ID Model and Age of Antique Pool Table with Monarch and Peerless Cushion Name Plates
1/2/2022 10:05:59 AM
ID Model and Age of Antique Pool Table with Monarch and Peerless Cushion Name Plates
I just picked up an antique pool table that I’m trying to identify. It has nameplates from Brunswick Balke-Collender Co. of Canada and The Canadian Billiard Table & Supply Co. Limited
Here are some photos of the pool table.
Thank you for your time!
It has the serial number 13046 stamped into the parts.
Also, the pool table has two name plates. The first one reads as follows:
Brunswick
Monarch
Superspeed Club Cushion
The Brunswick-Balke-Collender Co.
of Canada Limited
The second name plate reads as follows:
Peerless Cushions
Manufactured By
The Canadian Billiard Table & Supply Co. Limited
Toronto, Ontario.
ID Model and Age of Antique Pool Table with Monarch and Peerless Cushion Name Plates
Replies & Comments
billiardsforum on 1/12/2022 3:49:51 AMI think this might be an antique Samuel May pool table, from Samuel May & Co. of Toronto, ON.
I couldn't nail down the exact model name of this one, but did find it depicted in a lithograph. It was part of a book titled "The Game of Billiards". This is the same design as the one shown in your photos above. The only difference is that yours is the "pocket billiards" version, and the lithograph depicts the "carom" version.
It is thought by some to be dated 1867, but other copies exist and are thought to be from as late as the early 1900s.
The book's title "card" starts with the following:
Having now been seventeen years established as a manufacturer of Billiard Tables [...]
This tells us the publication was from a year that is 17 years after his firm was established, but I don't know that date.
If I had to guess, I would date your Samuel May & Co. pool table to be from somewhere between 1880 and 1900, but that's just based on the design, and such. I don't have any supporting evidence.
An interesting thing I found in researching this pool table; In 1905, the Brunswick Balke-Collender Co. and the Samuel May & Co. executed a legal trade agreement to fix the prices and terms at which each company sold their pool tables (this would be illegal today, I believe).
user1640888703 on 1/23/2022 1:58:09 PM
Apologies for taking this long to reply. I completely missed this post.
The photo above of the carom version of my pool table is priceless! Thank you so much for this finding it!
- Does this mean that the Brunswick crest was put on afterwards in its life in an attempt to raise its value?
- Would the Samuel May logo be removed?
I think it makes it even more special.
Thanks again!
- billiardsforum on 1/24/2022 5:02:00 AM
To answer your questions:
Does this mean that the Brunswick crest was put on afterwards in its life in an attempt to raise its value?
Not likely. It was common practice at the time for pool table service companies to affix their name plates (or the name plates of the cushion brand they were installing) on the rails in the place of the original manufacturer's name plate. It sounds crazy now, but it was common back then.
Would the Samuel May logo be removed?
Yes, removed and discarded.
Another possibility is that it was originally a carom table and converted later. This theory would be supported by the ground-down pocket openings in your slate, which appear to be done by hand with a grinder, perhaps. Give that, it is possible that pocket billiard rails (with pocket openings already built in) were taken from another pool table (which may have been a Brunswick pool table), or were purchased as an after-market "accessory" from Brunswick.
Ohhh, I think everything is starting to make sense! That's a very smart hypothesis, thank you!
ID Model and Age of Antique Pool Table with Monarch and Peerless Cushion Name Plates
- Title: ID Model and Age of Antique Pool Table with Monarch and Peerless Cushion Name Plates
- Author: user1640888703
- Published: 1/2/2022 10:05:59 AM
- Last Updated: 1/12/2022 3:49:12 AM
- Last Updated By: billiardsforum (Billiards Forum)
