the most remarkable survival is the unmarked set, circa 1670, which is in the Victoria and Albert Museum. The Kings and Queens of which are busts of King Charles I and Queen Henrietta-Maria