Big Business in Chess Sets

Americans, to my absolute amazement, apparently buy "tens of millions of chess sets each year". That is, according to Elizabeth Gann,quite possibly America's only woman specializing in chess sets. She's a dealer.

The NYT:

The market for antique chess sets is quite strong. In June 2003, Sotheby's sold a 1923 Russian porcelain set for $22,800, on which the Reds (Communists) fought the Whites (Capitalists). At the same sale, a 19th-century Indian set that depicted Bengal fighters and their British colonial overlords sold for $21,600. Last year, Christie's London sold an early-20th-century amber animal set for $65,000, a world record for a set of that kind. Even without a Bobby Fischer, interest in chess grows.

I'll probably never be able to afford one of these sets. But I wouldn't mind test driving them with a few rounds of blitz! That Russian porcelain set sounds most appropriate for a game or two.