Rare Chess Set by Gordon Martz of Marshall Studios, Circa 1960s

***Location/availability - For our customers who are local to the south central Pennsylvania area, this piece is also on display for in person purchase in our showroom upstairs in Bootleg Antiques at 135 Bridge St. Columbia, PA 17512. Their hours are Wednesday 10-5, Thursday 10-5, Friday 10-8, Saturday 10-5, and Sunday 1-5. (Closed Mondays and Tuesdays) Additionally, in person purchases at Bootleg Antiques over $100 (unless marked firm) get 10% off! This piece is also available for purchase through our website or on Etsy for our long distance customers. Please reach out to us with your zip code for a shipping quote if you are outside the south central PA area.

We don’t often use the word rare, but this set is one of only two ever made by Gordon Martz of Marshall Studios of Veedersburg, Indiana in the 1960s.

From our research Gordon Martz designed and made only two chess sets, he used molds so both sets would be the same. It originally came with a wood chessboard and a carrying case to house all the pieces. The molds for both the lamp and chess set were 2-piece plaster molds. The chess set took a lot of time to fire, finish, and glaze, and after that work creating a board and a boxed set would not be worth the effort financially so they stopped the project. But thankfully this set was included in a few catalogs so it was recorded. We have added a copy of the original brochure with the chess set included in our online images.

This set has all 32 pieces, half in a white glaze and the other half in a dark brown glaze. Three of the pieces were broken and reglued at some stage in their lifetime, the good part is that everything was kept together and we will include images of these in our listing. Each piece is lightweight as they are hollow on the inside with a felt base. The finish is very smooth and is a match to any of the Martz / Marshall Studios lamps currently on the market today. This set does not have its original board and carrying case.

We appreciate your interest in this item and please reach out anytime if you have questions or would like more details on this set. This set is now on display in our local showroom on the 2nd floor of Bootleg Antiques located at 135 Bridge St., Columbia, PA 17512.

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