A £735,000 Chessman Rediscovered

In 2019, the Lewis chessmen acquired a new chapter when a previously unrecognised warder emerged in Edinburgh. The small medieval warrior had gone unnoticed for at least 55 years, despite belonging to one of the world’s most famous archaeological collections.

The Missing Rook

A warder is the medieval equivalent of a rook. It is one of the chessmen’s most dramatic types: a standing soldier carrying a shield and sword. Four of the known warders are shown biting their shields, creating the image of a warrior overcome by battle fury.

When the hoard was uncovered in 1831, one knight and four warders were already missing from the four sets identified at the time. The newly recognised piece helped fill part of that gap, although several major pieces and many pawns remain lost.

From Forgotten Object to Auction Star

The piece was identified as an “Antique Walrus Tusk Warrior Chessman” and sold at Sotheby’s in July 2019 for £735,000. The buyer’s identity was not disclosed. Its price reflected more than the material itself: the warder was a surviving fragment of a medieval artistic tradition, connected to a famous discovery and a collection whose pieces are divided among museums and private hands.

The rediscovery also complicates the idea that the Lewis chessmen are fully known. Catalogues, museum displays, and scholarship can preserve much—but objects may still remain misidentified in collections or private homes.

A missing medieval piece can disappear for centuries, then suddenly become visible again. The story of the Lewis chessmen is not finished simply because the hoard was found in 1831.