Identify this chess set?

Hey! Looking to see if anyone knows something about this chess set -
I don't really have any details -
They seem to be wooden (some are cracked, paint chips with wood underneath)
Paint with a clear coating over the top - Unsure if this makes any difference as they could have been painted.
No labels or maker's marks.
Felt on the underside of the pieces.
Pawns are 8cms tall, with the other pieces being 9cm to 12cm. King and Queen are 12cms tall





Many Thanks!

Unfortunately the pictures are not displaying. Did you upload JPEGs?

Whoops - Looks like I've fixed it now!
Thanks for the heads up, I thought something was off

@Jooties - This is a Chinese set from Shanghai. Sets like this were exported in large quantities from the People's Republic of China in a black and white lacquered version from the 1950s onwards. The original boxes at that time show that they were distributed by the China National Tea & Native Produce Import & Export Corporation Shanghai Arts & Crafts Branch. At that time, there was a Shanghai Arts and Craft Council, an institute that was to contribute to the spread of Chinese culture in the world with the help of local artists. Whether it was actually the artists of the Shanghai Arts and Craft Council who designed this style of set is, however, not documented. Unvarnished wooden versions with identical chess pieces were sometimes made of precious woods such as mahogany and ebony and variously dated to the early 20th century. I have one of those potentially earlier versions. The previous owner, from whom I acquired the set, gave Germany as the country of origin and the age of the pieces as approx. 1920-1930, but this is also without clear evidence. One theory is that this type of chessmen was designed in Germany and brought to China via the German colonial administration in the early 1900's and was later copied by the Chinese, but there is no proof for that.

Here are two examples of such sets with their original labels:

And here is my unlaquered and potentially earlier (1st half of the 20th century) version:

And just for the sake of clarity, there is another version of this set, which is this one. I took the picture from a current ebay listing, in which the set is described as "Japanese", which seems to be wrong in the light of the above. The body of the pieces differs, but the signifiers above the body are clearly the same.

Incredible... Thank you so much for having all this information on hand!
We've had the chess set for a long time and we have always wondered about the origins...
Exactly the same pieces too. That is a very interesting story behind it all!

Originally, I made this post on behalf of my father who loves chess and has always had this set - He'll be very keen to know this is the story!

Many, many thanks

Hello

I’m searching for one of these sets to buy!

any leads?

My 4" pristine version with gorgeous board and original box.

Located in Vancouver, Canada. I can mail it bubble wrapped to the max.

Accepting offers in private message.

My 4" pristine version with gorgeous board and original box.

Accepting offers in private message.

Accepting offers (Pieces only) (Located Vancouver, Canada) (can post)