Spanish chess sets ...Seville 87

Hello,
This is a TL;DR text.
But I hope some of you could find it interesting.

Other member contacted me some days ago about the Indajesa seville 87 set, asking if the set is available in Staunton 6.
Unfortunately, the set is only available in Staunton 5.

Even I knew the answer, I had a lot of questions about the set, so instead of doing "google research" I decided to call the manufacturer.
Mora Viraf is the company, so I contacted them. The chairman is Rafael Currius. He is a really nice guy and we had a nice chat.
They own the old company Indajesa.

I decided to post something here, just in case it could be interesting for chess collectors. Maybe some people would appreciate it or they could even give us more info.

After talking with him I felt somewhat sad, knowing that this kind of business is progressively disappearing all over the world, concentrating into India, China, etc.
Most of other manufacturers have dissapeared, and only some of them remains in Europe: Poland mostly, Croatia, Spain, France...
Here in Spain, this is the only manufacturer of wood staunton sets I know.
They don't sell to particulars. Just to other businesses. It doesn't look they are doing bad, but some things are changing.
By the location, webpage, and data of the company I think it is a small familiar business.
They have also diversified and they make other kind of wood toys and games.

My first question was if they were the manufacturers of the Seville 87 set.
He explained it to me. Indajesa did it, but they didn't own the company when it was done. They bought the company afterwards, so he was not present during the process of manufacturing the championship pieces and they don't have any details on the design nor the original manufacturing process.
Sad, because I think from the conversation that almost all the details are lost.

I also asked why the set was not accurate to the original. In fact, it is a normal indajesa set taking the knights from the europe and using a representation of the "torre del oro" as the rook.
There are big differences with the original (i.e. queens, knight base, etc) and it looks like the only accurate piece is the rook.
As other members commented, I shouldn't be so difficult to do a more accurate reproduction.
He answered me and it seems it is not possible for them.
The production of the set were already done in that way when they bought the business, they kept the people working in the same way.
They use <<a different machinery for each kind of piece and a common process for all sets>> (citation from Rafael), so they tried to reuse as much as possible pieces from one set to another.
They don't sell so many sets to purchase specific machinery for this set. Due to that, they don't plan nor to make a more accurate set, neither to do it in Staunton 6.
This statement surprised me, because I didn't think that they would use a different machine for each piece.
But maybe, they do them in some kind of automatic mode. The two knights are different, but the differences seems almost the same from one set to another!!! (I can check as I have a lot of these sets).
So my feeling is that it is fully automated, even the knights, and a craftsman finishes them with the finest details.

I don't know if the manufacturing process is very different to the Noj one, although prices definitively are.

We also talked about other sets, and sadly they are quitting in some of them due to economical reasons.
For example, the FD11, a big one (137mm-44mm king) in Holm Oak, is no longer produced. So they are working exclusively with stock for these sets.

There are two figurative sets, "rajà" and "colón", which were not made by them. he told me <<We are artisans and manufacturers but not sculptors, these sets need to be done by a sculptor>>.
It seems they gave polished wood to an artisan/sculptor who made everything in his workshop by hand.
He told me, the old artisan has died recently, and they have not found another artisan that could make that work at the same price. In fact, he told me that <<the new artisans were asking for a single piece almost the price of the current whole set>>.

I really don't know if their words were only to present all these pieces like something exclusive.
Anyway, during this conversation, I felt progressively more sympathy for this man who is keeping alive one part of my country history.

I own a lot of their sets (only stauntons), so I can recommend them without any doubt. Each time I bought one, I also feel that this is a business with expiry date. Let's hope I'm wrong.
No need to recommend a webpage, if you find the set you can be sure it is from them. There are no other companies keeping these models alive.

I was always reluctant to buy the Seville 87 because of its big differences with the original, but after talking with them I bought it. Even it is not like the original I don't think a better repro can be purchased by a reasonable price (you could always try custom), and they are the original manufacturers.
 
As a curiosity, the table from the Seville 87 match is also alive!
It is in "la casa del ajedrez" chess club, in Seville. They have it in one of the classrooms, and although it is not heavily used, it is used from time to time and preside the main classroom of the club (you can see it in the photo).
I mean, it is used by chessplayers!!. That makes me very happy.

I'm very sad the chess has lost so much importance in my country for the last 30 years. I would be glad to see another big event here...

Also, I would be glad to read any comments and opinions.
I also have a question for everybody... would you like to see a Seville 87 repro in Official Staunton or Chessbazaar?
I definitively would like to see it. With such representative set, why don't?

Thanks everyone for your patience, and sorry by my english as I'm not a native speaker.

That was a GREAT history Thank You!!! I really like the knights in that set. Somewhat similar to the current Ajedrez Europa Knights. No need to apologize for your English. It is better than many people I know who ARE native speakers 

  Thanks! , in fact they are exactly that: The Europa Knights. As they are the more similar to the original set ones. I still think the base should be wider for them.

Yes your knights do look larger than the modern Europa #6 knights. The design is perfect but I wish they were larger like the Chavet knights.

Lol

I really enjoyed reading this post and I agree with ganz_unten regarding the loss of importance, maybe not of interest, with respect to the chess that is taking place in Spain. Instead of that, I would like to say that even if we don't have great or rellevance tournaments here, the interest about the game I think is increasing, there are quite a few youtubers and specialized channels dedicated to spreading this game and with many followers.

As I can remember, time ago Indajesa could be the most important chess manufacturer in the world and during a long period of time, the "explosion" of chinest, and specially Indian, manufacturers put all the other manufacturers in troubles. and agreeng with ganz_unten Mora Viraf is a familiar enterprise that make this nice work in a very small village (I know that because I live in the village next to their).
Sometimes I thought why they didn't update this sets to the ones similar to chessbazaar or house of staunton ones because they are doing the same sets they use to make 30 years ago (ok except the sevilla one, and maybe another ones). And I think that because it could be the way to reactivate their production (or selling). Well, it is only a thought about something that worry a bit to me because i don't want to lose something as beautiful I have about 1km. of my house.

Thanks ganz_unten for this post.

I found a picture where an original set is shown, not all the pieces but at least is something. It is very dificult to find pictures of this set .

close to the current Sevilla but easy to see the diferences of some pieces

I think the original set used in Seville in '87 was a harlequin made up of different sets or styles?

If I'm not wrong the knight was changed by the indajesa 'chavet' model.

But the knight in that picture is an actual Chavet knight (or an excellent copy of one), not an Indajesa Europa knight which is very different. Maybe Indajesa copied the Chavet knight?