Schaaf Pool Tables
- Manufacturer or Brand Owner: Schaaf Manufacturing Company
- Brand Name: Schaaf
- Brand Long Name: Schaaf Manufacturing Company
- Schaaf Pool Tables Production Date(s): Schaaf Pool Tables began production around 1911-01-01. If you know when the Schaaf Pool Tables was discontinued, let us know in the form below (More specific production dates may be available within each Schaaf series, Schaaf product line, or individual Schaaf pool table below.)
List of Schaaf Pool Tables Pool Tables
Schaaf Mfg Pool Tables Logos
Schaaf pool table Logos. Past and current Schaaf Manufacturing pool table logos, marks, symbols, and identifiers.
A logo from Schaaf pool tables. This Schaaf Manufacturing Company logo was from a 1956 Schaaf Manufacturing Co. catalog.
A Schaaf logo from Schaaf Manufacturing Company. Schaaf was a maker of pool tables, also known as Schaaf Pool Tables. This Schaaf logo is from a Schaaf Mfg. Co. pool table name plate.
A logo from Schaaf brand pool tables. This Schaaf Manufacturing Company logo is from a 1940s catalog cover.
Schaaf Mfg. Co Val. J. Schaaf
Photos of Val. J. Schaff of Schaaf Manufacturing Co. of Minneapolis, Minn.
A picture of pool tables manufacturer Val J. Schaaf of Schaff Mfg. Co.
A photo of Val J. Schaaf of Schaaf Mfg. Co. in a South Dakota Newspaper telling of his adventures in rabbit hunting. The text reads: "Val J Schaaf
Minneapolis Minnesota.
Flower City billiard manufacturer who is a noted nimrod. Val J. Schaff reduces the visible supply rabbits in South Dakota.
The visible supply of rabbits in South Dakota was greatly reduced last month when Val J. Schaff of the Schaff Manufacturing Company of Minneapolis shouldered his trusty musket and spread consternation among the Jacks. Mr. Schaaf was accompanied by Mr. Thompson of Stillwater Minn., another crack-shot.
They took part in a rabbit Chase and while hundreds of the animals which feared of the coming of the famous hunters got away, the two nimrods were able to send home several barrels of large size Jacks.
The Dakota natives believed they were entertaining a champion trap shooter under an assumed name. If many more such experts come they will have to declare a closed season on rabbits"
Schaaf Mfg Co. Ads
Some miscellaneous promotional materials used by Schaaf Manufacturing Company in selling Schaaf pool tables.
A 1929 Schaaf Manufacturing Company advertisement, showing picture of a Schaaf Mfg. Co. pool table. It reads:
Makers of Quality Billiard Tables
- also -
Bowling Alleys, Restaurant and Cigar Store
Fixtures, Soda Fountains, and Supplies.
SCHAAF MANUFACTURING COMPANY
Factory, office and showroom: 320-322 South Fourth Street
Minneapolis, Minn.
Main 6418
Main 6419
Schaaf Pool Table Catalogs
Schaaf Mfg. Co. pool table catalog covers.
A 1958 Schaaf Mfg Co. pool table catalog cover.
Titled: Schaaf's 1958 Billiard - Pocket Snooker Catalog
A June 1921 Schaaf Manufacturing Co. pool table catalog cover.
Titled: Everything for a Billiard Room, Schaff Manufacturing Co. Minneapolis,. Minn.
Minnesota Made Tables are the Best
Showing photos of Schaaf pool tables "The Wausau", "The Columbian", and "The Venus".
A June 1921 Schaaf Manufacturing Co. pool table catalog cover.
Titled: Schaaf Manufacturing Company Catalog No. 62, 1940, Our 29th Year of Progress
Cover of Schaaf's 1954 Billiard Pocket-Snooker Catalog.
Cover of the "Schaaf's 1956 Billiard Pocket-Snooker Catalog" from Schaaf Mfg. Co. of Minneapolis, Minn.
This is the catalog in which the Schaaf Mfg. Co Thunderbird billiard table was introduced.
Schaaf Mfg Co Pool Table Name Plates
Various name plates from Schaaf pool tables made by or serviced by Schaaf Manufacturing Co., a maker of pool tables in Minneapolis, MN.
A picture of a pool table nameplate from Schaaf Manufacturing Co.
Reads:
Schaaf Manufacturing Co. Equipment and Supplies
Billiard Tables, Bowling Alleys, Restaurants, Soda Fountains, Magazine Cushions
Good Since 1896
A very old Schaaf Manufacturing Co. pool table name plate, which reads:
Reads:
Schaaf Manufacturing Co.
Minneapolis, Minn. U. S. A.
