Reproduction and Real Jaques of London Chess Set

so apparently the CB repro set is sold out now. I received an email from Vik giving me a refund on the King-side stamping -- looks like they've decided to include that upgrade in the base price...

Thats good news Frank.! I  thought the set would sell out in a week or sooner. Looks like it sold out sooner. There is no production set on the market that comes close at this time. Chess Bazaar offers quality at a good price. I wish they would take care of their Customer Service Department a little better. A Happy Customer is a reapeat Customer in my book.

Vik also mentioned in his email that the success of this set is encouraging CB to start offering additional reproduction sets of other historical designs. I think that's good news, provided Alan stays involved to ensure some degree of accuracy/quality.

My hope is that Alan & Chess Bazaar will offer something in the 3 1/2 to 3 3/4 King size range or somewhere inbetween. Even though I admire these club sets, it isn't for me personally. I prefer to stick with the above King sizes myself.

Yes Alan has already stated a 3 1/2 Jacques and a 4" BCC. I would like to see the 4" BCC before the 3 1/2" Jacques.  I would not expect either set for a long time, maybe next December, just my guess since the 3 1/2 samples were lost in transit.

Referring back to Jack Burton's original posting in this thread (#1 with photos), to my eye, The Chess Piece 1849 repro set looks a lot closer to the Jaques original than the CB version.

Queen and Knight are not quite there, but both are very close.  Especially less slope noticable on the pawn collars in the Chess Piece reproduction.  CP retails more, but still within a working man's price range.  I'm not sure which comes closer here.

Especially hard to tell when they had about 20 different looking knights during the first year isn't it.  Not a big thing. I like that it passed Allan's criteria and it will be quality made.  Or you can buy the Jacques at their site for only 5K then you have a set with the orginal name, you can call it the 2014 set.      

Mike, my comments cast no aspersions on the quality or the value of the CB set. Not having an original 1849 Jaques or any of the repro sets in my possession, I am not in a position to comment on these matters.

My comments were based on how closely the Chess Bazaar and Chess Piece sets came to duplicating an original 1849 Jaques set, which is, after all, the whole purpose of calling it a "reproduction."

Rather than debate the matter, I put together a visual comparison of the three sets. The black background is an original 1849 Jaques, the photographic background is the Chess Bazaar repro set, and the gray background is The Chess Piece repro. I'll let forum members can draw their own conclusions. What are your thoughts?

Lou I thank you for making this comparison because I had been putting off the work of making it!

Interesting comparison loubach

It is interesting to see that the original knight is in a totally different league to the others. Admittedly there is a price differential but if they are replicas........

Will have to keep saving

The price diferential is $50 dollars.

At this point I prefer the chesspiece set . The bishops, rooks and knights are all closer to the original imo .  Do any disagree ? Also , the nostrils on top of the knights head is a deal breaker for me . 

TCP version looks more like the original Jaques IMO. CB isn't really that much off. CB Craftsmanship is A-1 from the Dubrovnik I have so, I would assume the 1849 CB set is as well. I am not sure about TCP Craftsmanship quality since I have not ordered from them. I am sure a lot of people found the CB version acceptable because they sold all 50 sets in under a week. These same comparisons were also brought up in the Dubrovnik NOJ vs CB thread.

Agreed. For me, the design and craftsmanship and quality control and customer service all need to come together for me.

TCP is closest so far, by my lights.

Also dislike those CB knights.

What might have been helpful is a posting of various versions of original/early Jaques and have the members cite their favorites and most disliked, and why.

I think the CB knight would have fared poorly and have been weeded out.

With someone like Alan to interpret the results and pass them along.

Too bad about the apparent delay on the 3.5" set. That'd be the one I want, but the (too large for me) large Club, or even a Club just aren't going to move me.

A fine Library, weighted, would be nice as I like that size, but I bet that's a long ways off if coming at all.

The one thing that gives me pause about the Chess Piece's set is the pawn — the ball on top is far too big. Why can't they ever get the pawns right? Still, the CP set is much closer than CB's set. The original Jaques knight remains the best, but Jaques pretty quickly simplified their knights, so even they couldn't keep that sort of quality going for long. I might just have to get a CP set soon.

I agree and may also get the CP set .  Does anyone know if I should be in a hurry to get it ?  Is there a chance they might sell out soon ?  I have no idea how many they have or how long this set has been available ? 

I have not idea, it seams like they are drastically cuting the price down, wich means they where hard to sell, so likly after they sell out they migh will not re-stock.

Its on back order now

Doesnt sound good for me as I will have to wait till Christmas to buy for sure  ...