Austin E. Cox
Virginia, USA 1924 – North Carolina, USA 2015
American designer. In the 1960s, he created, for ALCOA (Aluminum Company of America), a series of elegant chess sets carved from aluminum bars or anodized aluminum, with wooden bases shaped like I-beams (metal beams with an I-shaped cross-section), often packaged in wooden cases protected by blue plastic windows. The pieces have a simple, stylized form that reproduces the typical symbols of chess: the queen with a crown, the bishop with a cross, the knight with a shield, and the king distinguished with the ALCOA symbol.
Works on display:
- Chess set, aluminum, walnut, Plexiglas, and painted lead, 1962
- Chess set, aluminum, polished on one side and anodized on the other, 1972