These Arn't All They Might Be You Know!

     At the outset of The Chimes of Big Ben, the General said of his chess set to No.6, that they are not all they might be. I think I'll make myself a chess set!

   And here the General is, exhibiting his hand-crafted chess set at the Exhibition of Arts & Crafts.



     Hand-crafted yes, but not by the General I suspect. As these are hand-crafted copies of original hand-crafted Isle of Lewis Chess Men, such as these pictured below.

The only hand-crafted Chessman of the General's chess set is that of the amended 'King,' whose face has been forged in the image of No.2 for the episode. Of course if you don't know about the Isle of Lewis chessmen, then you would have no idea that the Generals chess pieces were not hand-crafted by him, or at least by a member of the Properties department on the production of the Prisoner, as I did at the time.

                    

When the King of the original set looks like this.

And if you wish to know more about the Isle of Lewis Chessmen, then please to read the following.

I myself have a reproduction set of these Isle of Lewis Chessmen which I purchased in 1987. Do I play with them? From time to time. I have also seen some of the original Lewis chessmen, they are quite remarkable.

Be seeing you