Nathaniel Cook

Chess pieces of Nathaniel Cook's 1849 "Staunton" design

Nathaniel Cooke was the designer of a set of chess figures, which is now the standard set.

He registered his design at the United Kingdom Patent Office on 1 March 1849 under the Ornamental Designs Act of 1842. As he was the editor of The Illustrated London News, the newspaper where Howard Staunton wrote a regular chess column, he asked Staunton to advertise his chess set. Staunton did so in his column on 8 September 1849, and the set became famous under the name Staunton chess set.

References

• Brace, Edward R. (1977), An Illustrated Dictionary of Chess, Hamlyn Publishing Group, p. 71, ISBN 1-55521-394-4
• Hooper, David; Whyld, Kenneth (1992), "Staunton chessmen", The Oxford Companion to Chess (2nd ed.), Oxford University Press, p. 392, ISBN 0-19-280049-3