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Back in the 1600s, Charles Cotton noted that almost every town in England had a public billiard table. Popularity comes and goes. It was really big in the 1800s in the US. Famous players had their pictures on collectibles. Newspapers sometimes devoted more space on big matches than civil war...

Just to keep you guys updated, I had the 1795 Viennese rules translated and checked some of the later developments of the game. They are exactly like the Anglo-American pyramid pool rules down to the quirky last object ball becomes the cue ball of your opponent rule. The only difference is that...

Here's a diagram: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/20/Snooker_plus_table_drawing.svg I'm surprised snooker plus balls were made as late as the 80s. Was there an exhibition game at the Crucible? Outside the 1959 debut tournament, it seemed to have been played sparingly. Jackie...

What games are popular in Germany today, both pocket and carom? Did you know that Germans once played with 21 object balls? https://books.google.com/books?id=UlZeAAAAcAAJ&dq=pyramide%20billard&pg=PA81#v=onepage&q&f=false

Hazards is very well attested but I can't find any English source for Pyramids before 1850. That's a 75 year gap. I'm not sure which of Shamos' books the 1775 date comes from. I'm using Shamos' revised encyclopedia which list the OED and Edwin Kentfield (both 1850) as the earliest source...

The earliest I can find is a game called Figaro also known as à la pyramide. It was recorded in Vienna in 1795 by Anton Baumann. I think it may have come from France but I haven't found a source yet. I've tracked pyramid games expanding to Denmark and Sweden but I still don't know when they've...

I've been researching the first pyramid billiard games as they are the most important influence on modern American pool games. I'm assuming that the rack was invented shortly after to keep the balls in place. Shamos suggests the game of Hazards is the daddy of pyramid games but I have my doubts...

Apologies for bringing up this old post but these looks like 19th century pool balls. Although the photo is a bit blurry they look very good for their age.

Hi everybody! Hi! I'm a casual player but I have great interest in the history of billiards so you may find me mainly in the history forum.