A still life of 3 white pieces of an ivory chess set I purchased in Hong Kong in the early 60's, while serving in the U.S. Navy. All the figures are attached to a 'mystic ball', which is a ball inside of a ball. The small figures in the set have 2-4 layers, the large figures have 8-12 layers, all of which are carved. The 'black' pieces are stained brown. The King is 8 inches tall, the pawns are 3.5 inches tall.

I also wanted to show the beauty of the chess board, which folds in half and holds each piece individually in a silk lined cut out.

Years later I took the set to the Antiques Road Show. The appraiser told me that the Chinese train their children to carve ivory by carving these chess pieces.

I used a Norita66 medium format camera with an 80mm lens set at f16 with 125th second shutter speed. A small speed light was set at a 45 degree angle. The distance of the light was adjusted for proper exposure. I used Kodak Plus X film.