House of Staunton - Camaratta Craftsman Series Set

A few months ago I bought a four piece, magnetic board from Brad who is the Colorado Woodworker.  The dark squares are Caribbean Rosewood and the light squares are Maple.  The square size is 2.25".  The border is Cherry.  I had this board made for local, tournament play with a couple of my Ebonized sets.

When Carl of OS announced their reproduction of the Craftsman set, I immediately liked the looks of the pieces with their wide bases and general heftiness.

As I mentioned, I am not a fan of the antiquing process to the white pieces and also do not care for the pieces being lacquered.  And given the choice I want a color for the black pieces other than black as I already have about 3 Ebonized sets or more.

So, I started looking at The House of Staunton Craftsman Series set.  This is a Frank Camaratta designed and created set.

Now remember, I am a player that happens to own a lot of sets.  I don't care for the detailed, historical accuracy as a collector might.  I want my sets to play well.  And that includes how the pieces look as well as how they feel and handle during play.

The Knights are the Frank Camaratta designed ones.  You will see this design of Knight on the Sinquefield sets as well.

As you can see, I got the set in Blood Rosewood which is actually Padauk.

These pieces are heavily weighted and handle very well.

So, if you are looking for a nice playing set, you can't go wrong with this one.

That is a very nice set Ron. Did you have to ask HOS to give you a darker Padauk set? That one looks a lot like rosewood which is now harder to come by. I still love to play with my rosewood Players set that you recommended and I am wondering now if it needs a more expensive brother...

Thanks Ron, the picture just came out showing the wood darker than it really is.  The Padauk is really a much lighter red color than you see in the pictures above.

I was in a hotel room and the light was a whiter, LED color.  But, the pictures on the HoS website of this set are pretty color accurate.

My Rosewood Players Series has been my favorite Staunton, Jaques like set.  The Rosewood has darkened with age and the Queen's crenelations are kind of sharp and pointy worrying me about chipping.

This set is indeed a more expensive brother of my Players Series set.  The weighting and heft of the pieces are like the Players Series and the Queen crenelations are not as pointy.

Yeah, I'm liking this set quite a bit.

I've been exploring the purchase of a "really decent" chess set and board, and I got scared off ordering from HOS after reading several reviews that their set came like they needed finishing, with felt pads needing repositioning, etc. Sounded like a nightmare. Do you shop through independent contractors (e.g. Brad the Colorado Woodworker and others)? If so, how do I reach them?

Thanks in advance, Jim Maguire

I purchased several items from HOS and I never had any problems. Anyway, Brad is on Etsy and he's very easy to deal with. You can message him via Etsy or simply purchase what is on stock which is generally cheaper. 

HoS gives excellent quality and service.  The only problems I am aware of are with a couple of their plastic sets, never the wood pieces or boards.

Official Staunton, The Chess House, Chessusa.com and a few others also usually give excellent quality and service.

Thanks for the excellent feedback guys. It's really very helpful. FWIW, the main negative feedback on HOS is from our forum here: https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-equipment/house-of-staunton-review   I  know its from 2012, so the "refreshingly new" data you give me is obviously very encouraging. Much appreciated.

Jim Maguire

Thanks for the pics Ron. It's a very nice set. I like the knights a lot. If it had been up to me, however, perhaps I'd have saved up another 150 dollars or so and bought the Cooke series in box/ebony, or the Camaratta/Cooke in one of the more exotic wood combinations. I like that those sets don't have the undercut bases. Also, they look just a tad better balanced. Still, very nice set.

We dont always see eye to eye, but Frank Camaratta has been genius in creating and recreating some of the finest chess sets in my time. Nice set Ron ! 

@GM4-U:

If I understand correctly, you're a representative of Official Staunton? I'd just like you to know that I prefer your Craftsman set over the HoS Craftsman set shown in this thread (mainly because of your much more attractive knights), apart from one detail: I really don't like the fake "antique" color of the white pieces.

This is a problem with most of your other high-end sets as well: I generally think they are at least as good as similar HoS sets -- and yours are usually cheaper -- but too many of them are only available in that orangey fake tan that I and many others strongly dislike. I'd be much more tempted to buy from you if you offered more of those lovely sets in natural boxwood or maple. I also wish you would move the Official Staunton branding from the base of the king to under the felt (like e.g. Noj does), or just remove it entirely.

Bottoms up!

we are inundated with orders of our antique and distressed finish chess sets, but thank you for your input. 

I finally got my HOS Craftsman. I purchased the Antique/Ebonised version. I know not everyone is fan of the lacquered version, but I am. Here are some pics:

In a 2.25 MTM BoardFits perfectly on a 2.25Lovely knightsLeather King base stamping