I think it's Chavet from late 40s. The booklet is from 1945 but the pieces could be from slightly later date as German National Socialists bombed Dortan during WW2 and destroyed some workshops.
@Walterbiensur could tell you much more about it, he the expert on French pieces.
And congrats on a very nice set! 
I have a few similar sets that I’ve long suspected are not Lardy but probably Chavet. Features like the turtle-necked bishop, low-rise knight pedestal, coupled with this knight head. The craftsmanship/finishing on these sets also seems to be a little finer than my typical Lardy sets. I have a Lowe set with the same 1945 booklet, but don’t think it dates the set to the year or even the decade. I Imagine they would use booklets with this copyright date until the booklet needed to be updated and reprinted. It would be interesting to see the range of other Lowe booklets with different copyright dates. If you could see the series of years, that could really help date sets.
I agree it looks like Chavet.
Not easy… but not Lardy.
Look at the King and the bishop Phidias. If similarity, you got a Phidias from "Pichon - Vincent".
And to make matters worse, Chavet also sold to Lowe.
A similar set was used during the 1967 French Championship. 3rd photo
http://heritageechecsfra.free.fr/1967.htm
Another French set sold by E.S. Lowe in US after WW2. Seller thinks it's from 40s:
And another set that (different) seller also thought it's been sold by E.S. Lowe in the late 40s:
@Walterbiensur
And to make things worse, Chess-museum also says Lardy sold to Lowe, but I don't know if it's true...
I think this are Chavet, but more like from the 60's.
The Chess Museum made a mistake in some of its analyses of French chess sets, specifically those by Lardy.
He used a 1957 article to illustrate Lardy sets. I found the article. I found the photographer's daughter. She sent me all the photos from the report.
Then I found the children and nephews of the people in the photos.
The photos aren't from the Lardy factory, but from the Dortan cooperative, created in 1945 to revive the industry after the village was destroyed by the Nazis.
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I could also have written more simply: the article never mentions Lardy, not once. None of the photo captions mention a particular woodturning workshop. In the photos I've seen, I'm not convinced the knights were made at the workshop. They only magically appear in photos of the finished sets.
My opinion is that only a small number of turners were capable of making the knights, and they had to make them for several different workshops before mechanization made this specific task easier. That's why we often make a mistake trying to attribute a set solely based on the knight.
I could show sets from Chavet with bishop queens and kings identical to those from other manufacturers.
Thank you everyone for the excellent responses!
Walterbiensur, the history of these sets, and the village of Dortan, is a fascinating read. It seems like there was a lot of cross over of styles between these companies, especially since they look like they were working together for a while.
The knights look close, but not quite, like the Phidias knight you posted but the Kings, Bishops, and Queens don't seem to match.
The closest match I've found for the knights was an ebay listing for a set from Cavalier, which doesn't help much since they look like they were a reseller of Lardys and Chavets as well. But then again, it looks like knights aren't super reliable indicators of make from what you are saying.
After looking through Pamvo7's pictures and a few other sets , I think I am going to take a risk and call it a Chavet. At least until someone calls me out on it.
There's also this last woodturner who manufactured exclusively for export. I suppose he occasionally visited other woodturning workshops to meet demand. I can't guarantee that the illustration is identical to the sets he offered. It dates from 1982. Just near Dortan.
Generally speaking, I think this type of game was created around 1960. I found another advertisement from 1961, in a department store, but the brand of the game isn't specified.
There's also this last woodturner who manufactured exclusively for export. I suppose he occasionally visited other woodturning workshops to meet demand. I can't guarantee that the illustration is identical to the sets he offered. It dates from 1982. Just near Dortan.
Generally speaking, I think this type of game was created around 1960. I found another advertisement from 1961, in a department store, but the brand of the game isn't specified.
"...I found another advertisement from 1961, ..."
Can you post it here, please? Merci beaucoup.
Only this with 1961 size 2 and 5 +/-
This is a dated set from my collection, from a World Cruise Jan-May 1961 which means it was made in 1960. I think it's Vincent (Phidias). Jaques box stamped 5034 - size 4 (83mm) weighted.
I think so - Hastings 1963 - Mikhaïl Tal - Vincent-Pichon commercial photo overlay
Excellent match with Hastings 1963, Walter! I recognized the set from another thread.
And here is a Chavet 203, dated 1960 (or 1968?), unweighted, not in my collection:
I don't have the exact date of the introduction of these sets at Chavet, the 60s is a fairly precise period ;-)
I was hoping someone here with more expertise than me might be able to help me with this (This will be my first nice wooden set). I recently purchased a vintage set of pieces for what seemed like a pretty good price and I thought it was a Lardy, but the more I look at it (Particularly the knight) the more I wonder if it may be a Chavet. It came with a box labelled as E.S Lowe, and an instruction booklet dated 1945. The King is around 3.75 inches.
Bonus question: Is this an actual 1945 make and is it possible to narrow it down by month?