“Austrian Upright” (2)

The archetype of the "Austrian Upright" is the Schlechter-Lasker (or Lasker-Schlechter!) chess set. The set listed here is identical to the one used in the match.

Original Schlechter-Lasker chess set and table. Georg Marco, organizer of the Rothschild sponsored Wiener Schachclub, ordered a special chess table with good chessmen from a reputable joinery and turnery which seems to have been named Faludy or Kisfaludy, Hungarian names quite current in Vienna then as now. This is the famous Schlechter-Lasker chess set and table, which has survived two World Wars and provides the best known specimen of the Austrian Uprights.

There exist several derivatives of the "Lasker-Schlechter" set. The set below is a nice example. It is not known where these sets were made. Some say Russia referring to the USSR period. Not in Czechia or Hungary either as others say. However, the original Schlechter-Lasker set was most likely made in Vienna by a joinery of Hungarian turners. Also Nicholas Lanier says that the sets originate in Austria - not the minimal Austria of today, but the larger Austria of the days of the Habsburg Empire!