Besides the display of his personal first edition
of Harold James Ruthven Murray's A History of Chess, Julien Levy, whose
gallery offered the exhibition, contributed a piece from his own hands.
This piece comes with a little story.
During the previous Summer, Levy shared a house on
the beach at Great River with Max Ernst and Dorothea Tanning. Since they were
all chess players with a lot of free time on their hands, they, of course,
wanted to play chess. However, since they couldn't find a chess set locally,
they decided to make their own. Levy created his prototype set out of plaster,
using his breakfast eggshells as the mold, eventually translating the design
into oak. The board's squares contain dimples to allow for the round-bottomed
pieces.
The Great River experience was the conception of
the Imagery of Chess show.
