I saw it before, liked it a lot and found I saved a picture on my computer, but it might be yours?
Art Deco, mushrooms and elongated bishops


I did a search as well, as I was curious, and the closest I found is a Soviet set on Etsy:
Which is still far away from the shapes and beauty of your set, but might lead us in the right direction.


It suck, wherever it came from.
Nothing beats French Lardy. I have dozens of chess sets. I've seen thousands of sets.
Lardy has that 3 part composition. Head, body, base.
If you don't have that 3 part composition, you don't have "it".
I agree with you that 3 part composition is the best: Body, Mind and Soul - 3 levels - it's much superior to 1 or 2 levels...(i.e. people aware of only 1 or 2 parts of themselves).
I love Lardy as well. I got a brand new set of library size, very similar to the one in your picture, and I Ioved it. Then I got an older set (probably) Lardy and realized the older one was much superior to the new one...

@powderdigit I think it's a very nice looking set. Well carved. Certainly has some baltic vibes going on. It looks to be made of premium woods - are the pieces heavy relatively?
Some similarities with this Soviet set from Etsy. Your set could be an artistic impression losely inspired on such a set. Maybe a one-off?

This set (above that started the thread) continues to be a mystery and another vintage set that I recently acquired (below) - most likely with Eastern European origins - has a couple of similarities. As pointed out privately by a friend on this forum. Now two mysterious sets…

Unfortunately, much like the pieces in my original post, I have hit a dead end on this board and pieces too. Strange… as in my eyes … they are beautiful, and I would have thought there were some other sets of similar design.
That said, the combination is such that I can imagine it may have been a private commission many years ago.

Commission, yes, maybe, but 'dead end'? No:
The first five of these are present etsy listings I found searching "Polish chess". The penultimate pic is from a short chess.com thread (https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-equipment/help-identifying-polish-chess-set) The third from last pic shows a set that could be in my collection- but at the time I thought 'no, not 50 Euros for such king&queen otherness'. It's perfectly pretty, though. The last one is mine
There is always the more 'piquant' king and the more rounded queen; mushrooms there are some; and often there is the strong continuity between bishop and pawn. So, if the 'public vote' of 5 etsy sellers, the chess.com poster and the hints of Polish origin in your set are not accidental, it is Polish.


Maybe an important indicator as to why this set is perhaps not Polish … the bishops do not have different coloured tops.

I'd say this means your set is more in the regence tradition and not in the Vienna coffee house tradition. Also, there is no strict division- just been looking at Kovylkino's last post in Polish sets, including regence with colour inversion on bishops.
Looking at your thread title, this is the moment I can show a rare coffee house- mushroom set (sporting 3 even more coffee housish replacement pawns) bought used a while ago and once again.. of unknown origin.

A return to the original riddle!
I found this one in an antiques shop's online pages:
The description given: "Indonesia, Java, 1960ies, stained and natural rosewood carved in one piece. Pieces probably depicting Prince Rama and his wife from the Hindu epic Ramayana."
Here are a few pics of the Sumba pony, a small but strong and energetic Javanese pony:
Here is a couple of pics of chess pieces in play tagged Indonesian and Javanese, thanks to getty images:
Throwing in a couple of mushrooms:
What do you think?
I am creating a specific thread for this set because prior discussions are embedded within other threads and I am hoping that the collective CB&E community may be able to provide more information with more focus.
In addition, I think it is a lovely set and a style that can hold its own thread.
It is a set of unknown provenance - I purchased it locally. The seller was not able to furnish a lot of detail and there seemed to be some debate as to whether the pieces were commissioned as a replica of a historical set; or perhaps it was an original … all confusing. These pieces came into their possession 25+ years prior.
The closest picture I can garner is from Holger Langer’s wonderful book: “On the collecting of chess sets”. (A book that I highly recommend to any chess enthusiast!) See figure 114- replicated below. That set is of unknown provenance too, albeit Holger posits that it may have originated in the Baltic states. So here is the mystery - mushroom tops on the king and queen, elongated bishops heads and a minimalistic but beautiful knight.






