Saint-Louis Jeu Classic Chess Set

The Saint-Louis Jeu Classic Chess Set is a complete 32-piece crystal chess set with pieces in clear crystal and flannel grey, set on a stained beech board with a matte varnish. The contrast of clear and grey crystal makes the two sides immediately readable at a glance, while keeping the full set visually unified as a single object. Whether in play or on display in a library, study, or sitting room, the set commands immediate attention as a work of craft as much as a game.

Every chess piece is mouth-blown and hand-cut from leaded crystal at the Cristallerie Saint-Louis in Lorraine, with the flannel grey pieces achieving their color through masse coloring. The set took over two years to design in collaboration between the maison’s artists and craftspeople. The board is a carefully selected work of cabinetmaking in stained beech with a matte varnish, and the crystal pieces are produced at the same level of craft as the maison’s most demanding tableware.

The chess pieces each take their form from Saint-Louis’s own decanter stopper shapes — an elegant conceptual move that embeds the maison’s full design history within the game. The king and queen both borrow their shapes from the Twist 1586 collection’s stopper, one upside down and one right side up, each adorned with bevels whose tops evoke crowns. The bishop renews the Botticelli stopper, spinning and staggering as it travels diagonally. The rook is carved from the part of a stopper that keeps a decanter airtight, its cylindrical base suited to straight-line movement. The pawn reinterprets the Amadeus stopper as a Templar’s helmet — the most sacrificed piece on the board. The knight alone departs from this vocabulary: more vivid and naturalistic in form, it leads the others in battle with the ardor the piece demands. The Jeu collection presents the oldest tool once used to educate Eastern royalty, teaching princes the subtleties of military strategy. Established in 1586, Saint-Louis stands as Europe’s oldest crystal manufacturer, holding the title of Royal Cristallerie since 1781.