Looking for a Glass or Marble Chess set in the UK

Hopefully someone can help. I'm looking for a chess set for the home part decoration and part for playing an occasional game.

The sort of specs I'm looking for are :

Board and pieces made from Marble or Glass
Board size to be at least 14" square
Pieces to be of a fairly classic design easy to differentiate (ie no themes or modern art)
Pieces to be distinctive colouring preferably black & white (I don't like the glass sets with white & frosted pieces for example)
Looking to pay up to £150

So far I've only seen one glass set that I really liked but its way too expensive :

http://www.toypost.co.uk/product.php?productid=505

I like these marble sets but they're from the USA so shipping would cost a lot :

http://ep.yimg.com/ca/I/khanimports_2101_27534129
http://coolchesssets.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/blackwhitezebrachesssetins.jpg


I've done a lot of searching for the right set but if anyone can throw in any recommendations that would be much appreciated.

Originally posted by LouisCifer
Hopefully someone can help. I'm looking for a chess set for the home part decoration and part for playing an occasional game.

The sort of specs I'm looking for are :

Board and pieces made from Marble or Glass
Board size to be at least 14" square
Pieces to be of a fairly classic design easy to differentiate (ie no themes or modern art)
Pieces to b ...[text shortened]... right set but if anyone can throw in any recommendations that would be much appreciated.

http://www.hoylesonline.com/p49.htm?ID_NUM=MF1&NAME=Chiellini+MF1&PRICE=115.00&SHIPPING=5000&QUANTITY=1&Submit=Buy+Now

http://glasgow.gumtree.com/glasgow/76/57348876.html

Originally posted by adramforall
http://www.hoylesonline.com/p49.htm?ID_NUM=MF1&NAME=Chiellini+MF1&PRICE=115.00&SHIPPING=5000&QUANTITY=1&Submit=Buy+Now

http://glasgow.gumtree.com/glasgow/76/57348876.html

Thanks. Didn't like the one from Hoyles but the Gumtree one looks nice so I might contact them to see what size it is and if they would deliver.

Feel free to post anymore that anyone finds.

Where do you live.

Every 2nd hand/charity shop in Edinburgh has at least one of these things.

Personally I think they are hideous and totally inpratical.

Milton Keynes so can't browse the Edinburgh shops but might be an idea for me to have a look in some of the local ones here.

I'm curious why you think they are impractical ? Is it because of the weight/polished finish ? I'll only be playing occasionally so only want to make sure the pieces are easily recognisable on the board.

breakage when playing and stored probably

http://coolchesssets.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/blackwhitezebrachesssetins.jpg

I got one like this, but I have to agree with Greenpawn. The pieces are too big for the squares and the bishops don't look enough like bishops for you to take in the position at a glance. I do still use the board, but with smaller wooden pieces.

Once. I've played on one of these things just once.

You spend all the time re-adjusting your thought patterns to get use
to the pieces. I found it hard to differentiate which piece was which.

The board was so odd, It was like playing chess on water.

They look attractive when set up for display but that is about it.

Originally posted by LouisCifer
Hopefully someone can help. I'm looking for a chess set for the home part decoration and part for playing an occasional game.

The sort of specs I'm looking for are :

Board and pieces made from Marble or Glass
Board size to be at least 14" square
Pieces to be of a fairly classic design easy to differentiate (ie no themes or modern art)
Pieces to b right set but if anyone can throw in any recommendations that would be much appreciated.

I used to have a marble( or some polished stone) chess set. The board was very nice but the pieces were horrible. They were handmade. Which should be a good thing. But these were handmade badly. The pawns were all differant sizes. There was about an inch between the size of the tallest and shortest. The bishops looked almost the same as the pawns, the king and queen were hard to tell apart. The set vanished when I moved house a few years back. I wasn't to sad about it.

If I was to buy a set for display now, I would go for a quality Staunton pattern wooden one like this:

http://houseofstaunton.com/Store/product_name=The+Golden+Collector+Chess+Set+and+Board+Combination/exact_match=exact/user-id=/password=

Anyone got a spare $10k?

If you're only playing occasionally, I really see no reason why you need any fancy set, be it wood or marble. Just spend 5 bucks on a plastic set.

They are durable, weighted, and extremely cheap: http://www.amazon.com/Value-Plastic-Chess-Black-Ivory/dp/B0027DYYMI

Just my $0.02

Thanks for all the replies. That 10k staunton set is lovely but ever so slightly out of my price bracket 🙂

Still going to look for a marble/glass set though :p

ebay seems to have lots of marble sets

Originally posted by kaminsky
ebay seems to have lots of marble sets

Yeh, I'd expect to see a lot on ebay as it's the kind of thing people buy then realise its not as cool as they first thought.

Ebay is, after all, the world's largest junkshop. My wife is on it everyday trying to amass the world's largest shoe collection:-(