Hand made chess set and board auction. IN AID OF SSF!!! (€1250 highest bid) SOLD!

DeVore

So, we don't normally do this sort of thing but this just fell in my lap and its too good not to!!

This master-crafted, unique designed chess set-and-board has been donated to SSF by the East Central Dublin wood turner's guild chapter!
I want to turn it into hard cash for the projects so I'm going to auction it here.

20161022_105921 by Tom Murphy, on Flickr

20161022_090551 by Tom Murphy, on Flickr

20161022_090205 by Tom Murphy, on Flickr

20161022_090158 by Tom Murphy, on Flickr


As some of you know, I got into wood turning 2 years ago. Its gone very well and I now compete at a high level. I was approached by the chapter to design their entry into the national chapter competition. 8 master turners have to collaborate on a single piece of work and this year the competition was to design and make a chess set.


The pieces are walnut for the black, and beech for the white. They have beech and purpleheart segments and inlays too. The table is Sapele Mahogany. It is also inlayed with walnut and beech and the table detaches from the legs for playing on your own coffee if you wish! Each player has a drawer in the table for their pieces. Its genuinely a thing of beauty.

I wrote design notes for the set, one page for each piece, explaining the influences and reasoning behind the piece (you have to for the competition!).

This was a runner up in the national, master level competition which means the work has to be basically flawless, something that's difficult to appreciate in the pictures alone.

There's been easily 100 hours of crafting by some of the best in the business (and me!) but they don't think it will sell for what it would cost to make so they decided to donate it to charity and I explained SSF to them.

There is a reserve price of 500 euros on it, and maybe I should put it up for general auction but I thought I'd give people here a chance to bid (cos its 11 days to xmas!) or help direct me to where I could maybe get a good price for this? (its not the kind of thing that will really sell on Adverts I don't think )

So, what do you think? How much could we sell this for? Where? How? Any offers?! Any suggestions?


Below is a link to the other thread about what SSF is.
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057677311
Hi there, well its the 1st of December so its time to start thinking about Christmas!! (You hear that marketers?!)

WHAT DO WE DO?
We collect money from online donations of boardsies and I contact children's charities around Xmas and find out what "quality of life improving" items they would ask for from Santa! In the past we've bought everything as diverse as rocking chairs to Xboxes, go karts to kitchen tables.

HOW DOES THIS WORK?
You donate money. I use it to buy these things. No one gets paid. 100% of your money will go to making life a bit better for these kids.
Think of it as, you giving them a treat for xmas. I just middleman the whole operation and take the hassle out of it for you. (I still need your donation mind you!).


I'VE ONLY A FIVER!
I've seen abused kids make a counselling breakthrough with 2 euros worth of finger paints. For 70 euro a kid can have a new 3D printed limb. When you strip away the overheads and costs of admin etc, you would be surprised how far your fiver can go.

I'M BROKE!
Ok, you can still HUGELY help us by telling people about SSF. Use your social media skillz and get the word out, we'll take donations from everywhere!

I KNOW A KIDS CHARITY THAT COULD USE SOMETHING LIKE THIS
Great, PM me and lets see if we cant work something out!




PLEASE DONATE!! Please encourage others to donate. Spread the word on all the medias of socialness!

On Boards you can use the tag [.SSF]write anything here[./SSF] (but without the "."s) and you will add our little icon! Stick it in your sig or in any post you want to!
(I just tested it, so I know it works!! )



Or Mobile users can click here

Every single penny donated goes into the projects for kids charities! A few quid can make a world of a difference!

Lu Tze

Jesus that's beautiful! Very good of them to donate it.

Fr_Dougal

Bid €500.

Might be an idea to stick it on eBay too, and call on some twitter friends to retweet.

WestWing

Rook is cool.
Knight is err, different

€1000 is very achievable.

Put it on Donedeal for a laugh, you'll get some interesting swap suggestions.

DeVore

The knight was the biggest pain in my jacksie evaaaaar! The competition states that the more you "turned" the better but its night impossible to turn a knight, we tried all manner of contortions but in the end we came up with that design, it actually works because from the side the "head" is tilted slightly backwards. One thing about the whole set is that you are never left in the middle of a game saying "wait, is this the bishop or the queen?" Every piece is clearly identifiable.

Beasty

Bid €800

The flying mouse

I wouldn't have a clue, your move .

baaba maal

Absolutely beautiful set- well done to all concerned.

Three points as I only happened on this thread:
I presume you have looked to ask the Irish Chess Union to advertise it: https://www.icu.ie/
I don't know what SSF is, or am I missing something?
Which bits did you make? (cheeky!):)

Ken.

Link to the other SSF thread added to Devore's post above.

DeVore

I made the kings and designed the other pieces. The design drawings are included as part of the document!

I didnt know about the Icu. I'll give them a shout. From our research I think it will be hard to beat Beastys 800 bid tbh...

Penny Tration

Jesus Christ, Beasty's gone and bankrupted himself again!

