John, what is there to discuss on ANRI chess pieces? I understand somebody published a book on ANRI collectibles - available on ebay - but I do not know whether the chess sets are listed. Otherwise - one colectors may like them, another tolerate them, a third consider them vulgar, a fourth painted poppets for glass cases. While we do not know in which numbers they were made, we may surmise in pretty good numbers - after all , most are made with machine-aided multiplication (pantograph etc.).
Stan, there is a lot about ANRI in books - and on the net - start with
www.anri.it
ANRI is Anton Rifesser SPA, a traditional family-owned carving business in the Val Gardena which used to live off carving - now it is tourism. but woodcarving mainly of religious content is still an important part of life up the valley. ANRI chess sets were plentyful, lots of designs /check the collectors database and the appropriate photalbum in this forum), yes they were - and are blood y expensive (check ANRI in a search machine) - and they are special because they became a major fad in ANRI's principal export market, the US of A. As witnessed by the special ANRI category on ebay.com..
cheers
rascasso