The Five Knights of Lockdown

Gorgeous sets - gorgeous collection, Powder. I’m also envious of your energy - I’d love to put a bunch of sets out for a ‘family’ group shot, the the thought of them having to put them all away is overwhelming!

I love that you do this though. I’m curious for information about a few of these - the set with ‘Soviet’ looking knights, the set with a sort of marbled grain, and a set that resembles the Philippine design…

Ah baudouin27, I think we tend to think the grass is greener - while I enjoy my collection, I think yours has more quality and then, of course, there’s all the collectors with deep collections of Jaques.

Of the pieces you note - one is a Chavet with glass-eyed knights:

the Soviet looking set is a grand mystery - I simply don’t know its provenance and cannot find another like it:

and I am not sure which photo you are referring to re: Philippines but it may be another French set - The Pichon-Vincent:

Those are the three. Just gorgeous sets, both in terms of design and thanks to the patina of vintage sets. The board is also beautiful - perfectly suited to them.

Most of my sets are reproductions. They’re good quality, but not the same category as yours.

Regarding your figural sets, I enjoy seeing your posts on those - and understand your attraction (also a geographic component). I have a few sets that tend in that direction, also for similar reasons. I’m not sure I’ll ever play a game with them - suppose I might in the right circumstances - but that’s not really the point with those few sets.

Here’s the latest ‘grail’, the ANRI ‘Mediolanum’ (Milan - a place I lived for a long while):

There’s an unpainted version of this set - just maple and walnut. That would have topped this set for me, but they’re rare enough - and generally expensive as is (a kind man helped bring this one within financial reach). There’s more story behind this, but that’s for another time.

Anyway, thanks for the additional photos and comments. Terrific sets!

NICE!

Yes, our favourite mystery pieces ever since Powder first posted them! I have argued that the vibe can easily be seen as Javanese, but Powder thinks it is not, but feels something Baltic. Still, for the beauty of it, my suggestion in pictures, please:

Thanks Ungewichtet, you may well be right. It’s just that I have a number of Indonesian and other asian pieces and while I can see your inspiration, there’s just something about their elegance and design that speaks to the inspiration coming from Soviet sets ir various sets from the baltics. Who knows? The mystery remains …

Herman, thanks for positive feedback, however given your (and my) enjoyment of some plastic sets I thought you may have gravitated to the Bakelite/Fenolit: And Baudouin27 - one of my small regrets in collecting is missing out on a wooden ANRI SET set that was listed locally some Years back. It was out of my price range - so I’m not that disappointed but I do like them. I am envious of your collection of those pieces. Wonderful.

Actually Unge, the more I look at your photos the more I see the resemblance.

And I totally forgot to say thank you to the photographers that let their nice pictures be found on the net. So, thank you! folks, for 'the big picture' out of thousands of your impressions, where the individual question can be posed and your illustrations be picked.

Powder, is it right that the penultimate pic of my last post, the figurative set, is from your collection?

Yep, that’s mine. 👍