French Chess Set in the Lyon style, ca. 1780-1820

French Chess Set in the Lyon style, ca. 1780-1820

A small French chess set made in style of the Lyon sets which, as already mentioned, have many features in common with the "Régence" pattern.  King size is 62 mm. The chessmen in clear geometric shapes, the white side made of bone and the black side made of stained wood with bone finials on king, queen and knights. King and queen have urn shaped bases, the other pieces with baluster shaped bases. The rooks as massive round towers. The bishops with top hats. I have no doubt that the pieces come from the same workshop, but it looks as if the bone pieces and the wooden pieces were made by different craftsmen within that workshop as there are small deviations in some of the pieces, e.g. in the pawns. According to the seller, the pieces were made in the second half of the 19th century. However, I am not sure of this dating is correct. Experienced collectors from France have dated pieces made in the Lyon design not later than late 18th century and have even gone so far as to claim that Lyon pieces were not made in the 19th century at all. I am not sure, if this apodictic view is justified, but it can probably be assumed that sets of this pattern were at least not made in the later part of the 19th century. As with my other Lyon set, I would therefore carefully date this set to 1780-1820.
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