USA. Plastic sets from USA marketed by Drueke and Gallant Knight Co. are very common. In spite of that they are interesting enough to list them here.
These brands did not make their own plastic chess, except Drueke after purchasing its first injection moulding machine in 1954. Chicago Molded Products Corp., Santay Products Co., and the Dutch Homas were actual producers of chess sets made of Tenite or, later, polystyreen. Tenite products transitioned from compression molding in the 1930s to injection molding in the 1940s. Polystyreen was injection molding only.
Drueke imported French Galalith sets in the 1920s and sourced American Catalin sets in the 1930s. Patent D128794 was issued by William F. Drueke in 1941 for his iconic 8-sided chessmen. I have seen these Drueke sets, in different boxes, with numbers 20, 22, 23(B) and 24, indicating felted and weighted options. The 8-sided chess sets were made of Tenite (Cellulose Acetate) until 1954, when the switch to in-house polystyrene injection molding was made. My Tenite set was sold by H.Baron Company, New York, in its well known green signed box. They most likely have added the felts under the pieces.
Gallant Knight Co., well known for its logo of a Knight, marketed sets from early 1940s until 1959, when they were taken over by ARRCO, which used the brand until the 1970s. The sets were available in different sizes. Packaging was either a large cardboard box with separate places for the pieces including a cardboard board, known as the combination set, or a leatherette cardboard box with one half sized loose inner box. The sets exist in different colours like white and black or white and red. Also in small variations, due to different moulds and plastics used. Gallant Knight Co. sets in the 1940s were made of Tenite. In the late 1940s they marketed a lighter Tenite set and in the 1950s they switched to polystyrene. My red Tenite set from the 1940s was sold by H.Baron Company, New York, in its well known green box and my black Polystyrene set from the 1950s by Gallant Knight Co. in its leatherette box with logo.
The H.Baron Company is mainly known for it's cribbage boards. It's factory was on Long Island and was taken over by Crisloid in 1972.
