Régence, Selenus, Dubrovnik, Lardy: the Great Styles of Chess Pieces

The style of a set says a great deal about its origin and age. It is not enough to date it, however: many old designs were reproduced in the twentieth century, and still are. This overview presents the most frequent forms, with what sets them apart at first glance.

The Régence style: the antique chess set of the Parisian cafés

Régence style

A French style of nineteenth-century chess pieces, named after the Café de la Régence in Paris, a great centre of chess. Turned pieces, fairly slender, with a stylised knight; most often in natural and stained boxwood.

The Café de la Régence, near the Palais-Royal, was for over a century the meeting place of the best players in Europe. Pieces of this type were used there, notably in the famous 1843 match between Howard Staunton and Pierre Charles Fournier de Saint-Amant. The FIDE museum displays a nineteenth-century Régence set that belonged to the Russian player Mikhail Chigorin, who had made it his favourite set; it is kept in the chess museum of the Central Chess Club in Moscow. Régence pieces are entirely turned, finer and less massive than a Staunton, which makes them elegant but slightly less stable.

The Selenus style: the tall pieces of Central Europe

Selenus style

A style of tall, thin pieces, with tiers of turned collars and crowns, widespread in Germany and Central Europe. It owes its name to the chess book published in Leipzig in 1616 under the pseudonym Gustavus Selenus.

Behind Gustavus Selenus hides Augustus the Younger (1579–1666), Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg. “Gustavus” is an anagram of “Augustus”, and “Selenus” evokes Lüneburg through the moon (Selene in Greek). The illustrations in his treatise show turned, slender pieces, distinguished by their height and the number of tiers. This style was produced in Germany and throughout Central Europe until the early twentieth century, before being supplanted by the Staunton, more stable and more legible. In England these pieces were sometimes called “tulip” because of their floral motifs.

The English styles before 1849

The Calvert style is associated with the London workshop of John Calvert, a turner active in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. The attribution is debated by specialists, some linking this design to older forms. It is recognised by its very characteristic knight and by pieces decorated with fine mouldings.

The Barleycorn style takes its name from a barleycorn motif that decorates the pieces. The kings and queens are broad and barrel-shaped; the pieces are often in bone, more rarely in ivory. Dealers frequently confuse Calvert and Barleycorn.

The St George style is another English style from before 1849, found in collections alongside the previous ones. To establish his own pattern, Staunton did not hold back from criticising these rival designs.

The Dubrovnik: the pattern of the 1950 Olympiad

Dubrovnik

A pattern of pieces created for the 9th Chess Olympiad, held in Dubrovnik (Yugoslavia) from 20 August to 11 September 1950. With no cross or mitre and with wide bases, it has become a collector’s reference.

In 1949 the organisers commissioned a new pattern, designed by the painter and sculptor P. Poček and made in Subotica. The pieces, unweighted, had green felt pads; only about fifty sets are said to have been produced, which makes the originals very rare. The set was redesigned in the 1960s and again for the Siegen Olympiad of 1970. Bobby Fischer praised it in a radio interview, which did much to make it famous; on the other hand, contrary to a widespread belief, the 1972 match against Spassky was not played with a Dubrovnik.

Lardy and the French Staunton

In the twentieth century, the Dortan area in the Ain, at the foot of the High Jura, produced Staunton-type boxwood pieces in large quantities. The Lardy company, based there, exported its sets widely after the Second World War, notably to the United States and the United Kingdom, often sold under other brand names. Its sets, most often in natural and stained boxwood, are now sought after by collectors. The story of this manufacturing region is told on our page Saint-Claude, the Jura and Chavet.

The “German Knight” and the Staunton sets of Central Europe

German and Czech makers developed their own variants of the Staunton, with a more angular, taller knight, known as “German Knight” or “Bohemian”. The Fischer–Spassky match in Reykjavik, in 1972, was played with a set of this type.

Table: recognising the great styles

Antique ivory sets: what you need to know

Many prestigious antique sets are in elephant ivory, sometimes in bone. In France, the order of 16 August 2016 established a general ban on trade in elephant ivory, with limited exemptions and amended since; the European Union has also tightened its rules. Before selling, buying or shipping an antique ivory set, you must therefore check its date of manufacture and the documents required. Le Palais des Échecs has devoted an article to what the law says about antique ivory sets, which sets out these conditions.

For those who love these forms without wanting to hunt for originals, wooden reproductions offer an alternative: Le Palais des Échecs presents chess sets in historical styles, inspired by these old patterns. To go back further still, see our page on the Lewis chessmen, and for the pattern that replaced everything, the history of the Staunton.

Buying a reproduction in an old style

Most “antique” sets sold today are reproductions, often faithful, sometimes very free. A few landmarks help you judge:

• The name of the style must match the design: a set advertised as “Régence” or “Selenus” should have the proportions of one, not those of a Staunton to which ornaments have been added.
• The material: the originals were in boxwood, bone or ivory; reproductions in natural and stained boxwood are closest to the original spirit. Bone is still used for some copies of English styles.
• Stability: tall, slender styles such as the Selenus benefit from being weighted and felted if you really want to play.
• The board: an old style goes well with a board with natural wood squares and a simple border, rather than with a very glossy board.

For an original set, the clues to dating (wear, method of weighting, felt, box, maker’s marks) count for more than style alone. Collectors are particularly wary of artificial “ageing”: uniform staining, even wear on every piece, new felt on a supposedly old wood.

Sources: FIDE museum (Selenus, Chigorin’s Régence set), Wikipedia (en): Dubrovnik chess set, Gustavus Selenus, order of 16 August 2016 (ivory).