NYC Central Park Chess Hustler

Here on Top eBay Chess Items by Price (March 2010), we often see an auction item described as a 'figurine'. Does that category include both people and animals? According to one dictionary source, Figurine Definition & Meaning (merriam-webster.com), the word means,

a small carved or molded figure : statuette

and has synonyms that can stand for people or animals. A recent example in 'Top eBay Items' on this blog was Dachshunds Play Chess (August 2023), while we have to go back a few years to find people, as in Tolkien Says 'Dwarves' (July 2019).

The item pictured below was titled 'Rare Guillermo Forchino Figurine of Chess Players on Park Bench in Central Park'. It sold for something less than US $785, 'Best offer accepted'.

The description explained,

Rare Figurine Retired from Production! The Comic Art of Guillermo Forchino. Figurine Statue (Park Benches of the World), Central Park, New York. Chess Players fighting it out.

This Park Bench is hand-crafted & hand painted and individually number 89 of production. The measurements of this figurine are 13" long x 8" high x 6" wide and weighs 6 pounds. It does not have original box but will be packaged with the lots of care. There are a lot of details in this figurine and you can see the chess board pieces and checkmate is unavoidable for player on left.

A tag attached to the figurine provided some additional info:-

The Comic Art of Guillermo Forchino
(c) 2009 Forchino licensed to VM&M b.v.
Haarlem, The Netherlands

DESIGNED IN FRANCE

Produced by Veronese
under supervision of the artist.

www.Forchino.com

Nearly fifteen years later, that website lives on at Forchino.com. There's even a page for the auction item, New York, Central Park bench (forchino.com), that comes with a story. It turns out that the player on the right is a hustler.