The Lewis Chessmen set: Long-lost chess piece bought for £5 expected to fetch £1 million at Sotheby’s London
A medieval chess piece bought for £5 and kept in a drawer for 50 years could fetch £1 million after being identified as one of the long-lost Lewis Chessmen.
The hoard, found in 1831 on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, included 93 chess pieces, but the whereabouts of five others have remained a mystery.
A family has now been told the piece their grandfather bought for £5 in 1964 is one of the treasures. The antiques dealer, from Edinburgh, had no idea of the significance of the 3.5in piece, made from walrus ivory, which he passed down to his family. They looked after the early 13th-century piece without realising its importance, before taking it to Sotheby’s in London.
Expert Alexander Kader said his “jaw dropped” when he realised what it was. A spokesman for the family, who wish to remain anonymous, said: “My mother was very fond of the chessman as she admired its intricacy and quirkiness … For many years it resided in a drawer in her home where it had been carefully wrapped in a small bag.”
The Lewis Chessmen comprise of seated kings and queens, bishops, knights and standing warders and pawns.
Some 82 pieces are in the British Museum and 11 are held by the National Museum of Scotland. One knight and four warders have been missing from the four combined chess sets.
The newly discovered piece is a warder, the equivalent of a rook. It will go on display in London just before it goes up for auction, with an estimate of £600,000 to £1 million, at Sotheby’s on July 2.
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