Salvador Dali chess set

Dali’s Finger Chess Set Leads Sales At Palm Beaches Auction

Top lot of the sale was this digitally inspired chess set designed by Salvador Dali. It sold in the room for $23,400. The chess board illustrated with the Dali set was not part of the set and was sold as a separate lot. It was designed by Marcel Duchamp, and sold for $3,042.

A closeup look at the details of the digits of Dali could be found in the figures of a chess set he designed at the request of his friend Marcel Duchamp in 1964 for the American Chess Federation. All of the pieces of the set were modeled after Dali’s fingers except the two queens, which used one of Dali’s wife’s fingers crowned with a tooth, and the rooks that were modeled after the saltcellars of the Hotel Saint Regis in New York. Of the 32 pieces, 16 are sterling silver and 16 are silver gilt. The set was cast by F.J. Cooper of Philadelphia and was signed and numbered “AE 45.”

The set was consigned from an estate on Palm Beach Island. The lot, appearing just past halfway in the 328-lot sale, was hotly contested among two bidders in the room and one on the phone. One of the bidders in the room had flown in from New York for the sale and this was the only lot he bid on. He outlasted the other bidders, claiming the set of finger figures for $23,400, making it the top lot of the sale.

Source: antiquesandthearts.com