Chess piece production in the Jura
a report by Nicholas Lanier
Since remote times, the forests of the Jura mountains have provided the raw material for the most variegated wood based crafts and industries, ranging from sawmills and paper mills over furniture production to all kinds of turned and carved wood objects for everyday or professional use. Roofing boards, caskets for the wine industry and open containers for the milk industry and households, spoons, cloth hangers, hooks and pulleys – the amount of wood products is endless, although most of it has vanished, replaced by cheaper copies in plastic and rolled metal. Certain villages and small cities had their specialties – Bois d’Amont was known for its small everyday objects in wood, and the wood veneer boxes for housing cheese, Moirans en Montagne – selfstyled as the “Capital of the Toy” – was well known for its wood turneries producing children’s toys and sundry similar articles, St. Claude from its turning origins developed into the capital of the tobacco pipe, with numerous crafts shops and and home-working craftsmen producing the coveted bruyere pipes – commercialized generally by British companies. In Morez in former days the cases for grandfather clocks of the Comtois style used to be made – later Morez and Morbier started out with clock component production, and still later – Morez developed into a production cluster for spectacle frames, producing about a third of all frames made in France in the 60ies. ( 1)
Other industries – clock components in the northern parts of the Jura, diamond and stone polishing, furniture production – have had their ups and downs, while the wood industry has slowly declined over time, giving way to more prosperous occupations like precious stone and diamond cutting, clock and clock component production, metal working, chemical and leather industry – and finally the plastics industry. The small crafts working in wood, have diminished drastically over times, but there are still turning shops that produce toys, barrels and wooden dishes or spoons, souvenir articles, boxes and the like. All in all, a recent check on the web came up with almost 1.500 companies and crafts shops in the region Franche Comté that work with wood – of these some 295 with finished wood products – and a goodly 40 with small wood articles like toys and turned objects. (2)
Other industries – clock components in the northern parts of the Jura, diamond and stone polishing, furniture production – have had their ups and downs, while the wood industry has slowly declined over time, giving way to more prosperous occupations like precious stone and diamond cutting, clock and clock component production, metal working, chemical and leather industry – and finally the plastics industry. The small crafts working in wood, have diminished drastically over times, but there are still turning shops that produce toys, barrels and wooden dishes or spoons, souvenir articles, boxes and the like. All in all, a recent check on the web came up with almost 1.500 companies and crafts shops in the region Franche Comté that work with wood – of these some 295 with finished wood products – and a goodly 40 with small wood articles like toys and turned objects. (2)
I . The crafts in St. Claude
Turning and carving has been a natural occupation of the Jura habitants since far back in the middle ages – we tend to forget that an overwhelming part of the everyday utensils we use today in metal, glass and plastic - formerly were fashioned from wood. Turning was part of this panorama, and produced anything from kitchen utensils, dairy containers, furniture components to tools and tool handles, with a sizeable part dedicated to toys The main centre of turning used to be St. Claude, for a simple reason. St. Claude was dominated by the Benedictine abbey of St. Oyand en Joux, named after the abbot who founded this monastery around the year 500. The abbey prospered, mainly due to the spread of the cult of St.Oyand , and became a steadily rising centre of pilgrimage. The role of the abbey was reinforced after the wondrous find of the remains of St.Claude around 1160, and its renown as a pilgrimage centre redoubled afterwards, leading to a steady influx of pilgrims – and money! – into the area. (3)
Pilgrims were always doted with funds, generally used to make donations to the church and to the saint and or leave offerings,. The religious tourists also required souvenirs, rosaries, statuettes, mementos, and sundry articles which a steady growing guild of turners and boxmakers (tabletiers) (4) saw itself pressed to provide. St.Claude with its old traditions of turning and boxmaking became known for its “articles of St.Claude” – boxes, crosses, statuettes, carved reliefs of saints, and biblical scenes, rosaries, and so on, which were fashioned in horn, wood, bone and even ivory. The abbey became very affluent through the steady tide of pilgrims, owned a sizeable number of priories and chapels in the surrounding area which became known as “the lands of St.Claude”. It also was granted "exempt status" from the bishops control, being directly subject to the Holy Chair in Rome, with the accruing financial privileges. Visits by the French kings Charles VII., Louis XI. and the Queen Anne de Bretagne, married to Louis XII. in second nuptials, provide ample proof of the importance of St. Claude as an important centre of christian devotion (5).