Equipment and Supplies
Billiard Tables, Bowling Alleys, Restaurants, Soda Fountains, Magazine Cushions
Good Since 1896
A 1940's-era Schaaf Mfg. Co. nameplate of a Schaaf billiard table.
This Schaaf Mfg. Co billiard table name plate from 1969 screwed into a billiard table's rail top.
This Schaaf Mfg. Co billiard table name plate circa 1940s.
An old Schaaf Manurfacturing Co. name plate (designed to look like those of Brunswick Balke Collender's plates).
Reads:
Magazine Cushion
Schaaf Manurfacturing Co.
Billiard Tables
Minneapolis, Minn.
A picture of a Schaaf pool table tag from Schaaf Mfg. Co.
The nameplate from a Schaaf Mfg. Co. pool cue rack.
Reads:
Schaaf Mfg. Co.
Outfitters of
Restaurants, cafeterias, lunch rooms, soda fountains, ice cream parlors, billiard rooms, bowling alleys, cigar store fixtures.
Minneapolis, Minn.
A picture of a Schaaf pool table tag from Schaaf Mfg. Co.
Schaaf Pool Tables Billiard Table Info
Info on the Schaaf Pool Tables
Below is a Brief History of the Company by Billiards Forum user, Judy Schaaf, as written on or around October of 2013.
Schaaf Mfg. Co. Billiard Supply Full Catalogs:
- 1956 Schaaf Mfg. Co. Catalog (thank you Judy Schaaf for this one)
Did Schaaf Mfg. Co. Actually Make Pool Tables?
Short answer is no. This is confirmed by Val's grandson, Bob Schaaf in July 2018.
I asked Bob:
Did Schaaf actually produce/manufacture the pool tables or did they source them white-label and put a Schaaf plate on them? (have heard this multiple places)
Bob Replied:
With reference to the manufacture of tables, I can recall only back to the early 1960's and at that time Schaaf's was having the tables made for them and branding them as Schaaf Manufacturing. However, Schaaf Manufacturing Company did refurbish, rebuild, and restore antique tables in their shops into the early 70's employing skilled Swedish craftsmen. The restoration business ended when the craftsmen retired from the company.
Schaaf Manufacturing Nameplate with 1896
The Schaaf Manufacturing Company was founded in 1911 as we stated above. There are Schaaf Nameplates out there which are co-branded with "Magazine Cushions" (for which Schaaf was a retailer and installer), and these nameplates have a date of 1896.
It has been confirmed that the "good since 1896" is the slogan of the Magazine Cushions brand, and not the Schaaf brand as confirmed when I asked Bob Schaaf this question (Val's Grandson):
Schaaf Mfg Co. states 1911 as the start of business operations. I’ve recently come across a name-plate which has “good since 1896” on it. Which is the correct start of business for Schaaf Mfg Co.?
Bob Replied:
My grandfather started the company in 1911; the reference to 1896 on the Schaaf nameplate refers to the Magazine Cushion Company's start of business operations, not that of the Schaaf Mfg Company.
History of The Schaaf Manufacturing Company of Minneapolis, MN
Schaaf Manufacturing Company was founded in 1911, in Minneapolis, by Valentine Joseph Schaaf (1886-1961). Schaaf manufactured pool tables, bowling alleys, standard billiards supplies, and other recreational items. It was run by Valentine (Val) Schaaf and his two sons Robert Joseph Schaaf (1920-1944) and John Richard (Jack) Schaaf (1922-2009).
The Andrews Exchange Building, 318-322 4th Street South in Minneapolis, MN, housed the company offices from 1911 to 1940.
After a fire destroyed that site in 1940, the company moved to 307 South 6th Street in Minneapolis.
In 1969, it moved again, to 109 Washington Avenue North, because the city of Minneapolis condemned two square city blocks (including the second site) to make way for the 30-story U.S. Courthouse, completed in 1997.
Across the years from 1911 through the early 1980’s Schaaf Manufacturing produced, contracted for, and vended a wide range of products for the entertainment and food service industries. These included: equipment, furniture, and tableware for bars and restaurants; gambling products like dice(ivory inlaid) and playing cards (before WW II, when gambling was legal); and billiard tables, balls and racks, cue sticks, etc. - even cue chalk.
Schaaf billiard tables are highly prized by collectors today. They were built in a variety of styles and sold both new and used.
Val Schaaf’s son John Richard (Jack) Schaaf owned the Cue Stix Billiard parlors on Lake Street in Minneapolis and in Minneapolis suburb of Hopkins, MN. When he closed them in the mid 1960’s the pool tables and other equipment were sold.
