A chess set can be a piece you sit down at, or it can be a piece you stand back and look at. The handful of sets that cross from one to the other — sets where the pieces themselves carry historical weight, where the king actually looks like Lincoln and the queen actually looks like Mary Todd Lincoln — earn their place in a collector's cabinet alongside everything else.

 The Prince August American Civil War chess set is one of those. I don't own one personally — it drop-ships directly from Prince August's shop in Ireland — but it's been in the Breagans catalog for a while and I want to write it up properly, because what's on the box doesn't quite tell the full story.

A Look at the Set

The set is thirty-two hand-painted pewter pieces and a wooden chess board, and most of the work — both the design and the painting — happens at piece level. The kings are Abraham Lincoln on the Union side, top hat unmistakable, and Jefferson Davis facing him on the Confederate. The queens are their wives — Mary Todd Lincoln in a dark dress, Varina Davis in period gown opposite. Among the senior pieces on each side: two Robert E. Lees in Confederate gray, two Ulysses S. Grants in Union blue. The remaining ranks are period figures — officers, mounted cavalry, flag-bearing infantry, and standing privates — all individually painted to read at the scale of a chess piece without losing detail.

The full set ships in a wooden case that doubles as the playing board. Underneath the board is a removable drawer with felt-lined compartments — one for each of the thirty-two pieces — so when the set isn't in use, every figure has its own slot to sit in. It's a quality detail most retailers don't surface, and it's the difference between a set that lives on the table and a set that survives a couple of decades.

Designed by Chris Tubb

What separates this set from a generic Civil War chess set is the credit line on the box: designer Chris Tubb. Tubb is a recognized name in British toy soldier sculpting — his work has appeared across multiple manufacturers over the years, and serious collectors learn to look for his name the way an art collector learns to look for an artist's signature. The proportions on this set, the period-correct uniform details, the way each face is sculpted as an individual rather than a mold-stamped repeat — that's Tubb's hand at work.

The Lincoln figure is the easiest place to see it. The top hat sits at the right angle. The coat falls correctly over the shoulders. The face is recognizably Lincoln without being caricatured. A casually-sculpted Civil War chess set wouldn't bother with that level of resemblance — it would just give you a tall king piece with a beard. This one earns the resemblance.

Made by Prince August in Ireland

Prince August has been making pewter figures and chess sets in County Cork since 1976. They're best known among collectors for two things: a long-running line of historical chess sets across multiple periods — Roman, Napoleonic, Robin Hood, Celtic, and the American Civil War you're looking at here — and their casting molds, which let collectors who paint their own figures cast pewter pieces in their own homes. The Civil War set is part of the painted-and-finished line, not the cast-it-yourself molds.

The pewter is the right choice for a chess set. It's heavy enough to sit on the board the way a serious chess piece should, takes paint cleanly, and doesn't break the way a resin figure does if a piece tips over during play.

Why I Carry It (and What One Customer Said)

I haven't held one of these chess sets in my hands. It drop-ships from Prince August's facility in Cork — when a customer orders, the set ships from Ireland, not from my shelves in Houston. My recommendation here isn't built on having the set in front of me; it's built on what I know about the people who made it, designed it, and chose to keep refining the craft over decades.

What's in the catalog is in the catalog for reasons. For this set: Chris Tubb's design credit, Prince August's track record on pewter chess sets across multiple periods, and the Civil War being the era that draws the deepest interest from my customer base. The wooden case with the storage drawer was the detail that pushed it from "considering" to "carrying."

What customers say when they buy one is the part I trust most. From David W., a verified customer in September 2025:

"Beautiful Civil War chess set. Chess pieces are beautiful."

Five out of five stars. Not a long review, but real and from someone who actually has the set in hand — which is more than I can say.

If you've been thinking about a Civil War chess set for your shelf, your study, or as a gift for a serious collector who'd appreciate the Tubb design and the Prince August craftsmanship, the set is in the Breagans catalog if you'd like to pick one up. Email me if you have questions before ordering — I can answer what I know, and if I can't, I have a direct line to my contact at Prince August who can.

— Daniel