Skyline Chess redefine the ageless game in stunning cityscape chess boards
Recreating the world’s most iconic city scenes in spectacular detail, London-based Skyline Chess bring a sleek, contemporary finish to a timeless game. Share
Skyline’s roots lie in the ingenuity and global vision of its creators who, as flatmates, played chess in the evening. While honouring the precious historicity of chess as a time-honoured game with origins in seventh century India, Prosser and Flood reimagined the traditional chessboard with an international outlook and a trailblazing, contemporary sophistication. Driven by their craftsmanly precision and insatiable thirst for excellence, the duo recreate classic chess pieces as the world’s most recognisable buildings. Each piece is finished with impeccable technicality; rediscovering familiar sights in minute detail, they prompt a new appreciation of familiar city sights.
From London Eye pieces mesmeric in detail to a beautifully intricate Parisian Pompidou, each set showcases the major landmarks of cities such as London, San Francisco and Dubai. Every model begins life as a hand-sketched design, with buildings meticulously selected to evoke the shape of the game piece for which they stand; New York’s Chrysler Building, for instance, offers a silhouette similar to the mitred hat of a bishop.
Materials are simply exquisite. Hand screen-printed wooden city maps, beautifully vibrant in cartographical detail, or a milky-hued base made from Italian Carrara marble reclaim the gameboard as a work of fine art, while double-weighted bronze, metal and marble create miniature structures of quality, complexity and stately design.
Breath-taking luxury editions are also available for a truly remarkable game experience. Hand cast in solid bronze, each luxury set draws on the lost-wax casting technique of a family foundry in Birmingham’s famous Jewellery Quarter. Their time-honoured techniques, which date back 6000 years, converse with state-of-the-art 3D printing practises to ensure that every brace and baluster is captured in minute detail. The 15kg weight of the set, meanwhile, adds a satisfying tactility to each piece, while the textured leather bases allow play to unfold with precision and faultless accuracy.
Serving an impressive clientele of private and corporate customers, Skyline have created bespoke pieces for some of the world’s biggest brands, such as Paul Smith, the Guggenheim Foundation and The National Gallery. It is the solicitous individuality of their service that so attracts the discerning gameplayer; sets can be customised to produce unique boards and elegantly personalised packaging. From engraved logos of worldwide companies to heartfelt messages to be shared by the family, each luxury set is tailored-made in partnership with clients to craft truly unsurpassable pieces of game-playing craftsmanship.
Beautifully bespoke and intricately detailed, Skyline harmonise traditional technique with international innovation to create chess sets unparalleled in their sophisticated urban charm.