Turning and carving has been a natural occupation of the Jura habitants since far back in the middle ages – we tend to forget that an overwhelming part of the everyday utensils we use today in metal, glass and plastic - formerly were fashioned from wood. Turning was part of this panorama, and produced anything from kitchen utensils, dairy containers, furniture components to tools and tool handles, with a sizeable part dedicated to toys The main centre of turning used to be St. Claude, for a simple reason. St. Claude was dominated by the Benedictine abbey of St. Oyand en Joux, named after the abbot who founded this monastery around the year 500. The abbey prospered, mainly due to the spread of the cult of St.Oyand , and became a steadily rising centre of pilgrimage. The role of the abbey was reinforced after the wondrous find of the remains of St.Claude around 1160, and its renown as a pilgrimage centre redoubled afterwards, leading to a steady influx of pilgrims – and money! – into the area. (3)
Pilgrims were always doted with funds, generally used to make donations to the church and to the saint and or leave offerings,. The religious tourists also required souvenirs, rosaries, statuettes, mementos, and sundry articles which a steady growing guild of turners and boxmakers (tabletiers) (4) saw itself pressed to provide. St.Claude with its old traditions of turning and boxmaking became known for its “articles of St.Claude” – boxes, crosses, statuettes, carved reliefs of saints, and biblical scenes, rosaries, and so on, which were fashioned in horn, wood, bone and even ivory. The abbey became very affluent through the steady tide of pilgrims, owned a sizeable number of priories and chapels in the surrounding area which became known as “the lands of St.Claude”. It also was granted "exempt status" from the bishops control, being directly subject to the Holy Chair in Rome, with the accruing financial privileges. Visits by the French kings Charles VII., Louis XI. and the Queen Anne de Bretagne, married to Louis XII. in second nuptials, provide ample proof of the importance of St. Claude as an important centre of christian devotion (5).
Tabletier, coloured print by Nicolas de Larmessin II, 1695, original in the Bibliotheque Nationale de France (BNF)
From the 15th century onwards, the Benedictine discipline among the among the monks began to flag, the abbey stopped obeying the Rule of St. Benedict, internal strife and degeneration set in, and in 1742 the abbey was transformed into a canonical institute, a bishopric was instituted and the abbey church of St. Claude elevated to the status of cathedral. A few years on the French Revolution did away both with the canonicans – and their economic control of the Jura inhabitants via serfdom rights, much contested in his day by Voltaire who lived in nearby Ferney over the Swiss border at this time. (6 )
Although material proof is hard to come by – most documents in St. Claude were destroyed in a huge fire in 1799 that destroyed the major part of the city – it is highly probable that in those days chess men were turned already in St. Claude. Lyon, Besançon, Dijon and Nancy were the natural outlets and markets for the products of the Jura mountains, whose crafts and home industry had always depended on exporting their products abroad. Lyon has always been a major trading centre, a thoroughfare of east-west and north-south trading routes – it seems plausible to assume that the shops and commerces of Lyon traded a large part of the Jura produce, and – among them also these finely wrought chessmen which did depend on the plentiful supply of boxwood and bone – both easily obtained in the Jura.
Although material proof is hard to come by – most documents in St. Claude were destroyed in a huge fire in 1799 that destroyed the major part of the city – it is highly probable that in those days chess men were turned already in St. Claude. Lyon, Besançon, Dijon and Nancy were the natural outlets and markets for the products of the Jura mountains, whose crafts and home industry had always depended on exporting their products abroad. Lyon has always been a major trading centre, a thoroughfare of east-west and north-south trading routes – it seems plausible to assume that the shops and commerces of Lyon traded a large part of the Jura produce, and – among them also these finely wrought chessmen which did depend on the plentiful supply of boxwood and bone – both easily obtained in the Jura.
