The Lardy of All Lardys

Message me when you're going to be in the Boston area and we can do just that!

Here is what the Chess Museum has to say about Lardy sets:

"Lardy was an important french chess piece manufacturer, founded in 1890 in Dortan near Oyonnax in the French Jura, which closed shop in 1992. In the interwar years and even more in the 50ies and 60ies Lardy must have exported very large numbers of chess sets to the major market USA and England, where they were commercialized by games brands such as Cavalier, Drueke, Lowe,Sterling and others, as well as to smaller markets. This very likely contributed to forcing local makers like Drueke or Horn or other makers in the USA and Jaques in England to stop or reduce making quality wooden chess pieces.

"Lardy was not the only french chess piece maker to flood the world with down to middle market chess sets - Chavet and others spring to mind. Their success in export markets like the USA, Great Britain and Germany heralded the arrival of the ascendent Indian manufacturers who in turn started to take away Lardy's market from them in the 60ies and 70ies.  Most likely Lardy was one of the french turners who produced immense numbers of Regency chess sets as well  - and possibly other styles in chess sets along with sundry other turned wood games - over the last hundred years.  Material was mostly Jura boxwood, but maple and softwoods seems to have been used as well - and as it seems,  even horn, judging by a fine set owned by Guy Lyons.

"Lardy Staunton sets - from the 60ies onward - are easily distinguished by the typical blocky knights head - see the logo - a flat horizontal top line with a small jutting rear fin - strong striatures on head and neck for better sets, as well as bulging wooden eyes. It is of course a two piece knight - Lardy started this technique in Stauntons, earlier knights are still two-piece knights.   French makers always had a top line - têtes fines - and a middle line - têtes simples - as well as cheaper sets for the mass trade, with nondescript heads.   The final Lardy design was widely copied by indian chess manufacturers like Checkmate - it also has technical advantages! -  but has now faded from fashion....check the Indian producers websites as outlined in my Links section. It is not easy to distinguish an Indian Lardy-style set  from the original, especially in smaller sets....but European boxwood is different from sheesham!"

And here is what the Chess Museum has to say about the quite rare club-size Lardy shown here:

"The top of the line in Lardy, these very large and heavily weighted sets were only produced in minor numbers - very few clubs would use these sets as they are way beyond the FIDE limit of 95 mm king size for tournament pieces - these kings stand 116 mm  (ca. 4 1/2 ") high, the base has a width of 50 mm (2 ")."

Here is one the Chess Museum dates from 1970. It differs in color, shape and detail from mine.

"This set came to [the Chess Museum] in the drab original colouring of natural wood and light matt brown, some of which had rubbed off. This is what they look like after a slight varnishing with 2 coats, and the necessary refelting. Probably from around 1970." 

My set is the spitting image of the second club-sized Lardy displayed by the Chess Museum.

Of this set the Museum says:

"Same size as preceding set, this one is noticeably older - and finer. with minute differences - kings a wee bit finer, knights taller - this set is very finely varnished, with the varnish on the natural side having mellowed to a deep honey colour. Highly esthetical, very satisfying to play with..."

Beauty of a Lardy set. Best one I have ever seen. Congrats. Half the fun is in the hunting.

Thanks, Info. I hadn't seen that listing. It's interesting in a couple respects. 

• It commemorates the 1972 match, but is improperly identified as the set of the match, as I know you know.
• I wasn't aware that Lardy made them that big. My seller represented the height of my kings to be 4.75". I thought they were only 4.5" when I bought them, and 4.5" is how they measured once I received them.
• The varnish on them seems inferior.
• They're quite expensive. I hope no one pays a premium thinking it's a replica of the match set!

Thanks, Mike. I literally just stumbled onto this a few hours before the auction closed. I'll be honest. Sometimes I find the hunt fun. Sometimes it's just a drag.

Chuck, to say it is a large set is an understatement. Very nice!

Thanks, Noswals! It's a monster.

Chuck, I love it

It's larger than my 10.6 cm king club Lardy.  I used this set at the last Red River Shootout tournament, and one of the Texas players came up to ask whether the K exceeded the allowed 4.5" limit USCF specificies. Fortunately it was okay, and the pieces were not crowded on the 2.5" squares Drueke board. My opponent and I enjoyed a good couple of games.

Great story, Mark. It must look awesome on that large Drueke board!

Lardy sets have a certain charm about them and yours looks especially impressive Chuck.  Wonderful photography once again.  Well done!

Many thanks, Alan!

More fascinating history of Lardy, Chavet, and chess set production in the Jura region of France...

http://www.chess-museum.com/chess-piece-production-in-the-jura.html

This humungous set fits well on my latest acquisition--a vintage 2.75" No. 65 Drueke board in excellent condition. I stumbled onto the auction days after the Lardy arrived.

Oh, yeah, Chuck.  Sweet board with those pieces.  Do you have room for a clock and a coffee cup?

Plenty of room for a clock, Mark, and a beer mug. I need to either shave 1/8" off one side of the board or hole in the table so the board will rest inside it rather than on it. I hate to violate the integrity of the board, but that would be easier than planing the inside of the opening.

Wow!

Thanks, Up! It's hard to capture the size of the set-up in photos. The best way is to look at the shot of the knight in my hand. It's a monster. A well-carved, richly patinaed monster. 

The board is impressive. I never thought I'd get a Drueke this large. But when I saw how crowded this set was on a 2.5" board, I began to think it would look great on a 2.75"  Drueke. I opened up Ebay, and there one was. And with a reasonable Buy It Now price. I was really, really lucky.

Chuck, that board (Drueke) looks gorgeous & fabulously rich? Am I looking at something that's in the range of $300-350?