This is the sort of object you’d like to find in one of your own drawers, but never will: Long-lost Lewis chessman found
A medieval chess piece that was missing for almost 200 years had been unknowingly kept in a drawer by an Edinburgh family.
They had no idea that the object was one of the long-lost Lewis Chessmen – which could now fetch £1m at auction.
The chessmen were found on the Isle of Lewis in 1831 but the whereabouts of five pieces have remained a mystery.
The Edinburgh family’s grandfather, an antiques dealer, had bought the chess piece for £5 in 1964.…
I could not figure out what kind of piece this was, but luckily the article finally says it’s a “warder” — what in America we call a rook. My first guess was bishop, and even now I only can tell the figure is holding a sword because the article says so. My eye read the sword as the edge of a book, which is why I guessed bishop.
Pictures at the link.
in the video in the article there’s a straight on view wherein it looks much more like a sword and that part that looks like a book is more clearly a chunk left so the sword would be attached and not fall/break off.
Otherwise, yeah, in that still I thought book, too.