What manufacturer from Amritsar, India

What manufacturer from Amritsar, India makes the quality sets? Are there more than one in Amritsar?

Has anyone ever visited India and took a trip to one of the chess manufacturing places?  

I know most that sell on the internet are middle companies or go betweens so they do not make and sell the set both, except for maybe one company.  Some sellers make believe they also make the set taking credit for the manufacturing phase which is totally misleading. They use phrases like "our craftsmaen" etc.  

Just curious as someone must have seen a chess making facility in India first hand since we are an International site.

http://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-equipment/reproduction-and-real-jaques-of-london-chess-set

This thread asserts that Jacques chess sets are made by Amritsar Ivory Works.

In Gaurav's word directly:

"My company is the only supplier to Jaques for all wooden sets. So all sets at Jaques are made by me."

URL 

http://ehmerapunjab.tumblr.com/post/30580917111/global-demand-for-local-chessboards

Global demand for local chessboards

If the city is famous for the Golden Temple in the spiritual sphere, its enterprising people have made it known all over the world as the manufacturing centre of chessboards and pieces.

A large number of residents are unaware that locally manufactured chessboards and pieces are in great demand in countries like the USA, the UK, Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Australia and Canada. Amritsar exports chessboards and pieces worth over Rs 40 crore (5 million dollars) to these countries annually.

Amritsar used to be a centre of producing wares made of ivory. The ivory work is as old as the holy city, which was established by the fourth Sikh Guru, Sri Guru Ram Das. He brought 52 artisans from various parts of the country and settled them here. Chessboards and pieces began to be made of ivory a little before 1947.

It is not that chessboard and pieces are made only here in India. In fact, different regions specialise in a particular variety. Varanasi is famous for producing chessboards and pieces made of stone, while Jaipur is noted for Ambavari chessboards and pieces made of wood. However, local chessboards and pieces are preferred in foreign countries for their finesse and beautiful carving.

Mr Satnam Singh Jabbal, a manufacturer, said artistically-prepared ‘horse’ was in great demand overseas, as local artisans had gained mastery in making engraved horses.

Earlier, chessboards and pieces used to be made largely of ivory. However, after the imposition of ban on the use of ivory by the Indian Government, ivory was replaced by camel bone. The majority of chessboards and pieces are made of wood.

Mr Jabbal said that wood for the purpose was even brought from other states. Ebony and Rosewood were brought from Orissa, while Red Sandal was brought from Karnataka.

About a dozen big manufacturing units and nearly 40 small units are engaged in this work. These units are located in different parts of the city, including Focal Point, Sultanwind Road, Tarn Taran Road, Dhapai Road and Chamrang Road. In the country, local chessboards and pieces find their way to Mumbai, Delhi, Jaipur, Chennai and Bangalore.

Keeping an eye on foreign customers, almost all traders have made websites to reach out to them. Increasing competitiveness and pace of development has forced the manufacturers to adopt machines. Recalling old days, Mr Jabbal said machines were first introduced in the early 1970s. Earlier, entire work used to be done manually, he added.

Mr Jabbal said his father used to prepare chessboards and pieces manually in Lahore, and after the Partition, his family settled here. “At that time, there used to be only four to five houses engaged in the work,” he said. He added that besides chessboards and pieces, they manufactured walking stick, smoke pipe, ivory jewellery, jewellery box and other such items. But now they prepared chessboards and pieces only.

He rued that though the work came under “handicrafts”, the government did not provide any incentive. He said they used to be given 15 per cent amount against the export of Rs 1 lakh, but the facility was withdrawn in early 1990s.

Another manufacturer, Mr Harbhajan Singh, said the manufacturing of chessboards and pieces was passing through tough times these days. The cost of production had increased manifold, as most of the wood came from the southern states. He lamented that though the items came under “handicrafts”, the Punjab Government had not done anything concrete to sell them in its handicraft centres.

Expressing his anguish, Mr Harbhajan Singh said the Punjab Government was not helping effectively to facilitate the export of chessboards and pieces, which could boost the declining trade.

2 years ago

http://natraja.org

Came across this site, while doing a search on Carl ( @GM4U)

Lot of anecdotes about chess manufacturers in Amritsar and American suppliers.

Website is not updated for last five years and seems like old news. Also looks like he was selling chess sets he had designed, hasn't updated after that....

Archived Links below,

https://web.archive.org/web/20130614082624/http://natraja.org/

https://web.archive.org/web/20131023143513/http://natraja.org/page/about-natraja-project

https://web.archive.org/web/20131023064551/http://natraja.org/page/space-express-your-views

https://web.archive.org/web/20131023111609/http://natraja.org/page/news

Hi Rishi

the natraja site is owned by my good friend Avtarjeet Dhanjal, he is an ambassador for peace in the UK, and a renown artist. He also lectures in Chandigarh and has published severel books. He created the natraja site as a platform dialogue and to offer advice on whom the middle men are and actual manufacturers. 

He then went on to create unique designs and retail them via distributors like myself and London chess shop. He created this beautiful set dedicated to Princess Catherine ..

http://www.chessmazeinternational.com/catalogue/princess-catherine-duchess-of-cambridge-special-edition-chess-set-2716.php

To answer the question who makes the best set in Amritsar, it is quite clear ..

