Very rare Viennese cold painted bronze chess set by Bergman

This chess set comprises a full set of 32 pieces with each piece being modelled as a mouse. One side is white while the other is grey. Each individual piece is whimsically cast and painted to represent the chess pieces. Each side has two rooks as the mouse emanating from within the castle; two knights as the mouse riding a hobby horse; two bishops (commonly known as runners in German) as a mouse with headband and baton; one queen as a crowned mouse with sceptre; one king as a crowned mouse with sceptre and orb; and eight pawns (or peasants in German) as a mouse with outstretched arms.

Franz Bergman is known for his finely executed pieces in cold painted bronze- of which Vienna was a known specialist region for at the turn of the 20th Century. Many of his similar small, intricate and humorous animalia figures have been well known and documented (such as in the book Antique Vienna Bronzes by Joseph Zobel). However, there are no other known chess pieces by Bergman- making this complete set particularly rare and suggesting it would probably have been made as an important one-off commission.

The majority are marked to the underside for the Bergman foundry with a 'B' inside a vase and stamped 'Vienna'.

Largest piece- Height 7cm, diameter 3cm
Smallest piece- Height 3.5cm, diameter 3cm