Information about this set

It is supposedly by an English maker circa 1870-80.  Very distinctive knights and bishops.  I have been unable to find an image of a similar knight online.  Or of the bishop for that matter.  It's a large 110 mm club set.  If anyone owns or has seen a similar set, please post.  I'd appreciate any information (maker or club where it may have been used?) about its history.

Thanks very much.

Nice Knights but, I dislike those Bishops as they look cheap.

I have no idea what you mean by this, since I don't see any signs of shoddy workmanship or poor quality materials.

I don't think they look cheap either. The set's very nice. It's got character, which cannot be said for so many contemporary Indian sets these days. Is it an antique? I would just be a bit worried about the narrow stems of the pieces and the elongated points on the queen's coronet.

Looks very much like one of the earlier Staunton models. However, I don't think it's by the maker Jacques, because they stamped the kingside rook and knight on the top (if you've ever wondered how on earth in really old chess books written in the descriptive notation they managed to keep track of the KR and KKn deep into the endgame - instead of just indicating the file they come from as they did later on - now you know how).

The style of the bishops is very marked and bears a fairly strong resemblance to the Jacques models made in the years 1865-75, but the bases on all the chessmen are flatter on your set, as was the fashion with Jacques models between 1890 and 1900 roughly. Furthermore, the king on your set is quite a bit taller than the queen, which was a typical feature on the earlier Jacques models. The knights are also quite similar to the Jacques sets from ca 1860 to 1870. But the queen is of a model which looks a bit more recent, say 1880 to 1910. It's very difficult to say, but I would guess it's made by a competitor to Jacques. Here's a link to the Jacques Staunton models of that time, http://www.fersht.com/chess/

Thanks for the responses!  Very helpful.  Yes, the set is an antique.  There are a couple of mismatched pawns and the bishops are slightly different from each other which suggests that it may have been used in a club setting where pieces were jumbled.  I bought the set because I liked the look of it (even the bishops!) and I wanted to have a little piece of chess history.  It is not a Jaques but looking at the Jaques knights it appears that the maker was copying the early Jaques design.  It looks like the set's origins will remain mysterious like much of what is beautiful in chess.  Now I just need to find a suitable 2 1/2 in. board to play it on!

Okay.  Cleaned and displayed on a 2 1/2 inch board by Brad Borkowski of ColoradoWoodWorker.  Resoration of one cracked pawn by Alan Dewey.  After speaking with Alan, I think that the minor variations in the set are vagaries of the turning process of the 1800's.  The set is a pleasure to handle and play.  Will need re-baizing soon and a few loose weights will need to be fixed but it will do for now!