The chess piece was acquired by an Edinburgh antiques dealer in 1964
TAP HERE TO WATC H The Fantastic Tale of the Lewis Chessmen
Acquired for £5 in 1964 by an antiques dealer in Edinburgh and passed down the same family by descent, the chess piece was stored away in the buyer’s home before being inherited by his daughter. The warder then passed onto the next generation of the family, who approached Sotheby’s to shed light on the piece. Alexander Kader, Sotheby’s Co- Worldwide Head of European Sculpture & Works of Art, began a year-long study of the warder, a process that included detailed research, art historical analysis and careful comparison with the Lewis chessmen on display in UK public collections. He deduced that the chessman could be one of the lost pieces of the Lewis group found in 1831 on the Isle of Lewis.