To the best of my knowledge the lineage of this style of cue case goes like this:
1940-1950s - Harvey Martin
1960s - Gina
1970s - Fellini, Ann Gore, Centennial - and import knockoffs under the Adams brand.
1980s - It's George, Kelli, McDermott, Schon, Thomas
1990s - Engles
2008 - GTF
I am not sure where Viking got theirs, but it's likely that they were imported. In the 80s and 90s there were several factories making this style of case under private label brands.
It is particularly interesting that Fellini, Centennial, Gore, It's George and Thomas all built similar cases very near to each other. We always talk about who copied whom and who "knocked off" someone else's idea and here you have five makers who all had some sort of interaction with each other, all making essentially the same design.
This type of case is made of two extruded tubes nested inside each other so that the cap can slide on and provide a flush fit to the body. It's fairly simple in construction but requires a great deal of care to make sure that the seams all line up properly and are flush. Also the leather is glued to the body and over time that leather often separates from the body. This was a hallmark of the imported cases which were covered mostly in vinyl masquerading as leather and which likely used adhesives that were not very good. Also I have noticed that the tubes on the old imported cases were not very good quality, thinner that those cases produced domestically and prone to cracking easily.
I started making this style in 2007 under contract with the GTF brand, of which Roy Malott is the principle investor and owner of the brand.
In that time I have come to respect this style much more than I did before because although it's a simple case to build it's a difficult one to get right.
I have invented a few methods to solve some of the problems associated with this style. The primary issues are liner degradation, latch failure and replacement, cracking tubes and leather separation. For the most part I think that I have solved all of these issues and made the GTF into the best version of this case that has ever been made.
As far as cases go this method of building cases is pretty efficient and there is no sleeker look than the version which has the leather covering the end caps. I love this style and I am extremely lucky that Roy Malott chose me to build the GTF cases.
This style of case is the original lightweight tube case. It's pretty simple, a hollow plastic tube with fabric divided compartments. It's efficient in size, compact and elegant.
Anyway, I like these types of cases and I especially enjoy seeing what we can do with the style.
GTF Replica
GTF Prestige
Custom;
Custom and Far Out:
www.gtfcases.com www.indyq.com