1) Saggu Creations

2) Amritsar Ivory Works

3) J S Arts Works

then there are the larger trade vendors such as Chopra , Ganesh Chess

the rest are " middle men" and small cottage industry dealer types such as Chess Bazaar...who offers wholesale facilities and retail his wares also.

How can I find Saggu Creations and Amritsar Ivory Works?

Anybody has experience with J S Arts Works?

Hi,

you could try to contact them through their website.

Mandeep Handicrafts (Saggu Creation)

http://thechessmaestro.com/

AIW

http://gauravsharma169.tripod.com/

J S Arts Works

http://www.jsartsworks.com/

In my case, I contacted Gaurav Sharma (AIW) from his company's facebook page. His email is gauravsharma169 -- AT--- gmail --dotcom

Rajesh Sharma,his father, is considered one of the top chess carvers in Amritsar. Some high end luxury chess sets seem to be his designs.

It seems Gaurav is about to launch two websites, thechessempire.com and amritsarchesscompany.com, both lead to a godaddy page for now.

They do however have two facebook pages with similar names. Link below,

https://www.facebook.com/amritsarchess

https://www.facebook.com/thechessempire

Rishi what do you think is better Saggu or AIW and why?

Thanks for this! Somehow Saggu Creation is never responding. Was anybody in touch with him last months? Is he still in bussines?

Hi, 

A lot of the links of this pages are dead, Can you really trust this guys?

Ganesh,Chessbazaar and Cool Chess Canada,

I have to say that there is a lot of great information in these forums with respect to chess sets and vendors. I ordered a 3 inch fierce knight set in ebony and boxwood from Chessbazaar and thought it was perfec;,great packing,fast shipping. The Dubrovnik set was next,again from Chessbazaar,3.6 inch in ebony and boxwood,perfect. A vintage style antiqued Jaques set was my next desire and I perused the chess.com forums to gather information. It looked like Saggu Creations and Amritsar Ivory Works were the ones but I had no luck in getting a response from them.I ran across the Ganesh Chess site and while it did not have much information about their various sets their was a 4 inch antiqued vintage Jaques looking set in ebony and boxwood.I contacted Satish Ganesh through the site and inquired about the price.The all in price totalled $180.00, $105 for the set,$65 for the shipping and $10 for the Western Union transfer. The price seemed right so I took a chance and ordered set #206.I have to admit I was leery given some comments I read here about Ganesh.The set arrived about a week later and these are my observations:

1.The package was wrapped in a muslin type material sewn around a substantial cardboard box.It looked like a package from 1850.

2.Styrofoam and bubble wrap inside was adequate but each of the 34 pieces(extra queens) was double wrapped so well you could play tennis with them and they would be fine.

3.It took a long time to unwrap the pieces ,must have been close to 30 minutes.The packing job alone looked like it was worth $180.00.

4.Every piece was perfect,flawless antiquing,gorgeous knights,the most fantastic rooks I have ever held.To say I was pleasantly surprised is an understatement.

5.The set is weighted but not to excess,the white king is 70 grams and the rooks and knights about 50 grams.The king's base is 17/8 inches and looks perfect on a 2.25 square size board. The size and balance seem perfect and handling them is effortless.The set could retail at three times the price and would still represent great value.

I needed storage boxes and was horrified at the $150-$200 prices being sought by various vendors.I then found Cool Chess Canada and for $45 U.S.,less if you buy one with a minor flaw, you get a top quality box.Shipping in Canada was $10.00.

I attach pictures for your perusal.The Ganesh set and a few pieces of the Dubrovnik are in the pictures along with the chess boxes and a Rolland clock I scored for $14.00 on Ebay.

I want to thank all the contributors to the chess.com forums. These forums provide wonderful information that has led me to make virtually all my purchases successful ones.

Hi peterbaumann,

Thank you to share pictures of your new set.

Allow me few things...

This seems interesting for different reasons:
I was close to ordering a chess set with Ganesh, but after having read here and there (very) many bad reviews, I decided not for fear of being disappointed.

Your photographs bring a new light on this website suffering, may be unjustly bad press. Is not it true that we often retains the negative reviews, and more rarely the positives ...

Apparently, after your review/presentation, there have not only bad sides to this supplier.

Before going further, if it could be possible, please, that you put more pictures of your new set ... a picture of each pieces should be wonderful... specialy the knight

Thank you :)

PS:a first positive point, is appearance / color seem beautiful.

...The bishop, the rook, the king, the pawn, even the queen seems very close from the advertising picture of the No 206 chess set, but for the knight... seem not very close.

(and maybe i am wrong, but the advertising picture of No 206 is the exact copy of the picture on site wikipedia about Staunton chess set : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staunton_chess_set)

Thank you...

OMG

informaticacobach29,

oh!...sorry for you.

That looks terrible, hope you got your money back or some replacements!

I would just go for my money back.  I have gotten a couple pieces that were broken already but that set would send me through the roof.  I will erase the URL from my favories forever from this vendor.

Hi Everyone

           Now a Days i have heard of a new company in amritsar its Ks Art Works it is different from Js Art Works . Ks art works is also know for their best quality products in amritsar . you can also reach to their facebook page Ks Art Works https://www.facebook.com/ksartworks1/?fref=ts.