This beautiful one of a kind chess set was made from the wood of the "Stonewall" Jackson Prayer Tree. The Chess Set features a 4.0" King, each piece is weighted and felt has been applied to the bottom of each piece. I spent many hours building this chess set, it was truly a labor of love.
When set up for play all visible wood is from the "Stonewall" Jackson Prayer Tree. The squares and surrounding trim have been glued to a plywood base for stability.
During the Civil War, Stonewall Jackson stopped to pray under this massive white oak tree following the end of his 1862 Shenandoah Valley Campaign. Thus the tree became known as the "Stonewall Jackson Prayer Tree." Over time this estimated 350 year-old tree stood proudly until May 27, 2011, when the diseased-weakened oak was blown down by high winds.
The dark pieces and the dark squares and trim on the board were colored using ammonia fuming. “Fuming” is a method of coloring wood by exposing it to ammonia fumes. The wood and ammonia are sealed into a fuming chamber where the concentrated fumes react with the tannin in the wood and causes it to turn a rich brown to almost black and accentuates the medullary ray fleck pattern that quarter sawn white oak is known for.
