House of Hauteville Chess Set and Board Combo - Antique White and Black Marble
The House of Hauteville Chess Set is an artist's dream come true. Chess House brings you Carolyn Cavanaugh's chess pieces design, produced in limited quantities in the USA. "The inspiration for this set of chessmen came from a friend who asked me to make a mantle piece based on a pawn she had seen in a book by John Norwich. I read the book, The Normans in Sicily, and fell in love with the idea of these brave men. The knights and the pawn are directly based on some 11th century Norman wood chessmen that have been preserved at The Biblioteque de National in France. The other pieces are original imaginings. I gave the king a cat because there is a saying (of later vintage) that "a cat may look upon a king." The queen has a hawk because she is a warrior woman. I've named the king and queen after the famous warrior duo, Robert Guiscard and his wife Sichelgaita. I often refer to the knights as Tancred and Drogo, also names in the Norman Hauteville family.""I once attended a lecture by Lord