Hello,
this is a chess set I bought in France in the 80s.
There is no doubt about the origin.
I think I remember that I paid 70 frcs for it, it wasn't cheap but it wasn't very expensive either.
I think it's the model that clubs used when they had wooden chessboards.
I took pictures with and without flash.
I really like the feel of these boxwood pieces.
By the way, the Chavet factory still exists but they only sell to professionnals.
Have a nice day.
Beau jeu ;-) Je pense qu’il date plutôt du début des année 90 😇, lorsque la marque Henri Chavet laisse la place à Chavet Chess.
Pour la réouverture des jeux Chavet, seuls des pièces de 0, 3 et 5 seront disponibles à la vente - dans un premier temps.
Bonjour Walter,
étant donné le prix que je l'ai payé c'était certainement l'entrée de gamme, mais il est très bien réalisé. Je trouve les formes et les gabarits très équilibrés.
A remarquer qu'il n'y a pas de feutrine dessous ce que je ne trouve pas gênant, ca fait même un petit bruit sympathique sur l'échiquier, alors avec bruit ou sans bruit?
Comme tu peux le voir il a peu servi et est resté 30 ans dans une chambre ce qui explique son état.
Grace aux "puzzle" de Chess.com et Lichess cette fois je suis en train de m'y mettre sérieusement.
Je n'ai pas de date précise et je situe l'achat à fin des années 80 ou au début des années 90 et cela correspond parfaitement à ce que tu dis.
Aujourd’hui il faut au minimum mettre le sigle € à la place de francs pour l’acheter ;-)
il y avait trois niveaux de finition et quelques variantes de couleurs :
101 = non plombé non feutré
141 = feutré
121 / 153 = plombé feutré boîte sapin ou boîte hêtre
Merci tu es un maître Chavet. 
This probably speaks for itself... so, when your birthday falls on March 1st, you can probably have a real treat at least once, with a real Staunton ;-)
And if there are a few coins left in your pockets, why not take another look at this strange and quite confusing set...
@walterbiensur I'm sharing some pictures of a set that is pictured in the brochure you shared from Watilliaux, Paris, 1903. King height 10cm.
I am intrigued by the pieces pictured on page 18 of the same brochure. A truly British design, and the knights have no similarities with what we have come to know from the Dortan carvers a few years later. I guess we could theorize that such sets were made or strongly inspired by the British carvers who crossed the pond to share the Staunton designs - operating from Paris?
I think that the link between Jaques and Pichon/Vincent is a very serious possibility…
Thanks for the refresher Walter. These pictures are very useful to try and track down such sets.
I found more info about the origins of these regence sets on the blog "El desván del ajedrez" from Napopeón Pierdeparte. A fantastic resource on many historical sets - I encourage everyone to check it out. Picture is from there.
At least some of these sets were made in Marseilles by Paul Fils, around the turn of the century.
1897 - Paul fils : only billiards, while there are two Vincent who make chess sets in Dortan.
I observed the same thing with other prestigious companies, they call themselves manufacturers of chess sets when they mainly manufacture billiards and a few other games. Maison Arthaud, Caro, Morize ;-)… and perhaps Paul fils…
It is important to understand that the first wood turners, the chess turners, were above all farmers, who, to get through the winter with a few pennies, turned wood. I actually found another newspaper article from 1935 that I will translate for you very soon, it’s very, very surprising…
That's an interesting listing. What was the date? There's another "fils" from Dortan producing chess sets.
Among the Jura turners
DORTAN, A UNIQUE VILLAGE IN THE WORLD, ONLY MAKES CHESS GAMES.
They are called Lect, Moirans, Villards-d'Héria. Les Ronchaux, Etival... Sometimes buried at the bottom of the valleys, sometimes isolated in the middle of the meadows, sheltered at the edge of the forests. These are the villages of turners, at the foot of the foothills of the high Jura ranges.
What are we “turning”? Everything that can be: pipes, coils, toys, household items, spare parts, so many things that we sometimes don't even know exist. The country is like a huge bazaar. And just as each object has its own radius, each of these villages also has its specialty. I even visited one that only made pot handles, another only made tom-tom handles.
Even more curious, and even unique in the world, it seems, is the village of Dortan, at the confluence of the Ain and the Bienne: it only makes chess sets.
I knocked at one of the houses, on the town hall square, and was shown into a large room, bustling with leather belts that moved large steel wheels. Five or six workers. They modeled small boxwood stems rotating on themselves with the sound of a top, using a special chisel, curiously cut, having the same profile as the pawn.
- Here, we only make kings and queens, the boss told me; next to it are the rooks, further away the pawns.
- And since when did the village adopt this game?
- The factory belonged to my grandfather, once..., he said, and I believe that it was already founded long before him. It is the only village in the world where chess sets are made from boxwood, boxwood which is not from the country, moreover: we bring it from Algeria.
- Do you export a lot?
- Almost all. Especially America. Before the war (1914-1918), we also had Germany, and especially Russia. But today, Czechoslovakia is giving us very strong competition. They only build with ash and therefore sell much cheaper.
- Have you never tried to build in ash too?
- No. It is indeed sometimes hard to sell, but why sacrifice quality and thus lose reputation?
- Obviously. But then, how do you survive? Can't you sell chess sets every day?
He raised his arm in the direction of the Behind the gray tiles, the countryside stretched out, with its meadows, its woods, its herds, its crops.
Geoffroy de Thoisy, Royal Mail n°18 of November 2, 1935.
That olive wood is marvellous!