Chavet N° 8

I would say that the one that comes closest is this one. But we should also observe all the details. Attached are the sizes (diameter and height) of "ordinary" Regency kings.

I'm trying to go back in time, but unfortunately, in 1944, the entire village of Dortan, the world capital of chess manufacturing at that time, was reduced to ashes, all the machines were looted and I will keep myself to give other, more traumatic details.

At the end of this video, you will see Joanny Lardy (on the left) with HIS Regency set.

Please read this text too . You will understand better why it is very difficult, apart from certain particular sets, to attribute these old sets to one house rather than another.

Thank you again for helping me think and see around corners.

Full circle ironically- two plus years ago I began to dedicate to the chess hobby, history and lifestyle to hide the incessant boot of war from my consciousness. I am sorry for that crap and the handicaps it makes for you, the most relevant historian in my current life.

What I mean by chess lifestyle is hanging out in the local park begging to be beat around the squares and boring them with the tidbits I've learned about my sets. My game might not be tops but the enjoyment of the challenge and understanding this chess world in steps, hands on over the board is priceless to me. I've played a myriad of international characters, languages and ages giving me priceless experiences.

I'll check all my Regency sets and come back with a summary, but first...off to the park.

You're welcome ;-)

@Walterbiensur
For post #521 I added some pics and measurements into the post #521. of the one you circled.

I'll watch this tonight (here) when I get home ;-)

These are the pieces I think will answer the Chavet illustration.
I also attach these two files to print on A4 paper (21 - 29.7 cm), it also allows you to quickly know what is right and wrong. Facing the screen it works too;-)

Here is an advertisement (Quebec - Canadian dollar) from 1960 which allows you to move back the production date of a Chavet game by around ten years.

It also indicates that Chavet already had a label, this is the coat of arms of the village of Dortan and the motto of the “de Dortans” family, although his name does not appear. The fact of having stuck it inside the box allows you to find it from time to time.

@Walterbiensur
Walter it's been awhile. Those ads are great. Maybe these fit the bill?
3 1/8" King
Olive and Rosewood?

@Walterbiensur
This other set has a fancy box and is labelled 456
K 3 1/8"
Olive and Rosewood

These might fit that ad you just posted.

At 99%, (it's ultimately good to leave a little doubt), it's this type of stamp that we find under certain Chavet boxes. I don't know if he was the one who stamped them or the importer.

Bonjour @Walterbiensur, hi everyone,

While carefully reading through the 27 pages of this thread, I was reminded of a game I bought at Variantes in 1995, which might be a bit of a curiosity.

As a young adult, I wasn’t particularly well-off, and I remember making several trips back and forth between Variantes and Le Damier de l’Opéra to compare sets and, more importantly, prices—haha. I eventually settled on this one because it was… on sale.

On the day I managed to buy it, the salesperson at Variantes admitted that it was a prototype made by Chavet for the shop, but André Frisch had changed his mind about it. That’s why the set was so cheap and also why I wouldn’t get a box with it—haha.

J’y vois plutôt une version indienne de nos jeux français 😇. La société SMIR (société moderne d’impressions en reliefs) vendait aussi des sets avec ce type de profil (clairement importés) autour des 60-70€ dans les années 90 2000, pour un taille 6.

Merci de votre commentaire @Walterbiensur

Ok, c’est un point de vue a posteriori qui se défend. Il s’agit cependant clairement de buis français et, pour avoir été un client livres d’échecs chez Variantes pendant 20 ans, ce n’est pas un jeu que j’ai revu en vitrine chez eux. Quant à l’intérêt de raconter des bobards à un client habituel ^^

Yes @TirFixe, I believe this is an Indian-made "German knight" style set.

@beachero I know that across the pond, this knight design is commonly called the German knight, but that’s not how we referred to them here in Europe. By 1995, sets featuring these knights were still something of a novelty on the Continent and were generally known as tournament sets.

At the time, we still had domestically made sets that were widely available across the country and FIDE-approved. Indian sets, like those sold in the shops mentioned earlier, were considered high-end and significantly more expensive than Chavet sets or other French-made ones.

Je dois avoir l’une ou l’autre publicité de l’époque. Dès que je mets la main dessus je la publie.

@walterbiensur Avec plaisir Merci bcp.

Là vers 1998/1999 le damier proposait la version Guigou by Kasparov qu'on a pu voir dans plusieurs championnats de France. Le set classique de Chavet

et ici autour 1995, un fameux jeu de compétition indien, pas exactement le vôtre, mais clairement indien.

Et là un 6 de 70 Chavet face à ce que j'identifie comme un 6 indien. Je suis incapable de reconnaitre un "véritable buis français". Il faut savoir que déjà dans les années 1930, le buis provenait des Pyrénées (jamais on ne précise de quel côté…) voire de beaucoup plus loin, grâce aux colonies de l'époque.

Et ici, comme je le mentionnais, une page du catalogue SMIR de 2010 avec sa version "Mahagony Chessmen" et "Black Chessmen", ou sa finition "Palissandre des Indes", que vous allez peut-être reconnaitre ;-)