It's My Understanding.......
Based upon everything that I've read about Bill Stroud in magazine and Internet articles, as well as the Blue Book of Cues, the logos he used at Joss West & Josswest (Bill changed the name from two words to one word in 1990) are:
1972-1980 Upright J with sideways W
1980-1983 Upright J with Upright W (J had a flat tail to it)
1985-1990 Upright J with Upright W followed by the year (ex., 1992)
1990 -1995 The logo was stamped on the buttplate under the bumper with an Upright J & Upright W including the year ( ex. 1997) & also a 4 digit serial no.
1995 - 2011 Connected, script version JW (upright).
In January 2012, Bill Stroud announced on the Forum that he was officially retired from all cue-making and any cue repairs. That's the history of Bill Stroud's logo on cues and any cues without a logo should be viewed with a dubious eye thus suggesting that the cue needs to be authenticated.
After all is said and done, you really can't soley rely on the looks of the cue or any selller's representations that the cue was indeed genuine (not meaning to suggest or imply the listed cue wasn't).......but there's always the possibility some seller of a collectible cue might have been unknowingly duped in the past. In fact, they may not even know their cue wasn't genuine or original.
The bottomline is this......you just want to be absolutely certain.....do eveything within your power.......to make sure you are "never" the first to learn that the cue you just laid out lots of moola for was not original and authentic.
