Oh fascinating; I just noticed that Vintage Stock Ukraine refers to the Molodets I design as ‘the second design’. It seems my assumption as to which set came first may be wrong.
Two variants of Soviet Molodets; when were they produced?
Sort:
Does anyone have more information on the (presumably carbolite?) Molodets sets—also referred to as Dnepropetrovsk sets, which is where they were made?
The reason I’m asking is because while I have read Chuck Grau’s article on these sets, I just realized that the sets he presents (in red and brown) may not be the most common variant.
Above you can see a red Molodets set from Chuck’s collection, and below is a red set in the more common design I’m seeing (this particular one was sold on Etsy last month).
As far as I can tell the knights are the same, but the other pieces in Chuck’s set are a lot more streamlined and modernized.
I found 5 Molodets sets on Etsy (one red, one brown, and three black ones), only one of which (brown) is of the same design Chuck has. In the photo below is a black set of the more intricate design.
One interesting thing I’m observing is that the pawns seem to follow the same design language as the Ukrainian Sholknik sets; the more common Molodets design would be analogous to Shkolnik II, while Chuck’s set is more analogous to Sholnik III.
In the image below, I put the Molodets and Shkolniks together for comparison. Another parallel between the two sets is that the teeth on the crowns of the royals in Molodets I and Shkolnik II are replaced by a less angular/aggressive design language in both sets (squared crenelations in the Molodets II, and smooth crowns in Shkolnik III).
Based on this, I’m convinced that the Molodets Chuck presents are a later variant (hence I’m referring to them as Molodets II).
Does anyone know what year Molodets I and II were produced?