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Aug 20, 2023
0
#2503
@ungewichtet Great find! Apparently the no 7 was invented to indicate a difference in style from the typical no 5, which would feature the stout Escardibul type of knights. But sizewise it actually is a no 5, being between 9 and 11cm in height. I found this article (in Spanish) describing no 7 sets.
Aug 20, 2023
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#2504
I’m not much of a collector compared to most of you. I buy sets for playing. Even so, I have three fine wood sets. A House of Staunton Reykjavik II set purchased new, and two French made sets purchased at auctions. I also have several good quality plastic sets.
My first tournament set was purchased at Toys R Us in 1988 for less than $10. It got a lot of use and I refelted it in 1999. It now occupies the box that once contained some premium Scotch. The half-empty bottle is with others.
Aug 20, 2023
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#2505
Good drop o' tackle that 12 YO Balvenie. The sweet spot age-wise IMO (vs 10 and 15 YO). Oh! There's a chess set too!?
Just kidding. That is a nice looking set. I'd have never guessed the provenance, let alone the original cost. Considering it's plastic, it even seems to have patinated nicely. Don't wash it 
Aug 20, 2023
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#2506
The Balvenie box holds a much used standard plastic tournament set that was purchased with a commemorative vinyl board at the 2014 Washington State Elementary Chess Championship. I'm not sure of the count, but I probably have a dozen different boards from this annual event. The past few years, commemorative boards are no longer created. My tournament bags for running youth events contain 32 sets with 20 boards from the 2009 event, for which I was the principal organizer, and 12 boards from the 2015, for which I was the co-organizer and TD.
Aug 20, 2023
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#2507
Here's that old plastic set (the one in the Glenmorangie box) on the board it came with. It has seen many battles and I still carry it to chess lessons with my students from time to time.
Ziryab wrote:
Here's that old plastic set (the one in the Glenmorangie box) on the board it came with. It has seen many battles and I still carry it to chess lessons with my students from time to time.
Very nice garden / 
Aug 20, 2023
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#2509
long_quach wrote:
Ziryab wrote:
Here's that old plastic set . . . It has seen many battles . . .
I can tell it's been around for awhile by chips on the pieces.
Mine too.
I got attached to my chipped and beat up first chess set I bought from USCF. It was the first one. It was the one that started every thing.
I discarded it when I have to move.
I replaced it with an indestructible silicone chess set. I don't get attached to the "original" so much.
Things can live on in a copy.
I like old things.
I have one of those indestructible silicon sets, too. I don't like playing with it. It makes my hands feel dry.
Aug 20, 2023
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#2511
I would like to thank all the participants, and before answering some of you, here is an article published in 1975 in a French magazine (retrieved Friday from a club in the east of France). My level of English is what it is, here is the level of google translate ;-)
About Lardy and some nice photos : 
Then a 1977 advertisement for Lardy, with or without glass eyes ;-)
The clipping of the parts is not terrible…
Aug 20, 2023
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#2512
@Walterbiensur Thanks for sharing that article, interesting read! So they just launched the Lardy International brand in the beginning of the 70s if I understand correctly. It's incredible how quickly thing must have gone bad for Lardy.
If I'm not mistaken the pieces in the top of the ad are made of horn. These were expensive!
Aug 20, 2023
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#2513
Chavet special Knight 1 - Size 10 - 6 - 5 - 4
Chavet Special Knight 2 - Size 6 - 5 - 4 - 4
… and 3 - 2.
Lardy 1940-1960 - Size 6 - 5 - 4…
Lardy 1970 - 1990 - Size 10 - 8 - 6
Here are 3 sizes 6.
On the left a Lardy
In the middle a game whose box included a stamp: Reykjavik 1972
On the right the Chavet n°6
I must admit that the base of the middle one corresponds to Lardy while the top of the knight is rather Chavet…
Here, always Chavet 6 with its original box and label: no doubt about this model!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lardy ?
Yes, the wrists are of course for flipping the chessboard… like vinyl records, it has two sides.
If you ever get the feeling that some of these pieces are leaning, know that after two hundred years, they have learned like sunflowers, to take all the light they deserve ;-)
Aug 20, 2023
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#2514
broomstuck a écrit :
@Walterbiensur Thanks for sharing that article, interesting read! So they just launched the Lardy International brand in the beginning of the 70s if I understand correctly. It's incredible how quickly thing must have gone bad for Lardy.
If I'm not mistaken the pieces in the top right of the ad are made of horn. These were expensive!
Horn of Brazil! And yes, at the beginning of the 90s, Lardy went bankrupt.
The Roz turnery buys the remaining parts and Chavet the turning equipment.
