Knuttel and Viscount David Linley

One of Knuttel’s most striking creations was the elaborate chess set that he made in collaboration with the renowned furniture designer Viscount David Linley, son of Princess Margaret and nephew of Queen Elizabeth II. While Knuttel lived on the New King’s Road in London directly opposite Linley’s workshop since 1984, it was to be another two decades before the two came together to work on this project. They were introduced through fashion designer Louise Kennedy and the result is a masterpiece of the furniture maker’s art topped off by a set of beautifully crafted figures.

The table is solid and foursquare supported by a tapered column on a walnut base and the chessboard itself is done in marquetry. With ‘white’ pieces in solid silver ‘black’ in bronze meant an extraordinary amount of detailed work went into their creation. An imperious king, a haughty queen, an ascetic bishop, an equine knight, and a cylindrical rook stand behind a line of peak-capped pawns. It took 20 weeks to make each set and a limited edition of 12 boards and pieces.

The anecdote that Knuttel loved to relate about the whole project concerned the time when the first board and pieces were put on display in Linley’s workshop in London. One of the silver pawns disappeared never to be seen again and the remainder had to be melted down and re-cast with a new pawn. The reason that a whole new set had to be made was because the pieces were assayed and certified as just that set and the only way to preserve that integrity was to start again from scratch.