Dating itself from 1795 when Thomas Jaques, a farmer's son of French
Huguenot descent, set up as a "Manufacturer of Ivory, Hardwoods, Bone, and
Tunbridge Ware", the company gained a reputation for publishing games under his grandson John Jaques the younger. Jaques is said to have been instrumental in the invention and popularisation of
Croquet. The family lore is that "John Jaques II ... was a friend of
Lewis Carroll [and] ‘Carroll was one of the founding members of the croquet club at Oxford University’", according to Joe Jaques, a descendent of the founder, who goes on to explain that, "It is no surprise that croquet is in
Alice in Wonderland because Lewis Carroll was a family friend and we had commissioned the illustrator
Sir John Tenniel, who went on to illustrate
Alice in Wonderland, to draw the original Happy Families characters when he was a cheap jobbing illustrator in 1851. It is all connected. Carroll’s niece Irene Dodgson then married my great-grandfather John Jaques III." The popularity of chess during World War II helped
MI9 hide items in chess games sent to British and American prisoners of war, because the chess sets were made of wood, especially the Staunton chess sets by Jaques of London. The inside walls of the chess pieces box were hollowed out "...to secrete maps, currency, documents, hacksaw blades and swinger compasses." The large chess boards were perfect for supplying to prisoners "...counterfeit documents, maps, currency and other contraband." The chess pieces themselves were hollowed out and used to hold messages, compasses, maps and dye to help turn uniforms into civilian attire. The base of the piece was often screwed in with a left turn screw, so any attempt to unscrew the base normally would only make it tighter. The company moved its offices and showroom to
Edenbridge, Kent, in 2000. ==Staunton chessmen==