W. T. Pinney chessmen info + connection to Lardy

Were the W. T. Pinney chessmen used in any chess tournaments? Were there any prominent chess players who used them? I can’t find any information about that, which is curious given that it’s a historic chess set. Was it never a popular design?

Also, what is its connection to the Lardy knights? Did one design inspire the other? Which came first?

@WandelKoningen, I say this with sincerity: Most of your questions can be answered with some googling and thorough reading, ultimately preventing thread splits for topics covered in this forum. For example, these simple searches return the following top results and information:

Google -> W.T. Pinney Chess

https://www.houseofstaunton.com/the-w-t-pinney-series-chess-pieces-475-king.html

“The captivating feature of the Pinney chessmen is the unique Knight. Somewhat slab-sided and simple, the Knights have an allure all of their own – to some, it is an acquired taste. W. T. Pinney chessmen were constant fixtures in chess clubs and tournament halls through out the country from the 1930s through the late 1950s. The chessmen are often featured on the cover and pages of Chess Review, edited by Al Horowitz, throughout the over three decades of the Magazine’s existence.“

https://chessantiques.com/product/william-pinney-antique-chess-set-2/

“William T. Pinney was a patternmaker by profession, having worked in the trade for over 18 years. After the closing of the Charleston Navy Yard in South Carolina where he was employed as a patternmaker, Pinney, age 56, turned to the manufacture of wooden chessmen. The making of chessmen in volume had interested him both as a player and a patternmaker. So, in 1933, he set up his shop at 811 Maltmen Avenue, Los Angeles, CA, and started a long and successful career producing wooden chessmen. The machinery used for the mass production was designed and hand-built by Pinney. He was among the first U.S. manufacturers to produce chessmen on a mass scale. Prior to that, the majority of tournament size chess sets were imported from England, France and Germany.”

Google -> WCHOF Pinney

https://worldchesshof.org/blog/2017/11/01/featured-chess-set-november-2017

“November’s Featured Chess Set, which was once owned by 1986 U.S. Chess Hall of Fame inductee Isaac Kashdan, is a new donation to the collection of the World Chess Hall of Fame (WCHOF). The set has been chosen in connection with the November 10 opening of the WCHOF’s newest exhibition Global Moves: Americans in Chess Olympiads. Kashdan was one of the top five chess players in the world during the 1930s. He represented the United States on five Olympiad teams, winning team gold three times and team silver once. He also earned two individual gold, one silver, and two individual bronzes. Kashdan later was the chess columnist for the Los Angeles Times and organized the Lone Pine International chess tournaments.

[Imaged Set + Specs + Frank Camaratta excerpts from above]

The best method I’ve found for quick research information includes the the following (example related to your separate question), which typically returns results directly from the Chess Books & Equipment forum topic. This method ensures all results are returned directly from the chess.com domain, and not from other sites:

Google -> chess.com lardy

To reiterate, I’m coming from a place of genuine sincerity, and only aim to help your research, as well as CB&E. Your curiosity, activity, and engagements on various threads is refreshing, and I’m glad to see you’ve become part of this community.

I did do Google searches and found the first two paragraphs you quoted and variations on it, but they don’t answer my questions. The last paragraph identifies one grandmaster who handled the set, so thanks for that! I’m still curious about what other grandmasters used them and in which chess tournaments the set was used.

I never ask questions before looking for the answers myself. But thanks a lot for your tip on how to get search results from chess.com only! I didn’t know about that.

Searching for ‘Google -> chess.com Pinney tournament’, I get only one link where it’s mentioned that the Pinney set was used in many US chess tournaments from the ’40s to the ’60s, but there is no mention of which ones, and I have no idea how to verify which US tournaments from that period might have used them—except perhaps for inspecting many photos. This would be time-consuming and I doubt I would be able to identify the first ones in which they were used, which is relevant information to me. Here I think it’s more strategic to ask on this forum in the hope that someone has this information on hand, rather than for me to spend a lot of time browsing images. I’m already spending a lot of time researching chess sets rather than focusing on the work I should be doing.

I’ve also not been able to find what the connection is between the Lardy and the Pinney knight designs.

So thank you sincerely for the help, but most of my questions remain unanswered. If I knew in which chess tournaments the Pinney set was used, I would easily be able to find more prominent chess players who used them.

Afaik Lardy was founded in 1890, so 40 years before Pinney.

As a company, yes. But is this also when he made the first chessmen? The only references I can find are of the Lardy chessmen first appearing in the US in 1933, and of Lardy dominating the market from the 1930s to the early 1970s. I’m not finding any earlier mentions of Lardy chessmen. On this forum, the earliest Lardy sets people are talking about are from the ’30s and ’40s.

So assuming the Lardy chessmen first appeared in 1933, that’s the same year the Pinney chessmen came out.