Aug 20, 2023
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#2515
@Walterbiensur Thanks a lot for sharing your research and showing us so many examples in pictures. It certainly answers a number of questions I had. And triggered new questions I had no idea that Chavet made all of these knights! I need to go through my collection again and find out if I misidentified certain sets..
About these:
The one at the front looks typical of Lardy 50s/60s. The 3 larger ones look eerily similar to the Chavet knights you showed. Do you think Lardy commissioned them from Chavet?
About this one:
I don't think this is a Lardy. The queen looks rather British (smaller than the king, different crown detail). The knights don't have the 2 slits on the side of the nose that are typical for Lardy. And they only have one large cut out on the body which I don't think I have ever seen on a Lardy. The kings finial also looks rather different.
broomstuck wrote:
@ungewichtet Great find! Apparently the no 7 was invented to indicate a difference in style from the typical no 5, which would feature the stout Escardibul type of knights. But sizewise it actually is a no 5, being between 9 and 11cm in height. I found this article (in Spanish) describing no 7 sets.
The set I've shown in 'stawton no. 7' size most of the times is found in 'stawton no. 4'. No 4 height of the king is 7,2 cm. I've seen no. 4 very often, but no. 7 (king's height 9,5 cm) only once.
The plastic set shown in the article you mentioned was very popular in small sizes, but also, very rarely, it can be found in size no. 7. (Photo borrowed from one of Arlindo Vieras great 'Spanish chess sets' threads)
I once won a plastic no.7 in an auction, but the seller could not find it!
I am not much into plastic sets but I will buy the no. 4 one day, because I like these 'kiddo' knights.
Two of the 'stout' Escardibul knights, as you name them, I have got in sets with kings of 9,0 and 9,2 cm respectively. I believe these sets may be sizes 5 and 6, but I do not have the original boxes to confirm that.
Aug 20, 2023
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#2517
I don't have all the answers yet...As @MCH818 wrote, Alain Chavet confirmed to me that Lardy had copied his knights and even asked him to do those of Lardy, which he refused. This rather encouraged him to create a new knight, which will be made in one piece, at the beginning of the 1970s. I posted on Chavet n°8 the advertisement of the time.
I also know that Chavet had created (1940-1960 ?) a cooperative and that it resold its parts to whoever ordered them… perhaps Lardy? What did they look like? I have only found one ad that illustrates this.
There was also the Pichon houseThere was also the Lambert house
There was also the Vincent houseand everyone I don't know yet...
For example, around 1920, Ernest Vincent :
Then, in 1961, Pichon and Vincent merged, and produced the sets used during the WCC in 1972… Together, they created the Phidias brand…
It's not easy to sort it all out…
My very ugly chess set
Aug 20, 2023
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#2519
@ungewichtet You may be right - the article I posted could be inaccurate (they stated no. 5 spans 9 to 11cm which seems unlikely now). I have a no. 7 here - indeed not easy to find those. KH is 95mm. I also have a 'stout' knight no. 6 which has kings with height 92mm. It would be a very small jump from 90mm to 92mm so maybe there is some variability among the sets?
And lastly I have 2 no. 4s. One with the stout knights by Escardibul and one with the kiddo knight. Both kings at 72mm. Sorry for the bad pics - no daylight here right now.
'What I called 'kiddo' knight was celebrated by Arlindo Vieira with this pic: 
The geometrical beauty with the horizontal mane (your last pic) could be called 'cubist' knight, maybe.
Thank you for your nice examples of what you call 'stout' knights' and what Mr. Vieira describes with a quote: One thing: This Khights are the Escardibul ones! Big, and with 'Sin melena, sino un especie de pelo'.
Now if no 7 is 95 and no 6 is 90 and no4 is 72 mm, then no 5 should be in between. Can someone bring examples for no 5 and no 3? Thank you!
@broomstuck Thanks! I never really gave those bishops too much thought other than I like them. Now that you mentioned the fat heads you’re absolutely right. They do look pretty nice. As for the knights, I agree they do resemble the older Lardy knights. One difference is the on the older knights like yours the side of the snoot from the mouth to cheek is curved. The same area on mine is flat. I think this is one details that is much nicer with your set as well as all of the Lardy sets from 40s and prior. As for Lardy producing these knights, according to @WalterBiensur in his Chavet thread, he asked Henri Chavet about the knights and Henri Chavet said Lardy offered to make their knights for Chavet and Henri Chavet refused.
That's a great observation and an easy way to tell them apart. Also the 2 slits on the sides are not as pronounced as on the older knights. And your version seems to have a dimple (not sure if that's the right term) on the top front section of the nose. It must be a style of its own then - not a Lardy knight! Very interesting that Chavet offered this classic style still in the 70s.