From the revolution onwards , the economy in St.Claude began to change, with the rise of the tobacco pipe manufactories. Formerly turners had used the local hardwoods to fashion the long stems for pipes with porcelain heads. Increasingly, craftsmen started fashioning complete pipes of wood – cheaper than the older porcelain objects - and this became a very strong industrial trend. In 1890 St.Claude and the surrounding areas had 200 craftsmen making tobacco pipes at home or in one of over 150 workshops all around town, in 1925 they already numbered 4.000, with the production increasingly organized in machine-equipped workshops. Added to the arrival of new industries in the 19th century , this meant that the old fashioned tabletiers (fine turners and artisans) were slowly pushed beyond the city limits and dispersed into the hills and mountains to the west, while in St.Claude other metiers took over the workshops and spaces. Turning as well as toymaking seems to have been an occupation to fall back on for many workers as the various industrial bubbles and fashions culminated and then started to decline in the Jura. This was the case both for the stone cutting industry in and around St.Claude, as well as the clock production in various valleys of the Jura, let alone diverse specialized wood crafts like barrelmaking and tool confection. Still , the traditional crafts remained, albeit around St. Claude – in 1810 there were 500 craftsmen – tabletiers and turners – in St. Claude, – in 1875 St.Claude had some 3.000 tabletiers making snuff and tobacco boxes, hand mirrors, combs and brushes in boxwood, horn, bone, ivory and metals, spread out between work at home to working in 20 medium-sized manufacturies, and in 1911 turners and tabletiers in a circle of 30 kms around St. Claude numbered 7.600! It stands to reason that a part of their produce – were chess sets, chess cassettes and chess boards and tables. (7)
2. The turning district
The heartland of turning – basically wood turning of utilitarian objects – lies along the Ain river, in an area more or less delimitated by the city of St. Claude in the East, Oyonnax in the South, Arinthod in the West and St.Maurice and St. Laurent en Grandvaux in the North. Around 1960, about 80 turning shops still existed in these hills, from the very large toy factories to the small producer of furniture components. Today in 2016 at best 40 small workshops still make mainly souvenir articles, toys, kitchen cutting boards, handles, and the like. The main body of utilitarian objects has gone the way of the plastic – from the 60ies on the onslaught of cheap Asian imports has caused the major part of the wooden turner shops or toy makers to switch sides - if You cannot beat them then join them -. and immerse themselves in the mass production of plastic-based objects. The major part of toys today is produced in plastic, with some of the major companies existing in the the so-called “Plastic Valley” along the river Bienne between Oyonnax and St. Claude. (8)
In Moirans en Montagne the major toy producer is Smoby – this company almost went bankrupt and in 2006 was taken over by the german toy giant Simba, and accordingly seems to be thriving. Traditional wooden toy makers in wood like Vilac and Jeujura continue to exist – but today form part of France Cartes, which in turn is part of the World’s largest Card and Board Games group Cartamundi. And of course, small turner shops still function in those idyllic areas of the mountains and along the lakes which attract tourist and holiday visitors - whom they provide with handcrafted souvenirs and little treasures for the kids.
