Which piece is the king?

Sometimes cheaper is clearer 

I bought a travel chess set with mammoth ivory circle pieces for nearly £3000

its not that unusual, reproductions of the Max Ernst set tend to come with spare kings which in turn confuse the retailers rather badly

hahaha...im going to say the piece with the crown is the king. that said, that is a very confusing and unattractive set. I guess you and your opponent could agree on which is which at the outset of games but damn...

and...which one is the bishop? hahaha...thanks for the laughs.

Can you show a picture?

The solution is the Star Wars set 

I asked to my collector friend and he said that the king has the crown.

Happy new year to all!!!

but isnt it the queen with the crown on its head

I am french as the regence pieces and i know that the top of the queen is similar to the bishops (two round collars) and pawns (only with one round collar).

Look at an historical site:  http://ccifrance.com

The problem here is that people think that everything is descended from the mid-nineteenth century Staunton pattern, so they get confused when they see something else.  

IIRC the projections on the rim of a crown/coronet* are called strawberry leaves.  If they have spherical ends those are called pearls (no matter what they are made of).

*As to what constitutes the difference between a crown and a coronet it depends where you are.

In England only the king and queen get a crown whilst those in the hierarchy below them (but above the common herd) have to make do with coronets (life is never fair!).

In many other traditions involving nobility and royalty the terms are used interchangeably.

I just make do with the crowns (or whatever) that I get at Burger King.  

Well, your friend must not be Martin Fry (F-r-y)

https://youtu.be/2iXIfjGzMCA

I can't tell which ones are supposed to be chess pieces!

That's because at the House of Staunton, Frank Camaratta knows what the pieces of a Regency chess set are supposed to look like.

There isn't any controversy here; the UK Regency Chess site does (or at least did, maybe they've corrected it by now) have an error on its web page, and any number of references on the history of chess sets will confirm this.

I see that in your photo, the White Queen is on d1, whereas you can tell the White King because it has undergone Castling.

Thanks. This is very convincing: 
http://ccifrance.com/77.html

Last week I sent a message to The Regence Chess Company and today I received this reply from the E Commerce Manager:

Hi Eric

Many thanks for your email and for pointing this out, we really appreciate it.

Sadly our photographer is an expert at photography not so much at chess.

Kind regards

Thanks to all for your contributions in solving this problem for me!

The final conclusion is that in the regency chess set, the king has the crown.

In case anyone else reading this thread has the slightest doubt, though, here is an image from an old French book about Chess:

Nouveau Manuel du Jeu des Echecs, par J. A. de R.

I hadn't realized the doubt was serious, or I would have looked for a definitive reference earlier.