The History of SAC
Collecting unusual chess sets was originally a hobby of Anne Carlton. Good and complete sets were hard to find so Anne started to design her own. The designs were appreciated by an eager public and skillfully created reproductions were produced to satisfy the demand. The small business expanded and a factory was added to the Studio to cope with the additional production requirements.
Within five years the company was firmly established in the United Kingdom and within ten years Studio Anne Carlton had become a brand leader, a position it still holds to this day.
In 2004 the manufacturing process was moved outside of the UK. The chess pieces are still completely hand made and decorated and the skills learned many years ago have been refined and brought to perfection to produce highly original pieces that are intricate, decorative and tactile.
Superb presentation packaging, attractive and well researched history sheets and informative after sales care leaflets are just some of the touches that make SAC's chess sets the most desirable in the world.
Collectability Studio Anne Carlton chess pieces are highly sought after in the collectable markets. The fact that these highly prized pieces are completely hand made makes volume production out of the question. Consequently many of the earlier sets are returning substantial prices when appearing at auction. The sets are avidly collected by enthusiasts all over the world.
Chess Set Style Guide
SAC chess sets are produced in a variety of styles. The grid below will help you to easily identify which finishes are available for each set.
On hand decorated sets only certain parts of the chess pieces are coloured by hand, whilst some areas remain plain, allowing the natural material to be exposed. The chess pieces in a hand painted set are completely painted in great detail, leaving none of the basic material showing.
Of course, almost all of SAC’s sets are available in regular brown and cream finishes.
Ref
Chess Set
Plain
Hand Decorated
A189
Art Deco
·
A187
Battle of Bannockburn
A161
Battle of Culloden
A169
Battle of Waterloo
A185
Canterbury Cathedral
A177
Celtic
A165
Crusades
A114
Egyptian
A125
Gods of Mythology
A102
Isle of Lewis
A190
Lord of the Rings
BP014
Peter Rabbit
A174
Richard the Lionheart
A163
Sherlock Holmes
A194
The White Tower
WP003/4
Winnie the Pooh
Please note that many of the chess sets in this table may be marked as being both plain and hand decorated. This is because many of the sets come in one or more finishes, therefore the various finishes available are shown in one table.