The heartland of turning – basically wood turning of utilitarian objects – lies along the Ain river, in an area more or less delimitated by the city of St. Claude in the East, Oyonnax in the South, Arinthod in the West and St.Maurice and St. Laurent en Grandvaux in the North. Around 1960, about 80 turning shops still existed in these hills, from the very large toy factories to the small producer of furniture components. Today in 2016 at best 40 small workshops still make mainly souvenir articles, toys, kitchen cutting boards, handles, and the like. The main body of utilitarian objects has gone the way of the plastic – from the 60ies on the onslaught of cheap Asian imports has caused the major part of the wooden turner shops or toy makers to switch sides - if You cannot beat them then join them -. and immerse themselves in the mass production of plastic-based objects. The major part of toys today is produced in plastic, with some of the major companies existing in the the so-called “Plastic Valley” along the river Bienne between Oyonnax and St. Claude. (8)
In Moirans en Montagne the major toy producer is Smoby – this company almost went bankrupt and in 2006 was taken over by the german toy giant Simba, and accordingly seems to be thriving. Traditional wooden toy makers in wood like Vilac and Jeujura continue to exist – but today form part of France Cartes, which in turn is part of the World’s largest Card and Board Games group Cartamundi. And of course, small turner shops still function in those idyllic areas of the mountains and along the lakes which attract tourist and holiday visitors - whom they provide with handcrafted souvenirs and little treasures for the kids.
3. The Chess manufacturers
If chess piece production in the 19th century was still largely a crafts affair, by the end of the 19th century a certain demand for chess pieces had arisen both inside France as in England, Germany and Overseas. As in other areas of Europe, some turning shops started to specialize in making chess pieces – both easy to make Regence pieces used traditionally in France, especially in the famous Café Regence in the capital Paris, as well as the more and more prevalent chessmen for competition, the Staunton pieces. Making chessmen in series is a different proposition than carving and turning individual sets or small series. It involves investment in energy, premises, modern turning equipment, and stapling and drying of appropriate woods for turning, mainly boxwood.
If chess piece production in the 19th century was still largely a crafts affair, by the end of the 19th century a certain demand for chess pieces had arisen both inside France as in England, Germany and Overseas. As in other areas of Europe, some turning shops started to specialize in making chess pieces – both easy to make Regence pieces used traditionally in France, especially in the famous Café Regence in the capital Paris, as well as the more and more prevalent chessmen for competition, the Staunton pieces. Making chessmen in series is a different proposition than carving and turning individual sets or small series. It involves investment in energy, premises, modern turning equipment, and stapling and drying of appropriate woods for turning, mainly boxwood.
A ) Lardy
The major of the chess piece turners was Lardy - Henry Lardy set up his business in 1890 in Dortan (9) , close to the river Ain, which helped to produce the necessary water power for the operation of his lathes. Very soon Lardy must have managed to land on foreign markets, probably via participation in trade fairs, and started to export in large numbers to the United States, Great Britain and also to Germany and Italy. Lardy produced an immense amount of Regency sets, and also Staunton sets – one of the early takers of Lardy sets in England was B.H.Wood in Sutton Coldfield, who it seems was rebuffed by Jaques when he wanted to sell their sets. The main aim of Lardy always were toy distributors with a goodly distribution and sales net at their hands. Both in Regency pieces, as in Staunton sets, Lardy had a wide spread of different sizes, and diverse levels of finishing. In Staunton knights, the cheapest sets had knight heads with “ tetes simples” (simple heads) , there also was a middle quality version and a “tetes fines” (=carved heads) as the top quality – plus varying degrees of varnishing, weighting, felting, and boxing. Very early sets by Lardy in Regency show some hand finishing in the knight heads, pre-cut on the lathe – the best chess knights before the war even were equipped with glass eyes. It must have been Lardy that switched to monobloc knights in Staunton playing sets after WW 2 – and Chavet and others followed suit. There is some evidence that Lardy even produced luxury chess sets in Staunton style, turned in horn, after 1945. (10)
