Help identify unusual old 3x6 coin-op table – T-rails, leather pockets, wood ball return, no maker marks

[Dickie Moonshine]

Hi everyone. I recently picked up this little table and have gone pretty far down the rabbit hole trying to identify it. I've looked through a lot of old catalogs, patents, auction listings and forum posts without finding an exact match, so I'm hoping someone here recognizes the construction or hardware.

The seller simply advertised it as a “miniature pool table.” There are no manufacturer badges or names that I can find anywhere. I paid $150 for it, so I'm not concerned about value—I'd just really like to figure out who made it, approximately when, and what it originally looked like.

Dimensions/construction:

• Overall cabinet is approximately 73" long × 41" wide × 32" high
• Playing surface, measured nose-to-nose, is 32" × 64" — essentially a 3×6 / six-foot table
• Six pockets
• Bed is not slate. It appears to be an older composition/hardboard-type material, possibly something Masonite-like
• Heavy wooden frame/cabinet with tapered wood legs
• Legs mount inside the apron/cabinet
• A lot of the original hardware uses square-head bolts/nuts

Rails are one of the most distinctive things about it:

• Old horizontal/T-rail type fastening rather than modern bolts from underneath
• 4 exposed rail bolts on each long side and 3 on each short end
• The rail bolts have square heads with a threaded hole through the center of the head
• A small slotted screw threads into that center hole and retains a decorative brass fluted/sunburst rosette (florette)
• There are only 2 round sights on each long rail and none on the end rails

The rail hardware has been one of the things making Brunswick difficult to completely dismiss. I've found old Brunswick tables using extremely similar square-head/center-threaded rail hardware, and the florettes also look very Brunswick-like. But I have not found a Brunswick model that matches this cabinet, so I'm definitely not assuming it is a Brunswick. It could just as easily be another maker using similar/supplied hardware.

Pockets:

• Leather-covered pocket irons
• Red cloth/fabric liners
• Each pocket iron is secured by a long square-head bolt on either side of the pocket
• I removed one pocket bolt: it's approximately 4" long excluding the head, roughly .305" major diameter, and I count approximately 18 TPI
• The pocket construction reminds me of older Brunswick-style irons, possibly something in the neighborhood of a No. 6 type, but I haven't been able to prove that identification.

The ball return is probably the strangest part of the table.

There are no individual tubes or conventional narrow chutes from the six pockets. Instead, the entire underside is essentially a large gravity return:

• Large sloped wood/hardboard panels beneath the corner areas carry balls toward the center
• Additional wooden guides direct them into a central path
• Everything converges into a narrow central channel
• Near the foot of the table that channel reaches a slot where some sort of gate/release mechanism used to be
• Beyond the gate is a short “throat” leading into the exterior ball tray

The original gate/coin mechanism itself is missing, but the table was unquestionably coin operated because the original brass instruction plate remains on the front.

It reads:

TO OPERATE
PLACE COIN IN CHUTE
PUSH LEVER ALL WAY IN
AND HOLD UNTIL BALLS
QUIT ROLLING—THEN PULL
LEVER ALL THE WAY OUT

There is also a small pushrod hole in the front of the ball-tray area that lines up with the internal gate location. The current exterior ball tray appears to have been broken/repaired or modified, so I would not use the tray itself as a reliable identification feature.

I'm also not certain whether the original mechanism separated the cue ball. With the undersized balls currently with the table it doesn't, but looking at the geometry of the central channel, I can imagine a larger cue ball potentially riding above part of the channel and taking a different route. I don't have enough evidence to claim that it did, though.

Things I've investigated so far:

Brunswick keeps coming up because Brunswick made numerous 3×6 / 32×64 tables, including both slate and non-slate/composition-bed tables, and I've found several similarities in the rail/pocket hardware. But I haven't found this table in the Brunswick catalogs I've checked.

V. Loria & Sons of New York is another interesting lead. I've found a couple of surviving Loria tables with surprisingly similar pocket treatment, hardware, apron/leg construction and wooden ball-return features. I've also encountered claims that Loria sometimes worked with or modified/rebadged Brunswick tables, although I haven't found enough primary evidence to treat that as fact.

I've also looked at Columbia, Acme and a number of other regional manufacturers without finding an exact match.

One possibility I'm keeping open is that the table itself and the coin mechanism may not have originated together—i.e., an older 3×6 pocket-billiard table could conceivably have been converted for commercial coin operation later. But that's only a hypothesis at this point. Nothing I've found proves it was converted.

Likewise, I'm not assuming a date. Some of the hardware looks quite old—square-head fasteners, leather pocket treatment, exposed T-rail bolts, etc.—but I'd rather let the construction evidence determine the period than force it into a 1920s/30s/40s/50s box.

I've attached pictures of the complete table, rail bolts and florettes, pocket irons and pocket bolts, underside/frame, bed material, wooden ball-return system, gate/throat area, ball tray and coin-op instruction plate.

The biggest things I'm hoping someone recognizes are:

1. The 4-long / 3-short exposed rail-bolt pattern
2. The square-head rail bolt with the center threaded hole and separate florette screw
3. The pocket irons
4. The unusual wooden gravity ball-return/gate arrangement
5. The wording/style of the coin-operation instruction plate

If anyone has worked on one of these, recognizes the manufacturer, has an old catalog showing it, or even recognizes one particular component, I'd love to hear about it. Even a breadcrumb toward another table using the same rails or return system would be enormously helpful.

Thanks!

 

[Dickie Moonshine]

I have many more pics, but apparently it only lets me post 10 at a time. If this looks familiar at all, I'd love to know more. I can provide any pics or info you need.