Battle of Waterloo Themed Chess Set - Hand-Painted Figures on Italian Alabaster Board

This is a rare find - a complete chess set that tells one of history's most decisive stories through its pieces. The Battle of Waterloo pitted Napoleon Bonaparte's French army against the Duke of Wellington's Anglo-Allied forces in June 1815, a confrontation that ended the Napoleonic Wars and changed the course of Europe. Here, each side is rendered as a distinct army: the French in blue, the Allied forces in red, with Napoleon and Wellington themselves as the opposing Kings. The figures are individually sculpted and hand-painted in Italy, with enough detail to make each piece worth examining up close.

The board is cut from real alabaster - white and black stone, polished to a high gloss with a naturally veined surface that no two sets share exactly. It's the kind of board that draws attention before a single piece is placed. Together, the combination of an alabaster board with hand-painted figurative pieces is genuinely uncommon - most themed sets use the same sculpted forms on both sides in different colours. Here, the two armies are entirely different figures, each side with its own historical identity.

• Chessboard: Alabaster (white and black stone, high-gloss finish)
• Chess Pieces: Hand-painted marble composite, made in Italy

Specifications

The two armies are what make this set genuinely special - the French and Allied forces are sculpted and painted as distinct historical figures, not simply the same piece in two colours. It's a level of detail that's hard to find at any price, and it makes the set as interesting to display as it is to play. The alabaster board is the perfect match - a surface made from real stone, with the natural variation that comes with it.

Scali Salvatore has been crafting alabaster pieces in Volterra, Tuscany for generations - a town with a centuries-long tradition of alabaster work that dates back to Etruscan times. Their sets are made by sculptors and skilled artisans, hand-finished and hand-painted to a standard that reflects that heritage.

• History enthusiasts and anyone who appreciates fine figurative craft
• A significant gift that will be kept and displayed rather than put away
• Collectors looking for something genuinely special in a themed set

Please note: due to the natural properties of alabaster and its varying levels of mineral absorbance, the intensity of colour may differ slightly from set to set - making each one beautifully unique. As the chess pieces are individually hand-painted, minor variations in colour and finish between sets are a natural characteristic of the craft. Each piece carries a small Made in Italy label on the base.