The major of the chess piece turners was Lardy - Henry Lardy set up his business in 1890 in Dortan (9) , close to the river Ain, which helped to produce the necessary water power for the operation of his lathes. Very soon Lardy must have managed to land on foreign markets, probably via participation in trade fairs, and started to export in large numbers to the United States, Great Britain and also to Germany and Italy. Lardy produced an immense amount of Regency sets, and also Staunton sets – one of the early takers of Lardy sets in England was B.H.Wood in Sutton Coldfield, who it seems was rebuffed by Jaques when he wanted to sell their sets. The main aim of Lardy always were toy distributors with a goodly distribution and sales net at their hands. Both in Regency pieces, as in Staunton sets, Lardy had a wide spread of different sizes, and diverse levels of finishing. In Staunton knights, the cheapest sets had knight heads with “ tetes simples” (simple heads) , there also was a middle quality version and a “tetes fines” (=carved heads) as the top quality – plus varying degrees of varnishing, weighting, felting, and boxing. Very early sets by Lardy in Regency show some hand finishing in the knight heads, pre-cut on the lathe – the best chess knights before the war even were equipped with glass eyes. It must have been Lardy that switched to monobloc knights in Staunton playing sets after WW 2 – and Chavet and others followed suit. There is some evidence that Lardy even produced luxury chess sets in Staunton style, turned in horn, after 1945. (10)
In 1944 the factory in Dortan burned down - German troops comprising conscripted Kossack soldiers from the East, on the hunt for partisans, tortured some of the local men in the castle, murdered 35 inhabitants, pillaged the houses, ravaged the women and finally on July 22 set fire to the village, which was totally destroyed (11). After the troops had left the area, reconstruction was very slow - it took until 1947 for a barrack settlement to be built and inaugurated, as provisional quarters for the population. As for Lardy, in the aftermath of the complete destruction of his workshop, Lardy transferred operations to a new site a few hundred meters upriver in Lavancia-Epercy.
The postwar years at first were a continuation of the manufacturies former successes - in 1957 Dortan produced some 250.000 chess sets per year. Most of them at Lardy’s, the rest at Chavet’s .(12) According to old photos from the 1958 Munich Chess Olympiad, some Lardy sets were used in that event. ( 13) In 1974 Lardy chess men were designated as the official playing pieces for the 21. Chess Olympiad in Nice (see logo above) Way before that, in the 50ies, Lardy made a valiant attempt at establishing a new sphere of business by producing toys for the very young, registering "Educo Baby" as a brand, and entering the exploding market of plastic injection and extrusion. In due time, the factory started to turn out a large array of educational toys for toddlers and youngsters, in both wood and in plastic
Fide-President Folke Rogard executing the tradtional opening move for a bored-looking Mikhail Botvinnik - the pieces are clearly Lardy chessmen - Photo in Brinckmann/Richter, Kampf der Nationen, p. 13
But in the 1980ies, the roof fell in for games and toy makers in Europe and elsewhere, with a sudden drastic drop in sales. Part of the problem had a déjà vu aspect: the strong commercial competition Lardy had posed around the turn of the 19th to 20th century and in the interwar years for British and German makers, now repeated itself in the massive influx of cheap chess pieces and toys from India and China. By and by, he stiff competition in the toy business in those days proved to be too much for the small company - in 1993 Lardy was taken over by Jura toy heavyweight Smoby, and the workshop in Lavancia was subsequently closed down. (14)
b) Chavet
Henri Chavet formed his company in 1912, and seemingly enjoyed a similar bonanza of fair and continuing success in the interwar years and after World War 2 – mainly with exports to various parts of Europe, including Germany, Italy, the United States and Great Britain. In Regency sets, Chavet produced the same pieces as the other turners – in Staunton sets we know very little how they looked in say 1935. After WW 2, Chavet pieces seem to have settled into a certain form and varied little over the years.
Henri Chavet formed his company in 1912, and seemingly enjoyed a similar bonanza of fair and continuing success in the interwar years and after World War 2 – mainly with exports to various parts of Europe, including Germany, Italy, the United States and Great Britain. In Regency sets, Chavet produced the same pieces as the other turners – in Staunton sets we know very little how they looked in say 1935. After WW 2, Chavet pieces seem to have settled into a certain form and varied little over the years.