Here's a letter head from 1929

To my knowledge Lardy set up shop in 1890 to produce wooden baby toys and chess pieces. It would have taken a long time to scale the demand and production up to a point where they could export thousands of chess sets to the US, so it's safe to assume the date on the letter head isn't the first time they produced chess pieces. It's only the sole image easily findable on the internet with a date. I'm sure some chess museum somewhere will have really old sets but the museums don't show their whole collection online. Sad state of chess piece history.

If you're interested, I did some research myself and found some radio show (RCF Jura) from the region where they talk about the fate of some of the companies from Dorton. The drawback is it's a french radio station, so they talk french (I don't mind since I'm half french myself).

From 4:10 on they talk about Lardy

https://www.rcf.fr/culture/le-jouet-jurassien?episode=254631

in another episode they talk about the history of the small town of Dortan

https://www.rcf.fr/culture/le-jouet-jurassien?episode=275617

It turns out that the town almost uniquely hosted wood turners that made chess pieces (they called and still call themselves the chess capital of the world), and that even probably a long time before Lardy was even founded (they cite Voltaire coming to the town's castle to play chess in the 1750s).

They also talk about how Lardy set up shop in 1890 to manufacture primarily chess pieces and small toys, later learning multiple languages and focusing on export.

The story that Lardy first started in 1890 to make chess sets seems to originate from the late Nicholas Lanier's Chessmuseum site. At footnote 9, Lanier cites the french website Les arts decoratif (viewable from an archived link):

I know the chessmuseum website is generally a reliable source of information, but I do not think the 1890 claim has been seriously questioned since. Is there a contemporary source, trade directory or actual Lardy company document that shows Henri Lardy that year making toys and games?

Here was an official directory from 1897 of French toy and games makers in Dortan. Chess makers like Boisson-Berrod, Tissot-Gallety, Alex Vincent and Auguste Vincent can be found, but not Lardy. I did a search at gallica and could only find references to Lardy from at least the 1920s or slightly earlier.

Here is Lardy mentioned in a manufacturer directory from January 1925:

Maybe it would be a good idea to contact RCF Jura and ask for their sources?

Message them, as I am curious as to what their source for Lardy is as well; are they using chess-museum or some other text? Things often get repeated without question. Further information or correction is always welcome.

Duparchy & Lardy (lower left), from the 1922 Annuaire du commerce Didot-Bottin. This is H. Lardy's earliest appearance in that directory that I can find so far.

Joli ! Je ne l’avais encore rencontré celui là ;-)

J’ai parcouru les archives de l’état civil de Dortan et curieusement, le seul Henri Lardy présent était né en 1896. Son père, Louis, était né en 1848

Voici ce que l’on trouve aussi et toujours en 1925

Nice finds, everyone! Considering I only see antique Lardy sets dated 1930 at the earliest, it does seem reasonable to me that Lardy started making these sets somewhere in the 1920s—possibly since 1925—rather than in the late 19th century.

Maybe this is going to be an unnecessary side tangent, but who is Duparchy?

Nah, I don't think it's reasonable to assume the dates we're seeing are close to the first dates of production of a chess set by Lardy. I'm not claiming a specific date/year, but seeing he set up shop in a village of chess piece manufacturers and looking at the long list of products they make, something like that doesn't suddenly appear in a matter of a few years. You don't start out your business with hundreds of staff and dozens of expensive machines. I think what we're seeing evidence of is the time Lardy expanded his business for international export.

I'm contacting the radio station and if their results are inconclusive I'll contact the mairie (city hall) of Dortan to see if they have any pointers

Listening to the radio link I gave above again (this time without distractions in a different language) it basically says Henri Lardy married the daughter of the original founder in 1921, so pieces of the "Lardy" brand couldn't have come before that. What the name of the company before that date was or what their pieces looked like - I don't know, but I hope to get some answers from my email to the radio station. What's clear is that Lardy himself DID NOT found a company in 1890, he married into that company in 1921 which explains why he has staff and machines at his disposal.

So Wandelkoningin is essentially right, there can't be "Lardy" pieces dating to before 1921.

I share your latest analyses, it is very consistent. It was common for new owners to indicate the name of the previous owner on their invoices or advertisements.

On the 1931 census, we discover the wife of Henri Lardy (born on 04/03/1896): Joséphine Duparchy, born in 1893.

A certain Emile Duparchy (20/01/1877) is mentioned in other records, a timber merchant. There is still a sawmill that his son operated in the 1950s.

archive de Dortan

A "Duparchy" from the Jura is listed in this "Annuaire officiel des jouets & jeux, des bazars, bimbeloterie" from 1897

https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k110481s/texteBrut

So here we have (1974-1975), Joanny Lardy, son of Henri, well accompanied, in front of a Lardy set that I have never seen anywhere other than in this photo…

Magazine "Mat !" n°1 1975