- French Tagua Set -
I was lucky enough to acquire a very rare and interesting vegetable ivory set from eBay. I'm guessing it's French 19th century, but this is only a guess. I appealed to my collector friends for any information on this type of set, but to no avail. I have yet to run across anyone who's ever seen such a set before. Other people's guesses include French-Colonial, and possibly German. I'm putting it with my Regence sets now, though I would not call it a Regence set. It shares a lot of features with that design, and with the French Lyon set as well, a similar but much rarer design usually made in mixes bone or ivory and wood. I'll point out these similarities and differences on a piece by piece bases. I'm surprised you don't see this more often, actually. The orb and urn-shaped bases in these French designs, 'bulbous' as Keats calls them are so close to the natural shape of the tagua nut a French Tagua Set seems a natural match. One side is stained black or brown and faded beautifully over the years. The other is left natural. As always, but especially with a set as mysterious as this, I'd be overjoyed if anyone could provide some information about it. Email me.
(What is vegetable ivory? See my Tagua Staunton Set for this information.)
A 19th Century French Vegetable Ivory Chess Set?
A position from the French Defense chess opening.
White queenside forces.
Dark-stained royalty.
Kings. Compared to French Regence kings there are three turned disks in the central section instead of two.
The largest different is the turned 'hat' finial instead of the usual floral crown.
Queens have the same differences as kings, but they also lack the usual urn-shaped base.
Instead these queens sit atop bell or 'inverted urn-shaped' bases which resemble ladies' skirts.
You sometimes see these bases in French Lyon sets, for instance this bishop, or on most of these pieces.
Bishops have 2 turned disks instead of one.
Knight-heads are roughly carved and one not terribly well matched. Here especially you can see some previous owner has glued them with too much enthusiasm. Perhaps because of their simplicity, though, old French knights have a loveable elegance about them.
The very low-sitting turned bead bases on these knights especially are reminiscent of French Lyon sets; see these knights.
Incredibly French-looking rooks. There is no difference between these and rooks in most Regence sets.
Pawns, without the disk and stem you see in Regence pawns.
These alterations were certainly made for practical reasons; these pawns are carved from single nuts.
Presentation shot.
The fading dark stain brings out the grain of the material.
Here it miraculously appears to cross itself seriously resembling a piece elephant ivory.
The white army poised for combat.
The dark queen surveys the field.
Ivory kingside forces.
Minor pieces take the field.
A position from the Sveshnikov Sicilian....
White has a powerful knight.
The simple and elegant dark knight.
And one in natural ivory.
An old cigar box appears to have been this set's home for many years. Hand-written text on the box include "Spinx Chensis Tongue Out !Careful!" and "Chess Men Ivory Nut From Bud Remmy 1/1/41"
Of course I'd prefer antique chessmen to antique cigars any day.