Schaaf Mfg. Co. also restored billiard tables, including those made by other companies. A billiard table built by Schaaf Mfg Co. displays a brass name plate, the style of which changed over the years:
A 1940’s-era Schaaf Mfg. Co. nameplate on a billiard table
This Schaaf Mfg. Co. name plate from 1969 screwed into a billiard table’s the rail top.
Catalogs, designed by Jack Schaaf during evenings at the family kitchen table, were packed with listings for these products, and some catalogs specialized in listing food service equipment, bowling equipment and supplies, billiard pocket-snooker equipment and supplies, etc.
Cover of Schaaf’s 1956 Billiard Pocket Snooker Catalog
Robert Schaaf, grandson of the company’s founder, recalls working for his father as a teenager and mailing thousands of the catalogs to customers throughout the Midwest; he says they received significant mail order business as a result (email to Judy Schaaf, 7 Dec. 2013). Products would be shipped C.O.D. to “anyone, anywhere,” the catalogs declared.The Schaaf Manufacturing Company also worked with Twin City Stamp and Coin (which, in 2013, is still in business) to make trade tokens for clients across the United States, especially in the northern states and Alaska.
The Schaaf company engraved the tokens and they were produced by Twin City Stamp and Coin.Jack's son Robert Edmund Schaaf worked for the company from 1958 (at age 8) to 1972, when he left Minneapolis for medical school. He recalls his experiences in these words:
As a kid in the 1950's and 1960's, I worked for my Dad at Schaaf Mfg. Co. in Minneapolis. I worked for him starting in '58 until I went off to Med School in '72 at age 22. During that period, the tokens were made, under contact, by Twin City Stamp and Coin in downtown Minneapolis. It was often my job to drop off and pick up orders. Twin City Stamp and Coin was an independent, unrelated business. The owners were friends of Val and my Dad. The Schaaf name was stamped on the tokens sold to others. Engraving, however, was done by Schaaf Mfg., and some of it I did myself! I worked in the advertising department as a kid, assembling and mailing thousands of them all over the Midwest and northwest
Source: email to Judy Schaaf, Oct. 2013
Schaaf Manufacturing also did installations for restaurants, billiards parlors, and bowling alleys. In 1940, Schaaf Mfg. Co. was the successful bidder for a big project at the new Coffman Memorial Union Building at the University of Minnesota. They designed and built the Bowling Alley, which is still still in use today. Their successful bid came in at just under $20,000.
The business declined after the death of Lt. Robert J. Schaaf in WW II, but Jack Schaaf continued to run it until the early 1980's. Lt. Schaaf received the Silver Star for bravery on the day of his death in Sept. 1944. The news of this tragedy caused his father Val to suffer a heart attack and declining health thereafter. As the sole surviving son and brother of a serviceman killed in action, Val’s younger son John Richard (Jack) Schaaf was not deployed, and his ailing father called on him to help run, and eventually take over, the company. Descendants of the founders of Schaaf Mfg. Co. have catalogs and other artifacts of the company, which made very high quality products valued by collectors today. Thanks to Val's grandson Robert Edmund Schaaf for information included in this story.
Info on the Schaaf Pool Tables from user1317403503
For everyone asking about their "Schaaf Mfg. Co" pool tables - The Schaaf Mfg. Company did not build your pool tables. Your billiard tables are almost all Brunswick billiard tables.
The Schaaf Manufacturing Co. billiard company serviced the Brunswick pool tables as a basic contractor/sales/service type company for Brunswick, and in most cases the only thing that Schaaf did to the pool table was change the felt and add their label plate over or in place of the original Brunswick plate.
Questions about Schaaf pool tables? Something not quite correct or some info missing? Let us know using the form below.
Forum questions and answers about Schaaf Pool Tables:
- Info on Schaaf Mfg. Snooker Tables
- Identify Old Schaaf MFG Billiard Table
- Old Schaaf Mfg Pool Table
- Value of a Schaaf Mfg. Pool Table
- Schaaf or Brunswick?
- Old Schaaf Pool Table
- Schaaf Pool Table Identification
- How Much is a Schaaf Billiard Table Worth?
- 9-Foot Schaaf / Brunswick Wellington Pool Table Value
- Value of a Schaaf Pool Table
- Age of a Schaaf Manufacturing Pool Table?
- Identify the Model of a Schaaf Mfg. Co. Billiard Table
- Schaaf Manufacturing Co. Pool Table - Is it Antique?
- Title: Schaaf Pool Tables
- Author: billiardsforum (Billiards Forum)
- Published: 6/27/2018 5:27:03 AM
- Last Updated: 6/27/2018 8:31:19 PM
- Last Updated By: billiardsforum
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