Our frequent correspondent Terje Kristiansen had sent us photos of the following interesting chess set. It is, to the best of his collecting friend's knowledge, an example of Jewish Yemenite sculpturing in metal wire. They ask why the king and queen seem identical.
It seems likely that the answer is one of two: either the set is for decoration so the exact replication of distinct pieces was less important, or the artist, presumably a Yemenite Jew from Israel and therefore likely an observant Jew, didn't want to sculpture the traditional cross on top of the king.
Edited to add: as Mr. Ole Drønen, the collector, and others noted in a correction to me, one can in fact tell the difference between the king and the queen, and the cross has little to do with it. It is simply a French Régence set, which has no cross on the king. Dronen then adds:
Here are two pictures that maybe show the difference between the king and the queen better. The piece to the left is the king... There are many other variants of the style, and they were made in many countries in Europe and for a very long time...But Régence pieces became much less common when Staunton pieces became the international standard in 1924.The style was also used in other parts of the world for a long time, especially in French influenced areas. Kings with a cross is primarily connected to Staunton sets. Also other styles could have a king with a cross, but most other European and English styles normally featured kings without a cross.
We thank Dronen for the additional information and the correction.
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