Reading Raymond Chandler’s The Long Goodbye, at one point Marlowe inspects his chessmen for “French shaves and loose buttons”. I’ve googled till I’m sore, but can’t figure out what a French shave is. Any idea?
A reference to Mark Twain perhaps:
I found the Twain reference, but didn’t know if that was what Chandler meant. Guess it fits with loose buttons. . .
Here’s a picture of a boy with a beard and goatee, which is a circle around the lips.
http://www.funny-thing.com/what-if-kids-also-start-having-french-shave_730.html
A search for “french beard” brings up similar.
It’s like a Brazilian, but with an extra “tickle”.
My guess is that since Raymond Chandler was an Englishman, and he was part of that immediately post-Victorian era, a “French shave” meant a sloppy shave of some kind.
He could have also been looking for hairy armpits, I guess.
A “loose button” would be the top of a pawn starting to come off. So a “French shave” would likely be some other fix-able, possbily wear-related, defect that a player would want to remedy before setting up for a game.
My guess would be something to do with the felts covering the bottom of a chess piece. Worn away? Badly trimmed?
Do the chessmen pass inspection, or does Marlowe have to do some minor repairs?
Just an aside. Marlowe likes to recreate/play famous chess matches.