Alice Through Looking Glass Authentic Chess Board Found!

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012

Hi everyone,

The Telegraph has just reported that an authentic Alice Through the Looking Glass chess board has been found! The article states: In the 19th century, illustrator Sir John Tenniel was more famous than the name with whom he was most closely associated – Lewis Carroll.

As the principal Punch cartoonist, the creator of the children’s card game Happy Families, as well as the much-celebrated illustrator of Lewis Carroll’s Alice novels, he was once a household name.

Now it seems Tenniel (1820-1914) may have considered a sideline in creating Alice merchandise. In summer 2011, an Alice-themed chess board was bought by rare books dealer Jake Fior, who, upon closer inspection, discovered that it had been illustrated by Tenniel himself and was one-of-a-kind.

The board features 16 ink and watercolour illustrations of images from the novel Alice Through the Looking Glass along its gilded border. It is believed to have been created in 1875 – four years after the book’s publication.

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