Chavet also produced playing stones for other games like Go – for example a figurative set for Chinese chess in very small numbers! (15) – and a rather intriguing modern chess set , briefly patronized by Anatoli Karpov under contract, and marketed as “Karpov- Chessmen”. Alain Chavet - the actual owner - experienced the same sales shock as Lardy in the 1980ies, but reacted in a different manner, by radically downsizing, eliminating employees and switching to production on demand. In the 1990ies Chavet teamed up with the traditional games distributor Morize, and the combined company was holding its own until recently – in the meantime also Morize has closed down for good, and the future for Chavet is incertain... (16)
c) Michel Roz
Michel Roz, issued from a family with a long tradition in woodworking, set up shop to produce boxwood chessmen in 1959. By appearing in numerous toy and games fairs Roz soon manages to find clients in countries as far apart as Canada , Japan, the US, Great Britain and the Netherlands – 97 % of his production is exported . The workshop at times employs 26 craftsmen, and figures as number three after Lardy and Chavet in chess piece production in the Jura. Sales are rising, and peaking in 1972 through the frenetic hype generated by the Spassky-Fischer confrontation in Iceland, right in the midst of the Cold War. But in 1973 the hammer comes down – from 300.000 sets sold in the preceding year the business drops to 80.000 per year. Michel Roz started to make wood rings for window curtains, and other turned utilitarian objects. In 1989 his daughter Brigitte took over the business with her husband. The workshop today makes chess men, draughts stones, and any kind of small turned objects needed, and sells its chess men straight to chess clubs, as well as to publicity agencies – only the husband of Mrs. Roz mans the lathes when orders are in. The chess knights, though, are made by Chavet, as this is a dicey business. (17)
Michel Roz, issued from a family with a long tradition in woodworking, set up shop to produce boxwood chessmen in 1959. By appearing in numerous toy and games fairs Roz soon manages to find clients in countries as far apart as Canada , Japan, the US, Great Britain and the Netherlands – 97 % of his production is exported . The workshop at times employs 26 craftsmen, and figures as number three after Lardy and Chavet in chess piece production in the Jura. Sales are rising, and peaking in 1972 through the frenetic hype generated by the Spassky-Fischer confrontation in Iceland, right in the midst of the Cold War. But in 1973 the hammer comes down – from 300.000 sets sold in the preceding year the business drops to 80.000 per year. Michel Roz started to make wood rings for window curtains, and other turned utilitarian objects. In 1989 his daughter Brigitte took over the business with her husband. The workshop today makes chess men, draughts stones, and any kind of small turned objects needed, and sells its chess men straight to chess clubs, as well as to publicity agencies – only the husband of Mrs. Roz mans the lathes when orders are in. The chess knights, though, are made by Chavet, as this is a dicey business. (17)
Brigitte Roz with a small fortune in dry boxwood
d) Vauchier et Fils
Vauchier was founded as far back as 1920, and produced all kinds of small wooden articles, among them dice in wood, and probably also chess and games. Very soon the company became well known for its dicing tablets, essential part of every bar in France and England – in 1946 they managed a great contract of dicing tablets for the aperitive brand Dubonnet, which guaranteed them a hefty and continuing sale via the Dubonnet sales network to practically all bars and Cafés in France and Belgium! ( 18) Very soon, possibly bolstered by the Dubonnet windfall, Vauchier switched into the plastic camp, and started investing in injection machinery. In 1950 the company started producing plastic jetons for card games and casinos, a great innovation in those days in France – in 1955 Vauchier shrugged off its wooden heritage and changed the name to Vauchier Playbox, featuring a number of games in plastic, chief among them still the gambling tablets. One of their products was an article that cost wood turners a potentially important part of their income - small pegged plastic chessmen for use in wooden travel sets! (19) In 1995 Vauchier was taken over by France Cartes, which in turn was bought by Cartamundi – he who lives by plastic shall also die from plastic - today Vauchier does not register any kind of commercial or industrial activity any more! (20)
e) Jurabuis
Jurabuis is a producer of wooden games and toys, which stocks Chavet chess pieces....interestingly, Jurabuis has taken over the production of plastic gaming jetons from Morize, using the premises of Chavet – so probably some connection between Morize-Chavet and this establishment does or did exist. (21) Addition 12.1.2017: in the meantime, Jurabuyis has taken over the Societé Chavet, and now produces both Chavet chessmen, as well as chess boards - in thier own words "the last chess piece producer n France"! (22)
Notes:
1) following Michel Chevallier, Tableau industriel de la Franche-Comté 1960-1961, Annales Litteraires de l’Université de Besançon, vol.47, Ed. Les Belles Lettres, Paris 1961, pp.53 ff
2) http://www.unioncreativewood.fr/?p=26 and
http://www.manageo.fr/annuaire_entreprises_famille_activites/39/16/produits-en-bois.html
2) interesting in this context is the family background of the sculptor Joseph Rosset from St. Claude – famous for his portrait bust of Voltaire and contemporaries luminaries – Rosset was born into a family of “tabletiers”, precisely engaged in the souvenir and memento crafts for several generations...
