5 Dubrovnik Sets Comparison

I don't have a Dubrovnik set and I was thinking about buying one, but there are so many reproductions and variants that I really don't know what and where to search. What are the best reproductions and from which store would you recommend to buy one? Thank you

For me a Dubrovnik set has to have broad base and not tapered one so that leaves 4 choices: House of Staunton, Official Staunton, Staunton Castle and of course Noj.

One note: House of Staunton 3.75" has two lines, the "budget" line that cost 219 USD and the top line which cost 359 USD. They're the same design wise except for the knights, the budget line is more unicorn like and less finely carved. Also the weighting is a lottery, if you're lucky you get a batch with consistent weights.

Staunton Castle will come out with different woods for their Dub line any time soon, so I'd suggest to wait to see what's that like. One wood for sure is rosewood, I think that will be a hit.

Edit: I didn't mentioned Thechessempire, although it has broad base but I don't like the knight.

Speaking about the knight, basically there are two version of knights, the classic one like OS and CS or the robust one like HoS. Noj has both, the 1950 version is classic one and the Minceta is the robust one. A matter of preference which one you like.

Thank you Michael, very useful and appreciated comment

Noted, thanks sound

Very nice pictures.I hope you get much pleasure from those sets.I have a solution for your boredom-....Play a few games online.It becomes habit forming.

Btw,I have to admit,though C.B. had been quite inconsistent with me(all worked out after the stress associated...Argh).....Their Dubrovnik set was absolutely perfect and flawless.Probably the most perfect set I've gotten from them....No complaints.

after a few days of work and following your advice I have updated the design of the bishop and queen to suit the heights of the other pieces:

here the old design:

the update: lower bishop and queen and with wider bases

there is one mor player in the set :

I'm still not so proud about the knight so I'm trying a new ones

And finally a picture of what is in a psycopathic mind

Whoaaa nice! If I may say something, the knight's head is beautiful, the base just need to be close or as wide as the bishop. Then your set is finish!

Yep, the height of the bishop is perfect, you got a nice line now from pawn to king.

Yes! totally agree, I'm gonna change the entire knight and make the its base close to the bishop one.

@jacmater   Woah, woah, woah. Full stop. In the photo of your "discard pile" — Please tell me,,, WHAT IS THIS?!  

I sincerely believe, photos of your scrap pile may be more interesting than 17% of the daily postings here. Haha. I'm kidding of course. No really. Seriously, I'll take it off your hands if you don't want it. Let me know if you have time to ship it. I'll gladly pay for postage. 

I saw he also made a bullbous version of the king, I guess he can go both ways for the final set. I saw indeed the bishop has more flattened base, just like the Noj 1950 version. Both versions are nice, can't go wrong either way.

Beautiful work @jacmater.  

Thanks to everyone. My first goal was to make a reproduction of the original set with their bulbous bases 

but I could'nt find  any accurate information about it so I took a look to some pictures uploaded on the forum of SC version and I liked this version a lot as well as the bases a little more flat they have so I decided to make something similar. Now my goal is just to have a dubrovnik made by me. Maybe in the future I start my own version but for the time being I'm so busy.

They look great to me. If you need a product tester let me know. I'm here for you,  lol.

Awesome work @Jacmater.  Please keep us updated with your latest creation. 

Hi everyone, I know that all the people who follow this thread are passionate about Dubrovnik chess pieces, we have talked about it many times and now, with this post, I will try to contribute something more. That's why I've made a series of videos where I show how I make the knights for this set. If you are interested just write on Utube: "Jacmater Dubrovnik knight making". There are 8 videos of 15min.
Before all I'd like to say that I'm not a youtuber, I'm not interested in likes or subscrivers but, of course, feel free to comment, I have made them only to share the proces.

P.D.: @KineticPAwn " If you need a product tester let me know. I'm here for you, lol."
Good attempt! 

Interesting videos. It's pretty interesting how slight changes around the knights jaw mouth makes a big change in its appearance.  Also interesting juxtaposing your primarily chisel method with the dremel method I've seen in Indian manufacturers videos.  Very cool videos thanks for sharing.

I'm at part 3 now! Fascinating, starting to realize the amount of work you have to do for making one knight! Thumbs up mister Jac!

SPOILER ALERT. The Dubrovnik Knight ends up looking fantastic. Hah!

@jacmater Thank you for posting the video series. It takes a lot of patience and commitment to make a detailed process video and post it on YouTube. And you did it 8 times. All while carving chess pieces with a camera in the way. I watched every minute of it. It's so interesting to watch the Knight piece emerge from the block of wood. All the way to polishing and buffing. One slip of the chisel and the piece is ruined. So much drama. Hah! Amazing job. 

The Jacmater Gambit. An 8-part series coming to Netflix in the Summer. Subscribed!

Thanks a lot!

@KineticPawn yes, that's true, is like caricatures, a small change on the eyes or mouth can produce a totally different result.It is very difficult to make two identical knights of course, the fact is that in every knight I start to make I try to improve the design so I pay more attention on the "new"  desigm than on making a similar replica. But to me is good enough (I can make more knights if I want! )

@ The...Michael  A lot of work meneer!! but I was sure You were going to enjoy the videos very much!!

@MCH818 It is a tedious but very relaxing work, like yoga to me.

@Pawnerai I'm sure i've ever done some jacmater gambit in some of my horrible games, losing the pawn obviously! haha! I'm very pleased that you liked the videos, I'm preparing one of how I make the rook, the recording is pretty bad but, I just figured out how to make the mobile always focus on just one point.

There are only 8 pawns left to finisfh the set, if my neighbors don't complain much i can have it finished next week, it will, of course, be post on this thread when  finished.