Forums

Art Deco, mushrooms and elongated bishops

Sort:
Powderdigit

I am creating a specific thread for this set because prior discussions are embedded within other threads and I am hoping that the collective CB&E community may be able to provide more information with more focus.
In addition, I think it is a lovely set and a style that can hold its own thread. 
It is a set of unknown provenance - I purchased it locally. The seller was not able to furnish a lot of detail and there seemed to be some debate as to whether the pieces were commissioned as a replica of a historical set; or perhaps it was an original … all confusing. These pieces came into their possession 25+ years prior.

The closest picture I can garner is from Holger Langer’s wonderful book: “On the collecting of chess sets”. (A book that I highly recommend to any chess enthusiast!) See figure 114-  replicated below. That set is of unknown provenance too, albeit Holger posits that it may have originated in the Baltic states. So here is the mystery - mushroom tops on the king and queen, elongated bishops heads and a minimalistic but beautiful knight.







Pamvo7

I saw it before, liked it a lot and found I saved a picture on my computer, but it might be yours?

Powderdigit
Yes indeed, that too is mine from another thread. I received a private message from another forum member and he noted that doing an image search produced nothing similar ….in around 64,000,000 images. I joked and noted: “Ah instead of my set being one in a million (so the saying goes) … it’s one in 64,000,000!” 😉😆
Pamvo7

I did a search as well, as I was curious, and the closest I found is a Soviet set on Etsy:

Which is still far away from the shapes and beauty of your set, but might lead us in the right direction.

Powderdigit
Thanks @Pamvo7 - interesting 🤔 and yep, lq - I can imagine people not liking the set and the Lardy is a classic. 👍
Pamvo7
long_quach wrote:

It suck, wherever it came from.

Nothing beats French Lardy. I have dozens of chess sets. I've seen thousands of sets.

Lardy has that 3 part composition. Head, body, base.

If you don't have that 3 part composition, you don't have "it".

I agree with you that 3 part composition is the best: Body, Mind and Soul - 3 levels - it's much superior to 1 or 2 levels...(i.e. people aware of only 1 or 2 parts of themselves).

I love Lardy as well. I got a brand new set of library size, very similar to the one in your picture, and I Ioved it. Then I got an older set (probably) Lardy and realized the older one was much superior to the new one...

ungewichtet

happy.png It sucks like bees suck honey, wherever they came from..

broomstuck

@powderdigit I think it's a very nice looking set. Well carved. Certainly has some baltic vibes going on. It looks to be made of premium woods - are the pieces heavy relatively?

Some similarities with this Soviet set from Etsy. Your set could be an artistic impression losely inspired on such a set. Maybe a one-off?

Powderdigit

This set (above that started the thread) continues to be a mystery and another vintage set that I recently acquired (below) - most likely with Eastern European origins - has a couple of similarities. As pointed out privately by a friend on this forum. Now two mysterious sets…

Powderdigit

Unfortunately, much like the pieces in my original post, I have hit a dead end on this board and pieces too. Strange… as in my eyes … they are beautiful, and I would have thought there were some other sets of similar design.
That said, the combination is such that I can imagine it may have been a private commission many years ago.

ungewichtet

Commission, yes, maybe, but 'dead end'? No:

The first five of these are present etsy listings I found searching "Polish chess". The penultimate pic is from a short chess.com thread (https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-equipment/help-identifying-polish-chess-set) The third from last pic shows a set that could be in my collection- but at the time I thought 'no, not 50 Euros for such king&queen otherness'. It's perfectly pretty, though. The last one is mine happy.png

There is always the more 'piquant' king and the more rounded queen; mushrooms there are some; and often there is the strong continuity between bishop and pawn. So, if the 'public vote' of 5 etsy sellers, the chess.com poster and the hints of Polish origin in your set are not accidental, it is Polish.

Powderdigit
Cheers Unge. The logic’s stands up for me. I do love the combination of the board and pieces in the set I just acquired; the condition is also excellent. I’m stoked.
Powderdigit

Maybe an important indicator as to why this set is perhaps not Polish … the bishops do not have different coloured tops.

ungewichtet

I'd say this means your set is more in the regence tradition and not in the Vienna coffee house tradition. Also, there is no strict division- just been looking at Kovylkino's last post in Polish sets, including regence with colour inversion on bishops.

Looking at your thread title, this is the moment I can show a rare coffee house- mushroom set (sporting 3 even more coffee housish replacement pawns) bought used a while ago and once again.. of unknown origin.

Powderdigit
👍
ungewichtet

ungewichtet

A return to the original riddle!

I found this one in an antiques shop's online pages:

The description given: "Indonesia, Java, 1960ies, stained and natural rosewood carved in one piece. Pieces probably depicting Prince Rama and his wife from the Hindu epic Ramayana."

Here are a few pics of the Sumba pony, a small but strong and energetic Javanese pony:

Here is a couple of pics of chess pieces in play tagged Indonesian and Javanese, thanks to getty images:

Throwing in a couple of mushrooms:

What do you think? happy.png

Powderdigit

Hmmm - I see resemblance in the Indonesian and Javanese pieces in the second set of photos and the knight in the first photos. Perhaps you’re onto something?

ungewichtet

updated post!

BrownishGerbil

While perusing the internet this weekend, I stumbled upon an offering which could be a modern version of mr Langers set you listed:

The way the knight is carved (not the design itself) made me think of the knight in the modern iteration of the Klubovka set so maybe there is a Czech connection?