Chess piece furniture has historically not been very comfortable.  From Lustige Blätter, 1899.

Checkmate.  From Le Rire, 1901.

Which is better: a good book or a game of chess?  The answer is from The Idler, 1894.  The game of chess and a good book are combined here: If a Chessman Were a Word: A Chess-Calvino Dictionary.

"Luck versus brains in our better-known games," from The Sketch, 1911.  See If a Chessman Were a Word: A Chess-Calvino Dictionary.

From "Mephisto" the Marvellous Automaton, Exhibited at the International Theatre, Exposition Universelle, Paris, 1889.

Playing chess while asleep, from Harmsworth Magazine, 1899.  See If a Chessman Were a Word: A Chess-Calvino Dictionary.

"Can you make anything out of this combination of a weather-chart and a chess problem?"  From Pick Me Up, 1894.  See If a Chessman Were a Word: A Chess-Calvino Dictionary.

From Truth Christmas Number, 1894.  See If a Chessman Were a Word: A Chess-Calvino Dictionary.

"The Chevalier de Saxe and the Devil," from Remarkable Apparitions and Ghost Stories, or Authentic Histories of Communications (Real or Imaginary) with the Unseen World by Clarence Day, 1848.  See If a Chessman Were a Word: A Chess-Calvino Dictionary.

Here's a Chess queen from 1876, courtesy of the Library and Archives Canada.  See If a Chessman Were a Word: A Chess-Calvino Dictionary.