First of all - wonderful site. Enough info here to choke a rookie like me!
I'd like to know if anyone can help ID my table. It's been in the family since my great great uncle got it for free during the depression (the last depression, not the one that started a couple of months ago). It's been passed from my great great uncle, to my father when I was a kid, and now to me, and I just had it restored by a local carpenter (significant paint removal and water damage repair).
It's supposedly a Brunswick, although one person I sent pictures to thought it may have been made by The National Billiard Table Manufacturing Company of Cincinnati or The B.A. Stevens Company of Toledo. He did say that he was just guessing, though, and couldn't be sure. The Brunswick nameplate apparently dates from around the 1920s-30s, but family legend is that it's supposedly older than that. It used to have ornamental skirts on the sides, head, and foot, but they fell off after numerous basement floods and were tossed in the 1940s - 1950s.
Each piece (including slates, ball returns, and crossbeams) is original with "1048" stenciled or stamped (hold that - pockets and ornamental bolt covers are new). I checked the Brunswick site, and the closest thing I could find was the Union League, although my legs aren't fluted.
I'm still leaning toward Brunswick, though, because of the handwriting on the undersides of the slates. Also, "GEO J MERKLE" is stenciled on the underside of the head slate, if that means anything.
I'm apparently as good a cameraman as I am a pool player, so sorry for the picture quality.
Anyway, if anyone recognizes it, any info would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
I'd like to know if anyone can help ID my table. It's been in the family since my great great uncle got it for free during the depression (the last depression, not the one that started a couple of months ago). It's been passed from my great great uncle, to my father when I was a kid, and now to me, and I just had it restored by a local carpenter (significant paint removal and water damage repair).
It's supposedly a Brunswick, although one person I sent pictures to thought it may have been made by The National Billiard Table Manufacturing Company of Cincinnati or The B.A. Stevens Company of Toledo. He did say that he was just guessing, though, and couldn't be sure. The Brunswick nameplate apparently dates from around the 1920s-30s, but family legend is that it's supposedly older than that. It used to have ornamental skirts on the sides, head, and foot, but they fell off after numerous basement floods and were tossed in the 1940s - 1950s.
Each piece (including slates, ball returns, and crossbeams) is original with "1048" stenciled or stamped (hold that - pockets and ornamental bolt covers are new). I checked the Brunswick site, and the closest thing I could find was the Union League, although my legs aren't fluted.
I'm still leaning toward Brunswick, though, because of the handwriting on the undersides of the slates. Also, "GEO J MERKLE" is stenciled on the underside of the head slate, if that means anything.
I'm apparently as good a cameraman as I am a pool player, so sorry for the picture quality.
Anyway, if anyone recognizes it, any info would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!