Grob…not the opening, but his chess set

We all knew the dubious but tricky Grob Attack, 1.g4. It was my first game in a tournaments when I was a kid, not knowing many of the rules and with zero knowledge about the game. I was checkmated in two moves, of course.

However, Henri Grob (1904-1974) was not only a chess player, he was also an artist. He designed following chess set, the “Grob’s Turnier-Schachfiguren”.
It has some strong similarities with the Bundesnorm, but I like this set more.

There is a brown pawn in black side lol

Nice!

It lost the color, similar to the top of the pawn on the left side.

I wanted to say above “Bundesform”, not Bundesnorm. 
https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bundesform

Great set, cool pawns! Fantastic patina. Do you know when they were designed? Thank you for sharing your find!

Thanks! I only can guess, something between  1945 and 1955. 

However,  one guy in Switzerland said "around 1930" in connection with this set. This is too early,  as I cant imagine that this set came out before the Bundesform was first released. But if he is right,  this would be very interesting,  as thos would mean that the Bundesform was inspired by Grob's chess set. This would capitulate Grob's Turnier-schachfiguren to a highly collectable item.

The German wiki entry on him is giving the following book as source when mentioning his chess set: 

Die Eröffnungen in der Schachpartie unter Anwendung des Kampfplanes (Schachverlag Grob, Zürich 1946, erweiterte Auflage 7.–12. Tausend, S. 110

Maybe if somebody has this chess book some more info is in there..

The set would be older than the referenced book, so that would mean it was made before 1946. 

I have the book, I checked already, nothing about this. Grob was a Swiss player, this is why I have some of his books and this set (I found them in flea markets).

My edition is from 1941, and it an improved edition. It is from Schachverlag  Grob, as it is giving in the box of his chess set. 

Meaning to say not no further information on it in it but no mention of it at all in that book? (And I was misled to conclude it was made before 1946) ? 

I said I don’t know when it was made, that I only can guess the data (1945-1955)! Why should Grob mention it in his book? He could, but he doesn’t have to. There are no advertisements in his book at all.

The more I think the more I believe it was made around 1938, when his book Die Eröffnung in der Schachpartie was perhaps first published (according to Google Books there is an edition from 1938). My edition from 1941 is probably the second one.

 He played with the Bundesform in 1936 in the 3rd unofficial Chess Olympiad in Munich, where the Bundesform was propagated.

The Bundesform was first mentioned in 1934 by Otto Zander, the designer of this set (according to Wikipedia). It is well possible that Grob thought it would be a good idea to produce his own design of this set in Switzerland and sell it through his own publisher. I don’t think he sold many of these sets, as I only saw three of them in almost 3 decades of search in Swiss flea markets and antiques.

The wiki gives a sparse description ('used his talents as a painter to design his own modern, frugal chessmen'). The reference given seems to point to the 1946 print of the book as the source of the info. It may have been an advertisment. So, who wrote the wiki? Please speak up!

In the meantime thank you for your valuable thoughts and reports. Great stuff to read a long time collector and a most plausible account.

1946 is one edition, there are several, until the 1970s. I guess it was first published 1938, as my edition from 1941 is a “verbesserte Auflage, 4 - 6 thousand”. I guess I would find the first edition in the National Swiss Library, which contains all books published in Switzerland. But as Google books mentioned a 1938 edition, I am quite confident that this is the first one.

The king looks a lot like Bundesform, the set as a whole shares with Bundesform the flair of undercomplexity. Very difficult to care for them- at least for stupid me. While I must say the double ringed bases on all pieces alike, like stones dropping into water, are giving the set a unique unity. And vitality. As a work of art by a painter and high-class chess player (he was a bit stronger than Duchamp, right?) it is very interesting and touching- how did he want this? Like the Bundesform donuts or banderoles, Grob's king, queen and bishops have uniform collars. Good he did not extend it to the pawns like in Bundesform but created these beauties instead. All this just my personal view! As I said above, cool pawns. And then we have the wonderful knights. 

One of the main criticism towards the Bundesform is that King and Queen are too similar,  and Grob's design is probably not an improvement concerning this point. Yes, I too like the knights very much!

Here's our Grob. A Grob Fasnacht version