See https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Rosset
3) still after Chevallier, op.cit, and
Marie-Claude Borgatti, Declin et Renouveau de St. Claude, Annales litteraires de l]université de Besançon, (publiées sous la direction de Michel Chevalier) , ed. Les Belles Lettres, Parsi 1964 , p. 11 ff (mainly concentrating on the city in the 20th C)...
Also https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbaye_de_Saint-Claude
4) for tabletiers see https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabletier
i
5) see https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint-Claude_%28Jura%29
6) see fe https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Rosset for Voltaire’s engagement against the Abbey because of its serfdom rights....
7) still acc.to , Chevallier, Tableau..., op.cit,pp. 65, as well as Borgatti, op.cit.
8) Chevallier, op.cit.
9) according to http://opac.lesartsdecoratifs.fr/fiche/lardy-2
10) a Lardy catalogue seems to have been issued in 1975 - https://books.google.pt/books/about/Lardy_international.html?id=30rmjwEACAAJ&redir_esc=y
11) “the massacre of Dortan” , see fe https://fr.wikipedia.org /wiki/Massacre_de_Dortan
Also https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dortan
12) according to: L’Alsace Illustrée/Nr. 6/1957 – 15mars 1957, pp.30/31
13) see fe Brinckmann/Richter, Kampf der Nationen, de Gruyter & Co. 1959, p. 13
14) according to http://opac.lesartsdecoratifs.fr/fiche/lardy-2
15) details and photos for this astonishing Xiangqi set made by Chavet on the website of Alain
Cazaux http://history.chess.free.fr/staunton.htm
16) acc. to information on the company website, plus info from insiders
17) for Tournerie Roz see
http://conliegensemble.blogspot.pt/2014/07/conliege-la-famille-roz-transforme-le.html
also company website http://www.tournerieroz.com/
18) Bloomberg http://www.bloomberg.com/profiles/companies/8570902Z:FP-vauchier-playbox
Also http://www.france-cartes.com/france-cartes/dusserre-heron-vauchier-france-cartes/
And Wikipedia https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/France_Cartes
19) according to a shopping list by German game distributor Vauen from the 1980ies, showing a steady supply of plastic injected pegged chessmen to the german company from 1961 – 1969...
20) see http://www.france-cartes.com/france-cartes/dusserre-heron-vauchier-france-cartes/
21) see website Jurabuis: http://www.jeu-echec-jurabuis.com/
22 ) see Jurabuis http://www.jurabuis.com/jeux-paul.php
This report was originally produced for CCI France for the CCI World convention from May 2 - 6, but not utilized. The report may be a bit thin, but I will let it stand till something better comes along. The Museum is of course open to research propositions for a three-month research stage in the Jura to get to the bottom of fe the Jura wood crafts, boxwood, St. Claude and its history, the tabletier profession in St. Claude over times, Lyon chess pieces and their invention, Joseph Rosset and so on....
(C) Nicholas Lanier 2016