L1m1tless

Gorgeous set. A real talking piece. Hope it achieves lots of interest!

Beasty

Penny Tration wrote: »

Jesus Christ, Beasty's gone and bankrupted himself again!

Not yet....

DeVore wrote: »

From our research I think it will be hard to beat Beastys 800 bid tbh...

Just to prove you wrong, I'll bid €1,000

DeVore

That's.... that's cheatin'!

Fr_Dougal

Beasty wrote: »

Bid €800

Beasty wrote: »

I'll bid €1,000

Are you going to let him get away with that?

Beasty

Fr_Dougal wrote: »

Are you going to let him get away with that?

No

Bid €1.250

Beasty

Beasty wrote: »

No

Bid €1.250

I'll match that if he drops out

Barry Badrinath

Beasty wrote: »

I'll match that if he drops out

Check and mate!

L1m1tless

or rather a self-mate :P

KERSPLAT!

Beautiful set. Fair play Beasty

Earthhorse

That's a beautiful set and out of my price range but would you not post the dimensions of the table so buyers know what they're getting?

kittensmittens

DeVore wrote: »

That's.... that's cheatin'!

I heard that in Des Curley's voice from The Snapper

DeVore

Earthhorse wrote: »

That's a beautiful set and out of my price range but would you not post the dimensions of the table so buyers know what they're getting?

Good idea. The squares are 45mm each so the whole board is 40cm across and the table is a bit bigger (with the rim etc).

I would describe it as a "big" chess board but nothing crazy.

endacl

Beasty wrote: »

Bid €800

Beasty wrote: »

Not yet....

Just to prove you wrong, I'll bid €1,000

Beasty wrote: »

No

Bid €1.250

Beasty wrote: »

I'll match that if he drops out

Do you even chess, bro?

Fair play.

Mr. CooL ICE

Mod: I've deleted some posts as this thread was getting messy. This is for a great cause lads. Nobody should be told to behave themselves.

Johnny Macwilliams, do not post here again.

Beasty

endacl wrote: »

Do you even chess, bro?

Fair play.

Used to many years ago. Need to teach the kids about it, or I'll be playing against myself:pac:

DeVore

CuFjNlzWYAA-Nvp by Tom Murphy, on Flickr

CuAfHugXEAAra_h by Tom Murphy, on Flickr

Just to prove that I made the kings

That chess board is so cool, to bad its way out of my price range

I get paid tomorrow so I'll donate a few euro to the SSF.

HensVassal

Lovely work but not a patch on Andy Dufresne's hand carved soapstone chessmen from rocks collected by Red and the boys while on Shawshank work duty.

Alf Stewart.

I move into a newly built house in Feb/March, and this would look absolutely stunning in the dining room.

Unfortunately because of this

newly built house in Feb/March,

i reckon the wife would have me sleeping on the couch/spare room, for the next year if I spent over a grand on it, beautiful and all as it is.

I will throw a few bob towards SSF though.

Stunning piece of work though, best of luck with it.

vicwatson

Beasty wrote: »

Not yet....

Just to prove you wrong, I'll bid €1,000

You really are Santy Claus aren't you beasty :P

DeVore

To be honest, I really doubt I have any chance of beating 1250 (and no Beasty, that's not a hint!!). Also I think if there is a single human on the planet who I'd love to see have this now, its Beasty. So Going Going Gone. 1250 to the main man! Many thanks!

c montgomery

Fantastic set and fair play to you both for your generosity.

If you ever do a set of just the pieces and board that can be packed away let me know, I would snap them up.

Beasty

Gazump alert!! - was planning to bid €1,500 later on and will make the transfer now

Beasty that if you can!!!



:p:p

EDIT - just arranged the transfer - should hit the SSF account early next week

Collie D

Kudos to both of you. Fair play

Sleepy

Beasty, you're wonderfully insane.

Tom, that is an absolute work of art. It's gorgeous. If you plan on doing another for next Christmas's SSF auction, let me know so I can start saving!

HensVassal

Can someone tell me what SSF is?

endacl

DeVore wrote: »

To be honest, I really doubt I have any chance of beating 1250 (and no Beasty, that's not a hint!!). Also I think if there is a single human on the planet who I'd love to see have this now, its Beasty. So Going Going Gone. 1250 to the main man! Many thanks!

Throwing it out to the chess forum now....

Just on the off chance that Beasty doesn't chess, perhaps a few free lessons might be in order? So he doesn't just use it as an ornament, like?

:pac:

endacl

HensVassal wrote: »

Can someone tell me what SSF is?

Super Silly Fun

omb0wyn5ehpij9

HensVassal wrote: »

Can someone tell me what SSF is?

Santa Strike Force: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057677311

Beasty

Now collected and on the way home.

Absolutely stunning set and worth every cent (to me anyway)

Thanks to DeVore and the 7 others that made it. I'm now curious what the next competition subject will be!!!