Featured Help with this chess set. age? material?

This was $3 at a thrift. Looks Chinese? The black pieces I think are wood, the white pieces are much heavier than the black ones though, so they are not wood. Any idea what I have?
Mikey

 

I get an African feeling; there is a light-colored soapstone often used for carvings in Kenya.

 

Thanks, Now that i look at them closer they do look African.

 

Are there schreger lines? Zooming in kinda looks like it. Funky cool that the pawns are mortar & pestles.

 

And the knights are goats.

 

I'm thinking African Chinese women don't dress like that. Edit - A little late to the party

 

If they are ivory then that's a lot of it. The king alone is 6" tall and 6.5 oz.

 

Here is a close up.

 

The back of the goat lol

 

As far as the rook/knight/bishop, I would have set up the board a bit different. The goat being the knight, the one with the hat looking thing being the rook, and the one with the spiky thing being the bishop.

 

I don't play chess so even if they were standard I probably would have got it wrong also. The board I made in High school wood shop. 1975 or so.

 

Bone!

 

Thank you Kyra! So do you think the black ones are Ebony wood?
Notice i followed smallaxe's instructions lol.

 

What a great set and find!!!

 

Ebony and ivory I think. The side grain looks like ivory to me rather than bone. A shot of the base/bottom of one of the white pieces would help determine if ivory.

 

Stared at pics more ...I now think it does look more like bone...given the pics provided.

 

Yes, ebony more likely in African made pieces.

 

I think it could be from Congo, possibly from the Belgian colonial period.
I am still on the fence about ivory-bone. I see black dots, but I also see irregular striations that can be seen on ivory sometimes. Our dear friend Bronwen always posts a good example of those, on an Indian ivory bangle of hers. I'll see if I can find it.

 

Thanks to everyone for the information. I will get a pic of the bottoms when I get home from Work.

 

Found it: