a gilded metal chess piece modelled on a rook, the top mounted with a slice of telegraph cable set beneath glass, one side engraved “‘CHESS MATCH BY CABLE / BETWEEN / HOUSE OF COMMONS, LONDON / AND / HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, WASHINGTON / PLAYED OVER THE LINES OF THE / ANGLO-AMERICAN TELEGRAPH C0., LONDON / AND / WESTERN UNION TELEGRAPH CO., NEW YORK / 1897 / CONTRACTORS / THE TELEGRAPH CONSTRUCTION AND / MAINTENANCE CO., LONDON,’
Signed: ‘C&AG’ for Carlo and Arthur Giuliano
Height: 7.6 cm
The Piccadilly firm Giuliano was commissioned to create a series of gilded rooks in 1897, to commemorate a chess match played between the House of Commons in Great Britain and the House of Representatives in the United States.
Five members from each house were selected to play the game, with moves being communicated via transatlantic cable over two days. The event was to demonstrate the extraordinary capabilities of this new technology and each rook was mounted with a slice taken from the transatlantic cable. The match ended in a draw.
Another example can be found in the permanent collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum (M.8-2011). It is not know exactly how many were made, but is seems likely that each of the players received one.
