Bought for Five Pounds, Sold for 735,000: The Lewis Chessmen, Sources
A chess piece bought for five pounds in Edinburgh in 1964 sold at Sotheby's in 2019 for £735,000, attributed to the workshop that carved the Lewis chessmen. Those pieces are walrus ivory, carved around 1150 to 1200, probably in Norway. This page gives the source for every slide, and says plainly what is still disputed.
Every claim in our Lewis chessmen carousel, slide by slide, with its source. Section numbers match the number at the top of each slide.
Slide by slide
01. Five pounds, in 1964
Sotheby's London sold the piece on 2 July 2019 (sale L19231, lot 7), catalogued as "Attributed to the Lewis Chessmen workshop, probably Norwegian, Trondheim, 13th century. A warder." It is walrus ivory and 8.8 cm tall. The provenance in the catalogue: bought in 1964 for £5 by an Edinburgh antiques dealer, recorded in his stock book as "Antique Walrus tusk warrior chessman", then passed down in his family, who kept it in a drawer. It sold for £735,000 including the buyer's premium; Sotheby's does not publish the hammer price.
Sources: Sotheby's, Old Master Sculpture and Works of Art, sale L19231, lot 7, lot page and catalogue note; press reports of the result (Artnet, Antiques and the Arts Weekly).
02. 93 pieces from one island
The hoard was on show in Edinburgh by 11 April 1831, so it was found on the Isle of Lewis by then. The exact findspot and the finder are not settled. It has 93 pieces: 78 chessmen, 14 plain discs for tables, a board game related to backgammon, and one buckle. The British Museum holds 82 and National Museums Scotland 11.
Sources: David H. Caldwell, Mark A. Hall and Caroline M. Wilkinson, "The Lewis Hoard of Gaming Pieces", Medieval Archaeology 53 (2009); British Museum collection database, records 1831,1101.78 onwards.
03. Carved from walrus tusk
The pieces are mostly walrus ivory, with some whale tooth, and the museums date them to around 1150 to 1200. Trondheim in Norway is the most likely place they were made, on the evidence of finds and carving there; an Icelandic origin has also been argued. The Hebrides, Lewis included, were under the Norwegian crown until the Treaty of Perth of 2 July 1266.
That date is after the Viking Age, which is usually said to end in the later 11th century. They are Norse chessmen, not Viking Age ones.
Sources: British Museum collection database; Caldwell, Hall and Wilkinson (2009); the Treaty of Perth, 1266.
04. Four rooks bite their shields
Four of the twelve rooks, or warders, bite the top of their shields: one in Edinburgh and three in London. Snorri Sturluson, Ynglinga saga ch. 6, says Odin's men "went without mail and were mad as dogs or wolves, bit their shields, were strong as bears or bulls". In Grettis saga ch. 40 a named berserker, Snækollr, bites the rim of his shield until Grettir kicks it into his mouth.
The pieces match the saga picture, but the museums do not call them berserkers, and the Edinburgh curators point out that three of the four wear mail, which the saga berserkers do not.
Sources: Caldwell, Hall and Wilkinson (2009), p. 178 and table 7; Snorri, Ynglinga saga ch. 6; Grettis saga ch. 40 (Old Norse text at heimskringla.no).
05. The drawer piece is a rook
Counted piece by piece, the hoard makes four chess sets, short one knight, four rooks and 44 pawns. The drawer piece is a rook. But Sotheby's own catalogue discloses that radiocarbon dating put it at AD 1328 to 1434, later than the hoard is usually dated, and says the scholarly debate will continue. That is why it was sold as "attributed", and why we do not call it the missing piece.
The British Museum is now working with the NTNU University Museum in Trondheim, until 2027, on tests that may show where the walruses came from.
Sources: Caldwell, Hall and Wilkinson (2009), pp. 182 and 198; Sotheby's catalogue note, radiocarbon report RCD-9138; British Museum research project "Rethinking the Lewis chess pieces".
What we do not claim
- That the drawer piece is proven to be part of the Lewis hoard. It is attributed.
- That the chessmen are from the Viking Age. They are about a century later.
- That a cow uncovered them, or that the finder fled from goblins. Those stories are later folklore.
- That the rooks are berserkers. They match the saga motif; the museums do not label them so.
Corrections
None yet. If you find an error, tell us, with a citation.
Keep exploring
Frequently asked questions
Are the Lewis chessmen Viking?
They are Norse but not Viking Age. They were carved around 1150 to 1200, probably in Trondheim in Norway, about a century after the Viking Age is usually said to end.
How much did the missing Lewis chessman sell for?
A warder bought for five pounds in 1964 sold at Sotheby's on 2 July 2019 for 735,000 pounds including fees. It was sold as attributed to the Lewis chessmen workshop, not as a proven part of the hoard, because its own radiocarbon date came out later than the hoard.
Why do some Lewis chessmen bite their shields?
Four of the twelve rooks bite the tops of their shields, which matches the sagas' description of berserkers biting their shields in battle. The museums describe them as warriors biting their shields rather than as berserkers.