Cast in Metal: The Byzantine and Spartan Chess Sets

Most chess sets are carved or turned. The Manopoulos metal sets are cast. That one difference shapes almost everything about them: the weight of a piece in the hand, the detail on a helmet or a crown, the way light moves across a board of brass. It also takes us back to the very beginning of the house, because before Manopoulos made a single backgammon board, it made chessmen in metal.

Where it began: bronze

Costas Manopoulos was 21 and studying at art university when he made his first chess figures. They were cast in bronze, for an exhibition of young talent at the University of Athens. The response was strong enough that he opened a small shop in central Athens and began selling a limited number of handcrafted chess and backgammon sets. Demand from gift-shop owners soon led him to set up his own workshop, and the line the house still uses — handcrafted in Greece since 1970 — grew out of those first years.

More than half a century later, Manopoulos S.A. describes itself as an integrated manufacturer of historical metal chess sets and traditional handmade backgammon, exporting worldwide from its factory in Thebes, in Viotia. The metal chessmen are not a side line added to a wood business. They are where the story starts, and they remain one of the two things the house is best known for.

What casting changes

A wooden chessman is made by taking material away. A lathe turns the body, a carver shapes the knight’s head, and the form is limited by the grain and by what a tool can reach. A cast piece works the other way round. Metal takes the shape of a mould, and a mould can hold detail that would be difficult or impossible to carve at small scale: the rim of a shield, the fold of a cloak, the crest on a helmet, the jewels of a crown.

Casting is only the first step. Each Manopoulos piece is then finished and patinated by hand in Greece. Patination is the controlled colouring of a metal surface, and it is where a set gets its character. The hand finish brings out the relief, darkens the recesses and lifts the high points, so that a figure only a few centimetres tall reads clearly from across the table. No two pieces take the finish in exactly the same way, and that small variation is one of the signs of hand work.

Metal also brings weight. A cast piece sits firmly on its square and does not skid when a sleeve brushes past. It has presence when it is lifted and a quiet, definite sound when it is set down. For many players that feeling is half the pleasure of the game.

Both of the themed sets in this story pair their figures with a handcrafted brass chessboard set into a wooden case. The brass echoes the pieces; the wood frames the board and gives it warmth. The result is less a set that is put away after a game than an object that stays out in the room.

The Byzantine Empire set

For roughly a thousand years after the fall of Rome in the West, the Eastern Roman Empire — Byzantium — ruled from Constantinople. It was Greek-speaking, deeply ceremonial and famous for its gold mosaics, its icons and its court. The Byzantine Empire set brings that world to the chessboard: emperors, empresses and Byzantine soldiers make up the two armies, each figure cast and finished with the kind of ornament the period is known for.

It is the most compact of the Manopoulos themed sets. The brass board measures 20 × 20 cm and the king stands 3.5 cm tall. It comes in three finishes: gold and silver, blue and brass, or brass and gold. The size is part of its appeal. It sits comfortably on a desk, a shelf or a side table beside a reading chair, and it is the kind of set that gets picked up and looked at as often as it gets played.

The Spartan Warrior set

Sparta, in the Peloponnese, has stood for discipline and courage for two and a half thousand years. Its citizen-soldiers, the hoplites, fought in close formation behind round shields, with crested helmets and long spears, and they are among the most recognisable figures of the ancient Greek world. The Spartan Warrior set gives them a board of their own: hoplites, kings and the armies of Sparta, cast in metal.

This is the larger of the two sets. The brass board measures 28 × 28 cm, the king stands 5.4 cm tall, and the finishes are gold and silver or blue and brass. The extra scale gives the figures more room for detail and makes for a more comfortable game when two people sit down to play in earnest. There is a certain logic, too, in a chess set built around soldiers. Chess has always been a battle in miniature, and the Spartans make very convincing pawns.

Choosing between them

Both sets share the same craft and the same brass-and-wood construction, so the choice usually comes down to four things.

• Space. The Byzantine set is the one for a desk or a small table. The Spartan set wants a little more room and rewards it.
• Play. If the set will be played often, the larger Spartan pieces are easier to handle and to read at a glance. If it will be admired more than played, the compact Byzantine set is a natural fit.
• Finish. Gold and silver is the classic contrast. Blue and brass is cooler and more unusual. The Byzantine set adds brass and gold, the warmest of the three.
• Story. Some people are drawn to the court of Constantinople, others to the hoplites of Sparta. Both are Greek stories, told by a Greek workshop.

Living with a metal set

A metal chess set asks for very little. Dust the pieces and the board with a dry, soft cloth. Avoid water, household sprays and metal polishes: the patina is part of the finish, and it should be left to age gently rather than be stripped back. Keep the wooden case out of direct sun and away from heaters, as you would any fine piece of wood. The story on caring for a wooden game board in this journal goes into more detail.

El Laguito Cigars carries both the Byzantine Empire and the Spartan Warrior sets and delivers anywhere in Canada. Each one leaves the Manopoulos workshop in its original packaging and carries the Manopoulos mark. For those who want to go further, the Limited Edition Metal Staunton set, with its mother-of-pearl elements, is the top of the metal range; it appears in the December story of this journal. But the place to begin is here, with a small army of cast figures on a brass board — the same idea a young art student in Athens had with his first pieces in bronze.